October 2022 Public Humanities Newsletter
A monthly newsletter from Humanities for All, an initiative of the National Humanities Alliance.
In this newsletter:
October Spotlight: Public humanities scholarship at the National Humanities Conference
If you haven’t already, please consider subscribing to our Substack (for free!) so that you receive the newsletter in your email inbox and don’t miss any news in the future. We also encourage you to submit items to share. If you have any questions or would like to connect about the newsletter, please email Humanities for All project director Michelle May-Curry (mmaycurry@nhalliance.org).
Interested in contributing to the Humanities for All blog?
We are currently soliciting short posts that highlight public humanities initiatives and projects for publication in the fall and winter. Pitch a blog post to us here.
Calls for Proposals
Submit a Late-Breaking Session Proposal for the National Humanities Conference
A lot can change in a few months including issues of importance to the humanities community! Do you have an idea for a session addressing a current issue for the 2022 National Humanities Conference in Los Angeles, November 10–13? Now is your chance to submit a late-breaking session proposal. Proposal submissions are due October 7.
Announcing the Public Humanities Journal
In development at Cambridge University Press, Public Humanities is an international journal for civic engagement inspired by humanities research led by Jeffrey R. Wilson, Sarah Dillon, and Zoe Hope Bulaitis. The journal ranges from historical examples of the humanities at work in the world to theoretical debates about the field today, from close readings of public humanities events to scholarly interventions in on-going social problems. Learn more about submitting here.
Seeking research teams for National Council on Public History and National Park Service partnership projects
Via the National Council on Public History’s (NCPH) cooperative agreement with the National Park Service (NPS), NCPH is looking to hire research teams for two Historic Resource Studies (HRS). An HRS of African American history and experiences at Antietam National Battlefield will combine traditional historical research and community engagement with the descendant community. The first ever HRS for Coltsville National Historical Park in Hartford, Connecticut will inform critical decisions about the preservation, management, and interpretation of historic and cultural resources at the park. Finally, a historian or team of historians is requested for a Special History Study for Longfellow House, a National Historic Site in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Learn more about the NCPH NPS cooperative agreement here. Letters of interest are due November 1, 2022.
The 13th Annual Lemon Project Spring Symposium “At the Root: Exploring Black Life, History, and Culture”
Founded in 2009, the Lemon Project explores and encourages scholarship on the 330-year relationship between African Americans and the College of William & Mary. The 2023 Spring Symposium will explore the following questions: What ways are African American communities taking charge and telling their stories? How are colleges and universities working with local African American communities to foster belonging? What methods are communities and scholars using to tell fuller narratives of African American life, history, and culture? In what ways are researchers contributing to the emancipatory aims of Black Studies through research collaboration with Black communities? The symposium seeks proposals from people who focus on Black life, history, and culture, including but not limited to academic and descendant researchers, educators, activists, and members of Greater Williamsburg communities and beyond. Learn more here and submit proposals by November 18, 2022.
NCPH Public History Awards
The National Council on Public History awards recognize excellence in the diverse ways public historians apply their skills to the world around us. The purpose of the award program is to promote professionalism and best practices among public historians and to raise awareness about their activities. Awards are presented to recipients during the annual meeting. Click here for a list of all public history awards. Nomination guidelines and deadlines are listed on each award page.
Upcoming events
Dissertation Dish - On Becoming a People's College: An Appreciative Inquiry
October 11, 2022 | 2:00 p.m.—3:30 p.m. ET
Dissertation Dish is an ongoing webinar series and a collaboration between the International Association for Research on Service Learning and Community Engagement, Imagining America, and LEAD California (formerly California Campus Compact). Each Dissertation Dish highlights quality emerging research in the field of service learning and community engagement by providing a platform for recent doctoral degree recipients to share their work more broadly. In this session, listen to Sean Crossland, assistant professor of Higher Education Leadership at Utah Valley University, discuss the role of community engagement at community colleges with open access missions. Learn more and register here.
Imagining America National Gathering
October 14–16, 2022 | New Orleans, Louisiana
Organized in partnership with Tulane University, the Ashé Cultural Arts Center, and a local steering committee, Imagining America’s 2022 National Gathering will be held in person on October 14–16, 2022, in New Orleans, Louisiana. This year's theme of “Rituals of Repair and Renewal” invites participants to engage in joyful celebration of the magic in being together. Taking place in New Orleans, this event convenes artists, scholars, and culture bearers from across the country for three days of learning, sharing, and experiencing “Rituals of Repair and Renewal.” This year, the gathering will feature a track for engaged graduate scholarship in the arts, design, and humanities. Learn more and register here.
