ITPS Podcast

This month’s episode of Public History in a Virtual Age explores the wide world of digital history. Though defined by the use of computers to explore history, digital history includes a broad range of mediums, from computational analysis to virtual exhibits to podcasting. The digital approach is best known for its impact on accessibility, allowing history to be shared by the click of a button. Today, we’ll be speaking with two digital historians to learn about their unique approaches to the field, how digital work can be used to support and augment more traditional history, and the challenges and benefits of digital history. 

First, we spoke with Dr. Abby Mullen, a term assistant professor at George Mason University and member of the Roy Rosenzweig Center for Digital History and New Media, one of the nation's oldest digital history centers. We then spoke with Micki Kaufman, a Ph.D. candidate in digital history at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. 

For more information, visit www.theitps.org.

Welcome to Public History in a Virtual Age! This year, we are exploring public history together. On each episode we meet a couple of awesome practitioners—or people involved in the making of public history. We hear about their super cool projects, their audience, the information they want to share, and why they love their medium.

This month we are exploring what I call “in-house” historians. Historians don’t just work at museums and universities, but in government institutions and historical societies. Today we are speaking with two such historians to learn about the stories they share, their daily responsibilities, their audiences, and frankly how different these jobs can be from each other and the variety of history work available.

Our guests this month are Dr. Sara Georgini, a series editor of The Papers of John Adams, a documentary editing project at the Massachusetts Historical Society, and Terrance Rucker, a Ph.D. candidate at the George Washington University and a Historical Publications specialist in the Office of the Historian at the U.S. House of Representatives.

For more information, visit theitps.org!

This month we are exploring oral history. Oral histories are a collection of stories, memories, and first-hand accounts to create an inclusive archive about a place, event, or community. They are available to anyone, but also have their own set of skills, best practices, and ethical guidelines. 

First, we spoke with Dr. Anna F. Kaplan, an oral historian, project designer, historian, and educator interested in memory and how individuals and communities remember the past and tell stories to shape the future, particularly about race in the US. You will hear more about the practice of oral history, some of her favorite projects, and what oral history has to offer to the field of public history.  

We then spoke with Anne Dobberteen and Allison LaCroix about the Home/Brewed oral history project at the Heurich House Museum in Washington, D.C. Allison is the Collections Manager at Heurich House and the supervisor of the oral history program. Anne was the point person on the project and conducted the interviews. They share the history of the Heurich House, the stories captured in the oral history project, and what they tell us about immigration and D.C. history. 

To learn more, visit theitps.org!

Episode four of Public History in a Virtual Age explores historic sites and their role in public history. Historic sites are one of the oldest and most popular forms of public history—in fact, one of your first history memories is probably visiting a house or site near you. Rightly so! There is almost nothing more powerful than experiencing the physical environment and lived experience of people that came before us. Seeing the rooms, the items, the way people lived and worked help our imaginations come alive. Which is one of the reasons these sites are so valuable as teaching tools for students of all ages. 

On today’s episode we’ll speak with two public historians and education experts about their sites and the history they share. The first is Amanda Roper, the Manager of Interpretation at the Lee-Fendall House, historic house in Alexandria, Virginia. Then we will speak with Lauren Zalut, the Director of Education and Tour Programs at Eastern State Penitentiary—an abandoned prison in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the first true penitentiary in the world.

To learn more, visit theitps.org!

This month we are exploring an under-appreciated part of public history and culture—civic education and citizenship. History has the power to help up us understand who we are and how we got to our current moment, but that knowledge means nothing if we don’t engage as citizens. So this month we will be focusing on voting and elections—the core of any democracy and the heart of citizenship.

Today's episode is all about elections, past and present. Dr. Lindsay Chervinsky sat down with Dr. Mark Boonshoft, an assistant professor at Duquesne University. He is the author of Aristocratic Education and the Making of the American Republic, which was just published by the University of North Carolina Press, and an expert on early American history and politics. 

They discussed some of the early presidential elections, how citizens voted, how elections have changed over time, and how this election compares to past examples. We hope you’ll find this conversation enjoyable and informative! 

This month we are exploring an under-appreciated part of public history and culture—civic education and citizenship. This episode, episode two of this season, is all about voting and the importance of registration. History has the power to help up us understand who we are and how we got to our current moment, but that knowledge means nothing if we don’t engage as citizens. So this month we will be focusing on voting and elections—the core of any democracy and the heart of citizenship.

On part one of elections month, we are speaking with Andy Bernstein, the executive director of HeadCount. Andy Bernstein helped found HeadCount in 2004 and became its executive director in the spring of 2008. Under his stewardship, HeadCount has registered nearly 500,000 and become a leader in harnessing the power of music to drive social change. 

HeadCount is a non-partisan, non-profit organization that works to register voters and turn out the vote, especially among young voters. They partner with musicians, festivals, and artists all over the world to raise awareness about voting and making voting fun.

Episode one introduces the goals of this series: 

• For history buffs: share all of the incredible ways historical information can be shared and perhaps learn about a new podcast, museum, website, or exhibit. 
• For those looking to work in the historical field: share just a few of the limitless possibilities. 
• For those already working in history: share some of the digital innovations of your peers in the hopes it might inspire your own work while we are still at home.

