HIST 2910A: Public History: from Memory to Museums
Summer 2017
Instructor: Professor David Dean
Description: Public history is one of the most rapidly growing fields of historical research. Public history deals with the ways in which history is created and presented in the public arena. This includes sites like museums and archives, but also photograph albums and family heirlooms, film, graphic novels, video games, live performances, the web and so on. Public history therefore is also concerned with individual and collective memory. To study public history is to come to terms with the contested nature of history itself, and to situate narratives of history within a broader field of public memory, identity, and political/institutional interests. This is a blended course, so there will be online components to it, and it will involve off-campus visits. It is also a hands-on course, so you will also be creating history, mirroring the work of historians who work outside academia, and, in the best public history practice, there will be some collaborative project work.