Advocating for the Public Humanities
October 20, 2022 | 2:00–3:00 p.m. ET
In conjunction with the publication of the Guidelines for Evaluating Publicly Engaged Humanities Scholarship in Language and Literature Programs, the MLA is fostering member conversations about developing and sustaining projects in the public humanities and using the guidelines to spark dialogue and implement change around how such projects are valued. Join James Blasingame, Ashley Champagne, and Jordana Cox in a webinar moderated by Christian Rubio to learn more about advocating for public humanities scholarship on campuses and beyond. These webinars are open to all MLA members. Learn more and register here.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation PastForward National Preservation Virtual Conference
November 1–4, 2022 | Virtual
The National Trust for Historic Preservation’s PastForward National Preservation Virtual Conference is the nation’s premier conference for those who work to save, sustain, and interpret historic places. The conference events will explore three themes: “Historic Preservation is Climate Action,” “Encouraging Inclusion and Diversity Through Preservation,” and “Understanding Preservation’s Role in Real Estate Development.” Learn more and register here.
National Humanities Conference
November 10–13, 2022 | Los Angeles, California
We are pleased to invite you to experience change in kinetic California! This year’s program will include two days of virtual sessions on November 3rd and 4th, with in-person activities in Los Angeles taking place November 10–13. Registration is available through October 28, 2022. Plan to gather with humanities professionals throughout our entire community: representatives from humanities councils, museums, libraries, and community organizations will be present to discuss, explore, and reflect on the public humanities. Visit the National Humanities Conference website to register today!
Publication and Project News
Recently on the Humanities for All website:
Humanities for All has a new project profile! Case Western Reserve University Art History professor Erin Benay joined together with Zygote Press to create Pressing Matters, a public humanities graduate course and summer seminar that facilitates participatory printmaking, visual literacy, and self advocacy for teens in the Clark Fulton neighborhood in Cleveland, Ohio.
On the Humanities for All blog, Katherine D. Harris wrote about Public Art as Resistance in San José, a public humanities project out of San José State University that honors the abundance of public art in downtown San José.
Engaged Humanities: Rethinking Art, Culture, and Public Life is a new volume edited by Aagje Swinnen, Amanda Kluveld, and Renée van de Vall and published by Amsterdam University Press. This work presents accessible case studies that demonstrate what humanities scholars contribute to concrete and pressing social debates about topics including adoption, dementia, hacking, and conservation. These “engaged” forms of humanities research reveal the continued importance of thinking and rethinking the nature of art, culture, and public life.
The Failures of Public Art and Participation is a new Routledge, Taylor and Francis volume edited by Cameron Cartiere and Anthony Schrag. The anthology brings together practicing artists, curators, activists, art writers, administrators, planners, and educators from around the world to offer differing perspectives on the many facets of failure in commissioning, planning, producing, evaluating, and engaging communities in the continually evolving field of art in the public realm. The volume includes case studies from the United Kingdom, the United States, China, Cuba, and Denmark, as well as discussions of digital public art collections.
Learn how to think beyond traditional sources of financial support to fund cultural resource projects with the National Preservation Institute’s new training curriculum “Finding New Sources of Funding in Challenging Times: An Introduction.” This free 45-minute on-demand eLearning course helps cultural workers learn how to 1) evaluate a cultural resource project for its value in serving broader community needs; 2) review traditional funding types vs. alternative sources that can be redirected to meet project goals; and 3) consider new partnerships that can expand the universe of support.
In the new American Association of Colleges and Universities report “The Effects of Community-Based Engagement in Higher Education: What We Know and Questions that Remain,” the authors focus on the effects of various forms of community-based and civic engagement in higher education, identifying positive outcomes across six broad areas: increased personal and social responsibility; development of positive mindsets and dispositions; improved graduation and retention rates; learning gains; improved intellectual and practical skills; and increased career-related skills.
PLATFORM is an open digital venue for exchanging new ideas about working with, researching, teaching, and writing about buildings, spaces, and landscapes. As a public humanities venue committed to exploring urgent topics, PLATFORM has published Back To School 2022, a public humanities guide that showcases teachable articles they have previously published on pedagogy, social justice and equity, and creative solutions to precarity.
