AHA Session 277
Sunday, January 5, 2025: 3:30 PM-5:00 PM
Bowery (Sheraton New York, Lower Level)
Chair:
Katharine Uva, Baruch College, City University of New York
Panel:
Emily Brooks, New York Public Library
Shirley Brown Alleyne, Tenement Museum
Anna Klein Danziger Halperin, New-York Historical Society
Maeve K. Montalvo, Museum of the City of New York
Shirley Brown Alleyne, Tenement Museum
Anna Klein Danziger Halperin, New-York Historical Society
Maeve K. Montalvo, Museum of the City of New York
Session Abstract
Today, public history sites and institutions have come under intense scrutiny in the United States as campaigns against “divisive concepts” mobilize activists to target histories presented in museums, libraries, public spaces, and classrooms. At the same time, these educational spaces have increasingly sought to make their exhibitions and curricula more inclusive of diverse experiences and marginalized voices. In addition, as the United States faces what many political scientists have labeled a decline in democracy, broad calls have emerged for more public engagement with history. In this roundtable, representatives from the New-York Historical Society, the Tenement Museum, the New York Public Library, and the Museum of the City of New York will discuss new works and initiatives produced by their institutions. Roundtable participants will consider how the exhibitions and curricula produced by their institutions present inclusive and diverse stories, how their institutions conceive of the public, and how they seek to help this public make meaning out of historical objects and at times how their institutions contend with opposition. With a particular focus on New York City, this roundtable will consider how new perspectives on the past have relevance for education and democracy in the city’s present.
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