August 2023 Public Humanities Newsletter
A monthly newsletter from Humanities for All, an initiative of the National Humanities Alliance.
In This Newsletter:
August spotlight: farewell from Humanities for All project director Michelle May-Curry
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August Spotlight: farewell from Humanities for All project director Michelle May-Curry
Over the last year, the Public Humanities Newsletter has been a labor of love from the National Humanities Alliance’s Humanities for All initiative and its director, me—Michelle May-Curry.
As of this August newsletter, however, I will be transitioning to a new role at Washington D.C.’s Commission on the Arts and Humanities (DCAH). Starting in mid August, I will be joining DCAH as their Curator.
This departure is of course bittersweet. I am thrilled to be moving into a position where I will be working locally, joining the arts and humanities efforts of individuals in my immediate backyard. I am truly sad, though, to be leaving behind the national community that is Humanities for All. In the nearly three years working on this initiative and leading a major grant-funded national advocacy project, I have met so many incredible scholars, culture workers, activists, and lovers of storytelling. I have learned from people who have been doing this work for decades with little fanfare and next to no resources, who use their research and access to the academy to redistribute knowledge. To all those I have met and collaborated with through this newsletter and beyond, this is a bittersweet see you later!
But never fear! While I will be stepping away from curating this newsletter, the NHA will continue to support the production of this resource as well as the continued growth of the subscriber base it represents—now over 1,500 people strong and growing every month.
Call for Contributors
New Survey on Publishing and the Public Humanities
Open for contributions until August 31, 2023
Building on previous investigations into publishing challenges and opportunities for publicly engaged scholars in the humanities, a new survey has been launched by the Publishing and the Publicly Engaged Humanities Working Group: https://forms.office.com/r/2umaYapDVQ
Designed to investigate the place of academic and extra-academic publication in U.S. public humanities research, teaching, and programming, the survey forms the first part of a project supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Seminar on Public Engagement and Collaborative Research at the Center for the Humanities at the CUNY Graduate Center. The project will document and analyze the ways in which different modes of publication have impacted academic and public life. The project comprises two related components: 1) a qualitative survey and; 2) a series of focus groups. The results of the project will be presented at the 2023 National Humanities Conference in Indianapolis and prepared for wider distribution and further engagement as we work towards defining publishing solutions for publicly engaged scholars. The short survey will take around 10 minutes to complete and remain open until August 31, 2023. For further details about the project, please contact Kath Burton (katherine.burton@tandf.co.uk) or Daniel Fisher-Livne (dfisher@huc.edu).
Publication and Project News
Recently on the Humanities for All website:
Joseph Plaster wrote about the Peabody Ballroom Experience, which celebrates Baltimore ballroom culture through oral histories, teaching, and a ball held at the Peabody Library at Johns Hopkins University.
Humanities for All has a new project profile! Drag Story Hour is a storytelling and performance organization that uses the art of drag to read books to children in libraries, schools, and bookstores. Since its beginnings in 2015 as a local initiative in San Francisco, the operation has grown into an international organization with over 30 chapters worldwide. Through storytelling, singing songs, group movement, craft activities such as coloring or face-painting, and child-friendly lip-sync performances, Drag Story Hour provides an inclusive and welcoming space for their young audiences where imaginations are activated and binaries cast aside.
“Classroom and Community Histories: Finding Relevancy in History Education in Hawai'i” is a thesis project by Yunxia Hallowell that focuses on history education in Honolulu. This project investigates why secondary school students are not engaged in their history classes, situating this inquiry within the political controversy regarding public history and school curricula as well as the unique demographic and geographic context of Hawai'i. Through interviews with senior citizens and history teachers, it recounts the ways in which history is taught outside and inside the classroom. Finally, it examines pedagogical strategies that history teachers use to increase the engagement of their students, and puts these strategies in conversation with Culturally Relevant Pedagogy knowledge and literature.
California Humanities has released its 2023 publication, "A State of Open Mind," a compilation of five decades of California stories, people, and places, as told through oral history interviews with the humanists at the helm of California Humanities since 1974.
“Public-facing Comedia, Engaging Multilingualism” is a new article by Margaret E. Boyle that engages with the history of the Spanish classical theater genre of comedia and its relationship to public humanities programming.
“Public Scholarship as B(l)ack Talk: African Feminist Collaborations in the Academy and Online” is a chapter by Rachel Afi Quinn and Maurine Ogonnaya Ogbaa included in the new Routledge collection, Global Black Feminisms: Cross Border Collaboration through an Ethics of Care. The chapter is a dialogue between mentor Quinn and mentee Ogbaa. Together, Quinn and Ogbaa interrogate their positionalities as diasporic African women and African feminist scholars in the U.S. academy. In doing so, they name the challenges of attempting to center African feminist thought in their respective work in gender studies and literature and the challenge of contending with unique forms of isolation and institutionalized misogynoir, as they carve out spaces for their research in and beyond the academy.
The TrustWorkers Project: Challenges and Methods of Building Trust into Public Scholarship is a new blog post by Cristian Capotescu that delves into the significance of trust in values-based public scholarship, drawing on the author’s experience as a HuMetrics HSS fellow. A version of this piece was also published in Public Philosophy Journal and is the product of an interdisciplinary collaboration between historians, sociologists, journalists, and public health scholars.
“Playing With the Past: The Importance of Historical Video Games for the Field of History” is a thesis written by Brian T. Erickson that explores the importance of historical games within a scholarly context. It examines the role that historians have traditionally played in video game development. Through a series of in-depth interviews, it assesses the reception of these historical games by scholarly and public audiences. Finally, Erickson argues that video games, historical and non-historical, create a new avenue for scholars to engage. They can become an anchor for scholars in the digital era by creating ways to study, educate, preserve, and play with the past.
