ITPS Podcast

This month, I interview Dr. Joe Stahlman. Joe is a scholar of Tuscarora descent whose research focuses on culture and history as well as on the ongoing socio-economic and health and wellness issues among Native communities. We talk about Joe’s museum philosophy, the upcoming 250 Commemoration of the American Revolution, and he offers valuable perspective on indigenous studies and decolonization in museums, on museums as vital spaces of reconciliation, and of peace as an unsung and transformative historical subject.

Dr. Joe Stahlman is the Director of Seneca Nation’s Seneca-Iroquois National Museum-Onöhsagwë:de' Culture Center and Seneca Nation’s Tribal Historic Preservation Office. Joe is a scholar and researcher of Tuscarora descent. He has over 20 years of research experience working with First Peoples. His research focuses on culture and history, as well as ongoing socio-economic and health & wellness related endeavors with Native communities. He takes an active role in addressing the space Native peoples occupy in North American archaeology and cultural resource management. He regularly talks on the need to promote equity, equality, and justice among all peoples in North American society through a number of reconciliatory processes which are inclusive for all and empowers people to express agency through creative and intellectual endeavors.

The ITPS Podcast is hosted by Dr. John C. Winters. John is the ITPS Research Associate in New York History and Assistant Professor of History at the University of Southern Mississippi. As a public historian, John has nearly ten years of experience in historic homes and public history institutions.  You can find him at @wintersjohnc and at his webpage, johncwinters.com

This episode, I interview historian Michael Leroy Oberg.  We focus our attention on New York history, beginning with his work on the digital mapping project Chenussio: The Indigenous History of Livingston County, New York. Our conversation includes the power of local history to inform and inspire, the role of students in local history projects like Chenussio, the complex indigenous history and politics of his home campus of SUNY Geneseo, and the incredible potential for public history projects in the state due to New York’s unique legal approach to local public history.

Dr.  Michael Leroy Oberg is Distinguished Professor of History at SUNY Geneseo and founder of the Geneseo Center for Local and Municipal History which he directed from 2019 until 2022. The third edition of his textbook, Native America: A History, is forthcoming in late 2022, and he is the author of multiple books on indigenous and early American history including Professional Indian: Eleazer Williams’s American Odyssey (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015) and Peacemakers: The Iroquois, the United States, and the Treaty of Canandaigua, 1794 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015). Michael runs a blog on his website, michaelleroyoberg.com, where he also posts historiography lists and resources for public historians and educators. On social media, you can find him @NativeAmText.

The ITPS Podcast is hosted by Dr. John C. Winters. John is the ITPS Research Associate in New York History and Assistant Professor of History at the University of Southern Mississippi. As a public historian, John has nearly ten years of experience in historic homes and public history institutions.  You can find him at @wintersjohnc and at his webpage, johncwinters.com

In this special episode, Andrei Jacobs of Episode 3 hosts the first ever meeting of the America250 Tribal Advisory Group. You can find the America250 content on their YouTube channel and on their website.

This month, I interview Andrei Jacobs, the Senior Manager of Tribal Partnerships for America250,  the federal government's commemoration of the upcoming 250th anniversary of the American Revolution. We talk about his ongoing work reaching out to indigenous communities nationwide and he gives us important insights into what is at stake in these early stages of a truly massive, and long neglected, public history effort.

Following this episode, Episode 3.5 features an important update that took place after Andrei and I spoke: the first formal meeting of the America250 Tribal Advisory Group. The recording is presented with the permission of Andrei and America250.

Andrei Jacobs, MPA, is an enrolled tribal member of Orutsararmuit Native Council in Bethel, Alaska. He is the Senior Manager of Tribal Partnerships for America250. Andrei began his career fundraising to build remote health clinics in villages throughout the Yukon Kuskokwim delta of Alaska and has more than a decade working for Pacific Northwest and Alaska Native Tribes on regional, state, and federal projects. He is also a former t-shirt company co-owner of inga for real  which sold cultural Yup’ik Eskimo t-shirts including one emblazoned with the longest word in Yup’ik, “tengsuucecuaraliyukapigtellrunricugnarpenga-qaa” which translates as “maybe you really did not want to make me a small airplane.” Andrei earned a Masters of Public Administration from Baruch College, CUNY and a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from Canisius College. Additionally, Andrei completed the First Nations Futures Program at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University.