"Care During Pandemic Times: Digital Ethnography with Mental Health Professionals in Equatorial Guinea" is a new article by Carolina Nve Diaz San Francisco that proposes opportunities for the discipline of public anthropology to aid in times of crisis, using a case study of her scholarship on care work during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Universities claim to value community-engaged scholarship: So why do they discourage it?” is a new article by Marissa Bell and Neil Lewis Jr. in Public Understanding of Science exploring the barriers to doing publicly engaged research for scholars in science communication and science and technology studies. Barriers listed are similar to those experienced by many higher ed-based public humanists, including tenure and promotion requirements and lack of recognition and resources.
Digital History and the Politics of Digitization is a new article by Gerben Zaagsma in Digital Scholarship in the Humanities that proposes a framework through which to contextualize the politics of (digital) heritage preservation and a model to analyze its most important political dimensions, drawing upon literature from the digital humanities and history as well as archival, library, and information science.
How to Have a Conversation is a new podcast hosted by Georgetown Engaged and Public Humanities Masters student María José Pareja Rozo exploring how artists and humanities professionals use innovative approaches and create safe spaces to help people engage in meaningful conversations. Each episode showcases the voices of the leaders and participants of one public conversation initiative and demonstrates how the arts and humanities have a unique power to bring people together, inspire curiosity and understanding, and create meaning.
Employment and Funding Opportunities
The History Department at the University of Texas at El Paso invites applications for a scholar of Public History with a specialty in Digital History/Digital Humanities to begin in the fall of 2023. Research that engages with historically under-represented communities will merit special consideration. In alignment with UTEP’s Community Engagement mission, they seek a candidate who will create mutually beneficial and respectful partnerships in the El Paso-Ciudad Juárez region. Review of applications began October 1, 2022 and will continue until the position is filled.
The Ginsberg Center at the University of Michigan seeks a Academic Partnerships Manager to help cultivate and steward equitable partnerships between communities and the University of Michigan to advance social change for the public good. The Academic Partnerships Manager will manage the Center's strategic faculty development initiatives to: expand faculty utilization of the Ginsberg Center; support community-engaged teaching, research projects, and partnerships within the Ginsberg Center and throughout UM; and advance balanced outcomes for all stakeholders involved in university-community partnerships. Review of applications began October 3 and will continue until the position is filled.
Smarthistory is seeking applications for a Mellon Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow to develop global art history content. Smarthistory is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to making engaging yet rigorous art history accessible to learners around the world for free. Applicants should have a Ph.D. in art history (within the last two years) as well as a commitment to public scholarship and teaching. Apply by October 15, 2022.
The Department of History, Anthropology, and Classics at Butler University seeks a tenure-track assistant professor of Public and Digital History. The ideal candidate is a dedicated educator and promising scholar who will develop courses, projects, and opportunities in Public and Digital History and in their specific areas of expertise. Review of applications will begin October 15, 2022 and the position will remain open until filled.
Clemson University is looking for a Program Coordinator for literature professor Rhondda Robinson Thomas’ Call My Name project. Call My Name is a community-engaged project that documents and shares stories about Black people in Clemson University history from freedom in Africa to activism in the 21st century, including the lives of the enslaved persons, sharecroppers, and prison laborers who helped build the University. Apply by October 17, 2022.
The Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies at the University of California, Berkeley seeks applications for a full-time tenure-track/tenured faculty position in the area of Directing: Social Justice Theater. The Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies teaches performance as a mode of critical inquiry, creative expression, and public engagement. A successful candidate will have expertise in directing and performance with a focus on social justice theater, inclusive of devised theater practices and community-based performance. Apply by October 31, 2022.
The Composition Program in the Department of English at the University of Pittsburgh invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant or Advanced Assistant Professor in Black Rhetorics to begin in the fall semester of 2023, pending budgetary approval. Research and teaching interests could include writing, rhetoric, language, literacy, translanguaging, linguistic justice, and cultural practices of race, ethnicity, and identity, especially African American, Afro-Latinx, and African diasporic rhetoric, writing, and multimodal composition. As a colleague, you would join program faculty that cultivate interdisciplinary and public facing approaches to the field of composition such as the Pitt Prison Education Project, the Writing Studies Tree, and a new major in Digital Narrative and Interactive Design. Apply by November 1, 2022.
