One marker of the traditional distinctions between public and academic historical work has been the form of expertise each requires. What are these forms of expertise? Where have they converged, and where have they diverged? In thinking about how to reconceive public history for the contemporary moment, what new forms of historical education might be required both inside and outside the university? How do the labor crises in higher education and in the cultural institutional sector more broadly affect these approaches? We invited a conversation in which current and former students and teachers shared the ways in which public-oriented historical pedagogy has shaped their approach to their work, and considered how it might do so more effectively in the future.

This event was organized by the Histories of Culture in Disastrous Times research project at the Neubauer Collegium.

About the History in Public Conversation Series

Fields such as public humanities, public history, and public scholarship have often drawn on a distinction between universities and a “public” that exists outside of them. This distinction can, however, appear arbitrary, especially in times of crisis that compel questions about the insulation of academic knowledge production from the challenges facing society at large. We take our current moment of deep uncertainty about the future of the academy as an opportunity to convene a series of conversations about what it means to practice history in public today. What intellectual and practical commitments define a history that is engaged with the world? Who are its practitioners and whom does it serve? What is its place within the university? What forms of learning are required to sustain it? What do these practices mean at the University of Chicago in particular? We invited participants at all career stages and from all fields or institutions, who were interested in thinking about the public dimensions of their work and making connections to the wider community of public historical practice at the University and in Chicago.

Other events in the series

APRIL 23: What Is Public History?

MAY 14: The Future of the Public History Program at UChicago