The ITPS Podcast is hosted by Dr. John C. Winters. John is the ITPS Research Associate in New York History and Assistant Professor of History at the University of Southern Mississippi. As a public historian, John has nearly ten years of experience in historic homes and public history institutions.  You can find him at @wintersjohnc and at his webpage, johncwinters.com

This month, I interview Chip Colwell. We talk about his wide-ranging work as an anthropologist, museologist, and a public-facing scholar. We talk about why it is so important and beneficial for public historians and scholars to reach out to their respective public, and then about his work at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. There, he formed relationships with indigenous communities, directed the museum’s operations concerning repatriation and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, his work on the Museum’s Native Science Initiative, and his ongoing work as Editor in Chief of the global public humanities project, SAPIENS. 

Dr. Chip Colwell is the editor-in-chief of Sapiens.org, an online magazine about anthropological thinking and discoveries. From 2007-2020, he was the Senior Curator of Anthropology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. He has published 12 books including Objects of Survivance: A Material History of American Indian Education (University Press of Colorado) and Plundered Skulls and Stolen Spirits: Inside the Fight to Reclaim Native America’s Culture (University of Chicago Press). His work has been highlighted in such venues as the New York Times, The Guardian, Salon, and Slate.

 The ITPS Podcast is hosted by Dr. John C. Winters. John is the ITPS Research Associate in New York History and Assistant Professor of History at the University of Southern Mississippi. As a public historian, John has nearly ten years of experience in historic homes and public history institutions.  You can find him at @wintersjohnc and at his webpage, johncwinters.com

Welcome back to the ITPS Podcast!

In Season 2, we will look much more closely at a subject in the public humanities that is not often discussed: Indigenous Public History. My guests this season, one per month, include indigenous public history practitioners, academics, and cultural leaders, as well as non-indigenous public history practitioners. They will talk about their experience in Indigenous Public History, their successes and challenges in the field, and more broadly about the responsibilities and ethics of doing "activist" and decolonized public history.

 My first guest is Dr. Ora Marek-Martinez. Dr. Marek-Martinez (she/her/asdzáá/ayat) is a citizen of the Diné (Navajo) Nation, and is of the Mountain Cove clan; her father was Nez Perce from Northern Idaho. She worked for the Navajo Nation as an archaeologist for over 16 years, including serving as the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer, and currently is Assistant Professor of Anthropology and the Director of the Native American Cultural Center at Northern Arizona University. You can find her @docmarek

The ITPS Podcast is hosted by Dr. John C. Winters. John is the ITPS Research Associate in New York History and is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Southern Mississippi. As a public historian, John has nearly ten years of experience in historic homes and public history institutions.  You can find him at @wintersjohnc and at his webpage, johncwinters.com

This month on Public History in a Virtual Age, we are looking at public history in the classroom. Though sometimes overlooked in the broader field, schools are centers of public history engagement. This episode explores how professors incorporate the outside world into the classroom and the classroom into the outside world.

First, we spoke with Dr. Whitney Stewart, an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Texas at Dallas. As she reflects on her experience teaching public history at the graduate level, she will discuss her goals for her students, how public history informs her other classes, and the value of out of classroom visits. She also emphasizes the importance of approaching public history in an ethical and honest manner.

We will then speak with Adam Rothman, a Professor of History at Georgetown University. As the principal curator of the Georgetown Slavery Archive, he will explore the ways that an academic institution’s history can be brought to the public eye and note the impact of student involvement. He will also highlight the power of social media (especially Twitter) in the creation of public history and sharing of history resources.

To learn more, visit theitps.org.