Rice University seeks a historian of the modern Arab World to serve as Assistant or Associate Professor for the Arab American Educational Foundation (AAEF) Professorship. The position will carry a teaching load of four courses in a normal academic year. The successful candidate will also have opportunities for community outreach, intercollegiate collaboration, and public engagement in Houston supported by the Arab American Educational Foundation. Application review begins on October 15, 2022. For fullest consideration, application materials should be submitted by November 15, 2022.
The History Department at New Mexico State University is seeking an Assistant Professor who can assist in achieving the department’s mission of teaching, research, and service. The ideal candidate will teach Modern U.S. History and Public History at the undergraduate and graduate levels with expertise in at least two of the following areas: Historic Preservation, Museum Studies, U.S.-Mexico Borderlands, Digital History, New Mexico History, and Local History. Apply by November 15, 2022.
The Department of English at Washington University in St. Louis is seeking to fill two tenure-track positions, one at the rank of Assistant Professor and one at the rank of Associate Professor or (full) Professor. They seek scholars whose critical work lies in any of the historical fields of literatures in English and who bring to their scholarship the dimension of “creative practice,” including an interest in the public humanities. The search committee will began their review of applications for the Assistant Professor position on September 20, 2022 and will begin their review of applications for the Associate/Full Professor position on November 15, 2022.
The Humanities Research Institute at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, supported by a grant from the Mellon Foundation, seeks to hire a Post-Doctoral Fellow for a one-year appointment commencing fall 2023. The search is open to scholars in all humanities disciplines, including the humanities-inflected social sciences, whose research interests lie in the area of community-based social justice and human rights. Areas of interest include, but are not limited to, community-based research in racial, im/migrant, and/or gender justice; public health; environmental justice; Indigenous sovereignty; and disability studies. Apply by November 28, 2022.
The Jackman Humanities Institute (JHI) at the University of Toronto is pleased to invite applications for a postdoctoral fellowship in New Media and Public Humanities. The fellow is expected to conduct active research on the theme of “Absence” and to propose, write, and publish innovative media projects that take humanities research into the public domain. Apply by November 30, 2022.
The Department of History at the University of Rochester invites applications for a tenure-track assistant professor of African American history to begin July 1, 2023. The department especially encourages applications from scholars with expertise in public and/or digital history.
The Department of Social Sciences and Historical Studies at Texas Woman’s University invites applicants for the full-time tenure-track position of Assistant Professor of History, beginning fall 2023. The successful applicant will be trained or experienced in Public History and qualified in American History, with a primary field in the 19th century, broadly defined. This position is open until filled.
Project Pericles seeks a new deputy director. Project Pericles is a higher education non-profit organization committed to fostering the next generation of civic leaders. Working with a consortium of colleges and universities, as well as many other higher education institutions, Project Pericles supports innovative curricula and faculty leadership that empower students with the skills to address society’s grand challenges, including: climate change, economic justice, education access, immigration, mass incarceration, race and inequality, public health, and voter engagement.
James Madison’s Montpelier is seeking a project director to lead their memorialization projects. This role will develop various multidisciplinary projects including archaeological, interpretation of the landscape, museum programs, historical interpretations of the Constitution, public history, civic engagement, and educational projects in a team environment. The Memorialization PD will oversee the Montpelier Descendants Committee, the Montpelier Foundation Memorialization project, and the Arc of Enslaved Communities Project, which seek to position the Montpelier Descendants Committee as national leaders in memorializing enslaved communities and immersively telling the whole truth of American history.
The Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) invites nominations and applications for the position of Executive Director. Established in 1940, SAH supports scholarly excellence in the field of architectural history, broadly defined in terms of topic and methodology, and promotes meaningful public engagement with the insights that emerge from that scholarship.
As always, check out the latest postings on the job boards for the National Council on Public History and the American Association for State and Local History, which provide lists of opportunities that might be of interest to those trained in the public humanities. Looking for job postings at state and jurisdictional humanities councils? Check out the Federation of State Humanities Councils careers page!
October Spotlight: Public Humanities Scholarship at the National Humanities Conference
Interested in where you can find conversations about public humanities scholarship at November’s National Humanities Conference in Los Angeles? See this (nonexhaustive!) roundup of relevant sessions and check out the full program for more information. Virtual sessions will be held November 3–4, with in-person sessions held November 9–12. Conference registration closes October 28, 2022.
