Practicing History

In this episode, I sit down with Cheryl Jimenez-Frei, Assistant Professor in History of Latin American and Latinx Studies at University of Wisconsin Eau Claire. We discuss Dr. Jimenez-Frei’s research on monuments, commemoration, and memory in Argentina and think about it in relation to the controversies over Civil War monuments in the United States. We reflect upon the practice of public history and chat about our joint work doing oral histories as part of the COVID-19 Oral History Project and the Journal of the Plague Year: A COVID-19 Archive.

Continuing our series on plagues, outbreaks, and pandemics in history, we discuss the 1918 influenza pandemic, which killed millions across the globe between 1918 and 1920. My guest for this episode is Lia Paradis, Associate Professor of History and co-Director of the Stone House Center for Public Humanities at Slippery Rock University.

Continuing our series on plagues, outbreaks, and pandemics in history, we discuss the Antonine Plague, which hit Rome in the 2nd century CE. This plague had a mortality rate of 25% and devastated Rome's military, its cities, and its economy. My guest for this episode is Liz Thill, Assistant Professor of Classical Studies at IUPUI.

Today’s episode looks at the plague that hit Athens in 430 BCE. Described by Thucydides in his book The Peloponnesian War, this outbreak devastated Athenian society and killed tens of thousands of people. We will do a close reading of Thucydides’ text, which examines the duties and virtue of the individual in relationship to the city-state.

Practicing History is a podcast devoted to a broad approach to studying history — from research to teaching to methodology to theory. Practicing History is particularly interested in the manifold ways that humans make their history. As such, it is concerned not only with how professionals construct histories but how we all make history anew every day – through retelling and reimagining it and by the very fact that we are ourselves historical actors.