For this month’s episode of Public History in a Virtual Age, we are diving into museum exhibits. When touring, or digitally browsing, a finished exhibit, you might not consider the years of development that go into its creation. From the initial concept, there are countless steps, and numerous individuals, involved in the process of translating history into an exhibit format; script writing, fundraising, spatial and graphic design, mount making, fabrication, installation, and more! Today’s guests will shed some light on this exciting process and explore the benefits and challenges of interpreting history in a museum setting.

First, we will speak with Alison Mann, a Public Historian at the National Museum of American Diplomacy. As the museum is currently in development, she will guide us through what it takes to create a museum, from determining an overarching theme and throughline to writing concise and accessible exhibit labels. She will also discuss the use of technology and experiential elements, as well as how museums can approach their topics in moments of partisan division.

We will then speak with three members of the Smithsonian Exhibits team; Deputy Director Matthew O’Connor, Head of Exhibit Design Juanita Wichienkuer, and exhibit developer and writer John Powell. They will discuss the multiple year process of developing an exhibit for the Smithsonian, including the importance of considering your audience and the collaborative nature of the Smithsonian’s in-house Exhibits team. They will also reflect on the pandemic’s impact on museum exhibits and the transition to virtual experiences.

For more information, visit theitps.org.

Note: This episode originally aired on January 30, 2020.

In May 1796, Ona Judge, Martha Washington’s enslaved maidservant, freed herself by walking out of the Washington’s Philadelphia home. She had learned that Martha intended to give her away as a wedding present to Elizabeth Parke Custis, her eldest granddaughter. Judge quietly slipped out of the house one evening, boarded a ship, and fled to New Hampshire. She lived there for the rest of her life. Despite their best efforts, the Washingtons were never able to recapture her.

On today’s episode, Ona Judge tells her own story. Library Research Fellow Sheila Arnold joins Jim Ambuske in character as Ona Judge to give voice to her life. Arnold is a historic character interpreter who performs as many historical figures, including Ona Judge and Madame CJ Walker, an African American entrepreneur and businesswoman who was one of the wealthiest self-made women in early 20th century America.

During the first half of today’s show, Ambuske interviews Arnold as Ona Judge, as she might have been in the last years of her life.

He then talks to Arnold herself about historic character interpretation and the powerful ways that performing as a formerly enslaved person can build bridges between communities.

Sheila Arnold currently resides in Hampton, VA. She is a Professional Storyteller, Character Interpreter and Teaching Artist. Through her company, History’s Alive!, Sheila has provided storytelling programs, historic character presentations, Christian monologues, dramatic/creative writing workshops, professional development for educators and inspirational/motivational speeches at schools, churches, libraries, professional organizations and museums, in 41 states since 2003.

Jim Ambuske, Ph.D. leads the Center for Digital History at the Washington Library. A historian of the American Revolution, Scotland, and the British Atlantic World, Ambuske graduated from the University of Virginia in 2016. He is a former Farmer Postdoctoral Fellow in Digital Humanities at the University of Virginia Law Library. At UVA Law, Ambuske co-directed the 1828 Catalogue Project and the Scottish Court of Session Project.  He is currently at work on a book about emigration from Scotland in the era of the American Revolution as well as a chapter on Scottish loyalism during the American Revolution for a volume to be published by the University of Edinburgh Press.

If you missed it, be sure to listen to part I of this episode!

Learn more about Conversations at the Washington Library.

This month on Public History in a Virtual Age, we are exploring living embodiment storytelling, a medium that brings history to life through the portrayal of individuals from the past. A unique and theatrical method of sharing history, storytelling provides audiences with an immersive experience in which they can speak directly to historical figures, humanizing a past that can sometimes seem distant. For living embodiment storytellers, their work is an exciting challenge in maintaining authenticity and doing justice to historical individuals while approaching audiences with a 21st century perspective.

Today, we will be speaking to Brian Hilton, founder of Hail to the Chief, which provides audiences with authentic performances of U.S. Presidents. Discussing his portrayal of George Washington, Hilton will tell us about his never-ending research process, the challenges that come with presenting such a well-known figure, the role of clothing and physicality in embodying a historical person, and how he uses Washington’s life to expand the historical narrative.

After listening to this episode, be sure to listen to part II of this episode!

To learn more, visit theitps.org.