“A Reckoning in Boston": The Clemente Course in Action (virtual)
The documentary A Reckoning in Boston (2021) has been viewed and discussed by thousands of academics, urban planners, social workers, community activists, and students, and has received great critical acclaim. Moderated by Clemente’s Executive Director, Lela Hilton, this panel brings together Kafi Dixon, Clemente graduate and co-producer of Reckoning, director James Rutenbeck, and Jack Cheng, Boston Clemente’s art history instructor for a conversation about the making of the film and its implications to public humanities programming.
Towards Reparative Public Humanities: A Roundtable with Slavery Descendant Movement Leaders (virtual)
This roundtable discussion brings together five national leaders in the growing slavery descendants cultural rights movement, to help answer a big question: How can public humanities best help advance racial redress for and with slavery descendants?
The Bell Affair and The Freedom Stories Partnership
Freedom Stories is an initiative between humanities scholars, universities, and a coalition of arts organizations, libraries, and agencies in Prince George’s County to provide antiracist and social justice programs supported by original historical scholarship through innovative forms of immersive narrative media and performance. William G. Thomas III, (historian), Michael Burton (artist), and Kwakiutl Dreher (director) will discuss their live-action animated feature documentary film, "The Bell Affair" (82 min. 2022).
Publication and the Energy of the Public Humanities: A Future-Focused Workshop
What does an engaged humanities publication look like today? What impacts can these works have on higher ed institutional values and community life? Building on this work and previous efforts at the 2020 National Humanities Conference to convene around topics related to publishing, this hybrid panel and workshop will explore the challenges and opportunities of publishing on and as a part of publicly engaged humanities scholarship.
What Is a Humanities Lab?
Imagine a problem and project-based course in American or African American Studies, arts or performance, communication studies, film, GWSS, literature, language, history, philosophy, or religious studies in which your reading and writing addressed a pressing social challenge. This working group will seed connections among faculty and community partners who are leading humanities lab courses across the country.
How We Gather: Patient Stories and Shared Decision-Making in the Literature-and-Medicine Classroom
In the literature-and-medicine classroom, these students learn skills in evidence-gathering, perspective-taking, empathetic communication, and critical thinking that are key in their professions. In this experiential session, participants will complete a fun and illuminating exercise with poetry, biography, and art history that challenges their powers of observation and allows time for open discussion. This exercise is one commonly taught by the presenter in the graduate health humanities classroom.
Connecting Humanities Undergraduates with Community Projects and Future Careers
This session will focus on the Undergraduate Public Fellowship program at The Humanities Institute at UC Santa Cruz (THI) and will share how they are developing hands-on learning opportunities that highlight the value of humanities degrees for future careers & discuss how this could be a model for advocating for the humanities nationwide.
Public Humanities, Art, and Social Justice: Fostering Collaboration Across Disciplines
This roundtable session considers how public art initiatives and public humanities projects might benefit from working more collaboratively to dissolve boundaries, particularly between making and interpreting.
Perspectives on Participatory Archiving: The Kinetic Energy of Collaborative Community Histories
Participatory archiving is a form of collaborative practice in which archivists, historians, and community members work together to document local and community histories and build unique archival collections. Panelists from UMass Boston’s Roadmap for Participatory Archiving team will share unique perspectives on the challenges and rewards of doing this kind of community-engaged work.
Approaches to Building Public Humanities Infrastructure In Higher Education
As higher ed-based public humanities initiatives grow in size and impact across the country, faculty and administrators are seeking approaches to building a campus-based infrastructure to support and encourage this work in enduring ways. This session will offer models from the National Humanities Alliance (NHA) report "Approaches to Training Public Humanities Infrastructure in U.S. Higher Education," which is set to release at the 2022 National Humanities Conference.
Facilitating a Public Humanities Internship Program: Challenges and Best Practices
This interactive workshop will address challenges specific to running a public humanities internship program and will be led by three panelists who direct public humanities internship programs.
The Public, the Humanities, and the Public Humanities
While use of the term “public humanities” is becoming more common, the meaning of the term remains somewhat murky and contested. This session will bring together three leaders in the field, who have been working on the borders between the humanities and the public. They will discuss what the term might mean, and how it can be enacted as practice.
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