Then this episode will introduce you to two of the host's favorite history podcasts. First, we talk with Dr. Liz Covart, the host and creator of Ben Franklin’s World, an award-winning, field-defining podcast on #VastEarlyAmerica. Next, we talk with Dr. Jim Ambuske, the host of Conversations at the Washington Library. Conversations originally started as an opportunity to interview the fellows and researchers that passed through the Washington Library and has expanded into a podcast sharing innovate and cutting-edge research.

Drs. Covart and Ambuske share their philosophy about podcasting as public history, their intended audiences, how they learned to podcast, and what podcast they would create if they had unlimited time. 

2020 is an unprecedented year. The dual pandemics of COVID-19 and international racism, combined with economic depression and political unrest, are forcing new conversations and change to confront global public health and widespread systems of racial injustice. Places of history and education—whether they be schools from kindergarten to postgraduate levels, museums, history sites, or digital public history platforms—are at the center of these historic events and conversations.

This miniseries will explore the role of public health as public history. Universities have been on the front lines in combating the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic by supporting research and scholarship that searches for a cure, as well as protecting the large populations that gather in a school environment. But universities are not the only spaces that communities gather to learn and reflect. The virus has forced museums and public history sites to close their doors and explore new methods of public engagement. Finally, the pandemic has revealed the physical side effects of institutionalized racism in the United States. Black communities are twice as likely to be hit by COVID-19 and twice as likely to die if infected. The recent protests in the wake of the murders of George Floyd, Brianna Taylor, Elijah McClain, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many more, have captured public attention in a way the nation has not seen since the Civil Rights movement. Perhaps the combination of the pandemic and racial injustice are simply too much to bear, or perhaps Americans are home and a captive audience without the daily distractions of work, sports, and social activities. The protests during the pandemic reveal that racism is a public health issue.

Episode three ties together the themes covered in the previous two episodes—the dual pandemics of COVID-19 and structural racism and injustice, and the role of education spaces in this conversation going forward—and considers the role of public history sites in this current moment. How should public history sites address the pandemics? What do they have to teach us and offer as we consider how to move forward as a nation? Why are the stories they tell so important? These are just some of the questions covered in the final episode of Public Health – Public History.

2020 is an unprecedented year. The dual pandemics of COVID-19 and international racism, combined with economic depression and political unrest, are forcing new conversations and change to confront global public health and widespread systems of racial injustice. Places of history and education—whether they be schools from kindergarten to postgraduate levels, museums, history sites, or digital public history platforms—are at the center of these historic events and conversations.

 This miniseries will explore the role of public health as public history. Universities have been on the front lines in combating the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic by supporting research and scholarship that searches for a cure, as well as protecting the large populations that gather in a school environment. But universities are not the only spaces that communities gather to learn and reflect. The virus has forced museums and public history sites to close their doors and explore new methods of public engagement. Finally, the pandemic has revealed the physical side effects of institutionalized racism in the United States. Black communities are twice as likely to be hit by COVID-19 and twice as likely to die if infected. The recent protests in the wake of the murders of George Floyd, Brianna Taylor, Elijah McClain, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many more, have captured public attention in a way the nation has not seen since the Civil Rights movement. Perhaps the combination of the pandemic and racial injustice are simply too much to bear, or perhaps Americans are home and a captive audience without the daily distractions of work, sports, and social activities. The protests during the pandemic reveal that racism is a public health issue.

Episode two continues the conversation by analyzing the second of the duel pandemics attacking our country—structural racism and racial injustice. The expert guests explain how racism produces structural inequalities that affect minority communities from birth to death, and how structural racism makes certain communities more vulnerable to the other pandemic, COVID-19. The experts will also consider how universities and education institutions exacerbate these conditions and how they might play a leading role in producing positive change going forward.

2020 is an unprecedented year. The dual pandemics of COVID-19 and international racism, combined with economic depression and political unrest, are forcing new conversations and change to confront global public health and widespread systems of racial injustice. Places of history and education—whether they be schools from kindergarten to postgraduate levels, museums, history sites, or digital public history platforms—are at the center of these historic events and conversations.

This miniseries will explore the role of public health as public history. Universities have been on the front lines in combating the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic by supporting research and scholarship that searches for a cure, as well as protecting the large populations that gather in a school environment. But universities are not the only spaces that communities gather to learn and reflect. The virus has forced museums and public history sites to close their doors and explore new methods of public engagement. Finally, the pandemic has revealed the physical side effects of institutionalized racism in the United States. Black communities are twice as likely to be hit by COVID-19 and twice as likely to die if infected. The recent protests in the wake of the murders of George Floyd, Brianna Taylor, Elijah McClain, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many more, have captured public attention in a way the nation has not seen since the Civil Rights movement. Perhaps the combination of the pandemic and racial injustice are simply too much to bear, or perhaps Americans are home and a captive audience without the daily distractions of work, sports, and social activities. The protests during the pandemic reveal that racism is a public health issue.

Episode one kicks off the miniseries by examining the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on college and education environments, how universities and professors are adapting to meet the demands of a virtual world, and opportunities that might come out of this difficult year.