Historians today are reluctant to claim objectivity; decades of critique have illustrated the myriad ways in which this is and must be an arrogant and idle claim. But on what does our professional expertise then rest? Can we make foundational claims for some sort of impartial status at all anymore? If so, how might we do that? What should be our stance in teaching the next generation of graduate students? What do our readers want from ‘real’ histories?

Similarly, among journalists, the idea of objectivity as an achievable or even desirable norm is now contested. Some believe that the ‘New Journalism’ has all but demolished the notion of objective storytelling. But is what working journalists really believe? What are the standards for professional practice that journalists now hold? Don’t some readers still expect (or wish) the news to be objective

Panelists will discuss the meaning of objectivity at a moment when the very notions of truth and fact are under attack and consider whether and how journalists and historians might reclaim truth-telling.