“Amplifying Public Archaeology & Critically-Engaged Practices in New York State” is a thesis by Kristin Clyne-Lehmann that presents a wealth of practical suggestions for strengthening connections in New York State public archaeology, building equitable representation in public history, and addressing social justice issues through archaeological work.
“Toxic Heritage and Reparations: Activating Memory for Environmental and Climate Justice” is a chapter by Liz Ševčenko included in the new Routledge collection, Toxic Heritage Legacies, Futures, and Environmental Injustice. The chapter shares stories from communities around the country that came together to create Climates of Inequality: Stories of Environmental Justice, a project through which students collaborated with frontline environmental justice organizers and community members to create public histories of environmental justice in their localities.
“Environmental History and Public History: Perspectives for (re)igniting the dialogue in Brazil” is an article by Fabíula Sevilha in Revista Brasileira de História. The article first maps the dialogue between public history and environmental history. Then, it addresses how concerns inherent to public history entered Brazilian environmental historiography. Finally, it investigates perspectives opened by the idea of environmental history as a way of thinking, of public history as a means of shared action, and oral history as a tool.
“The Digital Black Atlantic,” the July 2023 special issue of Reviews in Digital Humanities, is now available. Guest edited by Roopika Risam and Kelly Baker Josephs, the volume’s chapters are organized into four sections: “Memory,” “Crossings,” “Relations,” and “Becomings.” In this volume, the editors review five different projects that highlight a range of methods in African diaspora digital humanities.
Employment and Funding Opportunities
The American Historical Association seeks a Program Assistant to provide support for the Congressional Briefings Program, the History Policy Education Program (HPEP), special projects, and ongoing operational needs. Review of applications began on July 21, 2023, and will continue until the position is filled.
Virginia Humanities seeks a Deputy Director to lead its programs and operations. The Deputy Director works closely with the Executive Director to support the organization's mission by ensuring the successful implementation of programs and initiatives as they engage the many diverse communities of Virginia. Review of applicants began on July 24, 2023 and will continue until the position is filled.
The Office of Repatriation at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville invites applications for a NAGPRA (Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act) Coordinator. The coordinator will help with consultation efforts with Native American Tribes and establish effective collaborative relationships with Tribal and campus partners. Review of applications began on August 1, 2023 and will continue until the position is filled.
California Humanities seeks a Director of Development. This position is responsible for all fundraising and development activities, including designing and implementing a development strategy and system for California Humanities that diversifies its funding portfolio beyond its core operating support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Apply by Aug 4, 2023.
History Colorado seeks a Curator of Black History. The curator will be responsible for building a significantly more robust African American presence within the permanent collection. The position is also responsible for the intellectual control of the collection and increased engagement with and access to African American holdings. Apply by August 5, 2023 at 11:59pm Mountain time.
The National Parks Service and the Department of the Interior seek a Civil Rights Historian to conduct historical research using oral history interviews, primary and secondary written sources, and principles of public history. This position will also organize or conduct teaching or training on topics in African American history, oral history, and community engagement. Apply by August 11, 2023.
Dumbarton Oaks Research Library at Harvard University seeks environmental historians to apply to a Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Democracy and Landscape. The fellow will be part of “Democracy and Landscape: Race, Identity, and Difference”, a Mellon-funded initiative that contributes to the re-shaping of how we understand and share histories of people in place and on/with land. Apply by August 15, 2023.
The Connecticut Museum of Culture and History seeks a Community History Project Manager, which is a full-time two-year grant-funded position. The Community History Program is an initiative that combines public history and community engagement with collaboration with the state’s colleges and universities. Among other responsibilities, this position will help build new and strengthen existing relationships and partnerships with stakeholders, college faculty and students, and community members. Apply by August 20, 2023.
The National Book Foundation seeks a Consulting Archivist to assess the contents and condition of the National Book Foundation archive and provide a basic level of processing in preparation for an expected acquisition. While there is no set application date, the role is expected to begin in August or September 2023.
PEN America, a nonprofit organization working at the intersection of literature and human rights, seeks a creative, motivated, and detail-oriented World Voices Festival and Literary Programs coordinator to support the day-to-day operations of the World Voices Festival and literary programs department and to assist with curation, logistics, and outreach for a year-round schedule of public events.
The Open Documentary Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology seeks a Producer. Drawing on MIT’s legacy of media innovation and its deep commitment to open and accessible information, the MIT Open Documentary Lab brings storytellers, technologists, and scholars together to explore new documentary forms with a particular focus on collaborative, interactive, and immersive storytelling.
The HistoryMakers seeks to hire full-time Video Oral History Processor/Publisher to audit/edit, segment, write descriptive narrative descriptions, and archivally process the life oral history interviews in The HistoryMakers Collection. These are housed permanently at the Library of Congress and made accessible to users worldwide via The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Those hired must have a background in African American, American, women and gender studies, anthropology, social history, economics, politics, STEM/medicine, the arts, library or information science, or other related fields and will work as part of a publishing team that will process and add 40–45 interviews per month to The HistoryMakers Digital Archive.
Cooper Hewitt Museum seeks a Manager of Public Programs. This position will be responsible for the visioning, planning, management, and financial oversight of the museum’s adult public programs (panel discussions, lectures, workshops, performances, and other formats) as well as the National Design Awards, including the selection process, awards ceremony, National Design Week, and related programs and events.
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.
Interested in careers in scholarly publishing? Check out the Association of University Presses and the Society of Scholarly Publishing job boards.
Interested in careers in museums? Check out the American Alliance of Museums job board.