Course Syllabus
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MUSE E-137: The Practice of Public History Spring 2016 T 5:30p to 7:30p
Taylor Stoermer Office hours: By appointment Office hours: By appointment
Course Description and Goals “The Practice of Public History” will explore the range of issues faced by today’s public historians, covering the problems of shifts in collective memory, competing constituencies, shrinking resources, methods of interpretation, and identification of modern relevance in the varied forums where public history can be practiced and projected, from museums and commemorative spaces to social media feeds and film. Public history includes the ways in which the past is explained, characterized, engaged, and presented to various audiences. It also is the means to facilitate the sharing of public history—the fundraising, organizational management, and marketing that create visibility and generate necessary financial resources. After all, of the more than 35,000 cultural non-profit organizations that exist today in America, more than half of them are related to history, whether as a historic house museum or a local historical society or other sites accessible to the public. But those 19,000 organizations compete, sometimes aggressively, for the roughly eight percent of total funding for non-profits that heritage organizations receive. Public history is, consequently, also a business, as well as a coherent field of study and a way of practicing history. As the title suggests, the course will strongly emphasize practice and experience over theory, as a practicum that blends classroom and fieldwork, just as we examine the intellectual questions involved. While we’ll address matters of theory, our efforts will be concentrated on the real-world transmission of public history and the means that make it possible. This is a class that will concentrate on history outside of the classroom, providing you with opportunities to directly connect with sometimes strikingly different public history contexts and multidisciplinary tools in order to sharpen your ability to take theory, mix it with experience, and then effectively deploy that blend in tangible ways and to a variety of ends. Throughout the course, we will engage in discussions and exercises that build on the skills one learns as a historian—of effective research, contextual understanding, and critical analysis—to hone those of the public historian. We will strive to enhance your ability to communicate the past in clear and concise ways, through a variety of mediums to different audiences, from potential guests in a Tweet and visitors in a theatrical program, to making a pitch to prospective donors or a presentation to a Board of Trustees. By the end of the semester, you should have a much clearer and informed understanding of, and experience with, the wide variety of skills required of the modern public historian regardless of the context, as well as those demanded by particular settings, from digital humanities to heritage site management. Consequently, it is my hope that you leave the course better prepared to take advantage of public history internships (which we can help you obtain), turn internship experiences into long-term employment, or strengthen your current staff position, all while growing professional contacts and contributing to the broader academic fields of public history and heritage studies.
Course Requirements The success of this course will depend on the active, informed engagement of all participants, wherever you might reside. Engagement is the key, as we together look for answers to the questions that shape the presumptions and practices that inform the work of the modern public historian. In the end, our adventure is into the world of ideas and how they apply to lives today. Consequently, students will be evaluated on the contributions they make to our common effort, in the sense of class participation. Other than the obvious expectation of regular attendance, I do not, however, require that such participation assume any particular form, only that you follow your own effective paths—from direct class discussion or social media engagement using our course hashtag, to e-mails or conversations with me during office hours. Practical exercises and other appropriate assignments will combine with course engagement to produce your overall evaluation. Some assignments are intended to enrich our discussions with the results of your own individual investigations, making our course something of a research workshop into particularly important aspects of public history. Other assignments will enable you to test your ability to do the things that are expected of public historians in the 21st century, with an appreciation for the implications of sharing the past with wider modern audiences: writing the text for historical markers; drafting comprehensive evaluations of the guest experience at a heritage site; identifying audiences, the best means for communicating with them, and drafting a treatment for a program that targets one of them; reviewing financial documents that reveal institutional strengths and weaknesses of heritage organizations; writing a funding pitch for a sympathetic Foundation; creating a “sizzle reel” that explores a historical topic; and, as a final project, creating a strategic plan that encompasses mission and vision statements, a master narrative, and marketing and fundraising campaigns. These exercises will furnish the basis on which you and I can assess your progress as a practicing public historian. They are staggered across the semester, with descriptions and deadlines provided in the schedule below. Optional scheduled sections will also be part of the offerings, to the extent that we can provide them as a shared experience, regardless of your location, whether in the form of guest speakers and "master classes" or visits to special locations that inform that week’s practical exercise. Moreover, please note that all exercises will be based on the same assessment standard regardless of one’s enrollment status, while the evaluative measures for major writing assignments and presentations will markedly differ. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask me.
Required Readings The Anarchist’s Guide to Historic House Museums (ISBN 9781629581712), by Deborah Ryan and Frank Vagnone, will furnish the principal readings for our weekly discussions. It is available from the Harvard COOP and online from major booksellers. Other articles, book chapters, online videos, and blog posts (most notably “Know Your Own Bone: A Resource for Creative Engagement in Museums and Cultural Centers,” www.colleendilen.com) will supplement it. The vast majority of the readings will be available as PDF files or Internet links on the course’s Canvas website, or through one of the various subscription databases, such as JSTOR and Project Muse, in HOLLIS+.
Academic Integrity You are responsible for understanding Harvard Extension School policies on academic integrity (www.extension.harvard.edu/resources-policies/student-conduct/academic-integrity) and how to use sources responsibly. Not knowing the rules, misunderstanding the rules, running out of time, submitting the wrong draft, or being overwhelmed with multiple demands are not acceptable excuses. There are no excuses for failure to uphold academic integrity. To support your learning about academic citation rules, please visit the Harvard Extension School Tips to Avoid Plagiarism (www.extension.harvard.edu/resources-policies/resources/tips-avoid-plagiarism), where you'll find links to the Harvard Guide to Using Sources and two free online 15-minute tutorials to test your knowledge of academic citation policy. The tutorials are anonymous open-learning tools.
Accessibility The Harvard Extension School is committed to providing an accessible academic community. The Accessibility Office offers a variety of accommodations and services to students with documented disabilities. Please visit www.extension.harvard.edu/resources-policies/resources/disability-services-accessibility for more information.
Schedule Jan. 26 -- Why? This session will explore the nature of a public historian’s work. Essentially, “so what?” Why does it, or should it, exist as a field and a practice, and, if it should, how can it be sustained?
EXERCISE (Due before first class meeting): Write the text of two historical markers, one to be placed in front of your own birthplace, the other to commemorate another place, person, or event in your community that you believe has been overlooked until now. Include whatever information you deem relevant to your audience, which, in this class, is your classmates and myself. Brevity is, of course, critical for this ubiquitous, and infamous, tool of public history, but take care to not exceed 100 words, including the title.
Feb. 2 -- The Ways: Who? (Part I — Communities) This session, which looks at the local communities many heritage sites ostensibly serve, will begin our exploration of those for whom we practice public history, the various constituencies and audiences that shape the manner in which we go about our business. However, as heritage sites are not all created equal, we will discuss the ways in which such communities—online or on-site, large or small—can be effectively understood.
EXERCISE (Due before second class meeting, Feb 2): Write a short essay (1000 words maximum), which could be developed into an opinion piece for a blog or newspaper, about the Treasurer of the United States' plan to replace Alexander Hamilton's image on the $10 bill. Explore the question of whether it is a matter for public history and, if so, how it should be used. In short, should Hamilton stay? Should he go? Who should replace him? Or does it make any difference whose face appears on our money? We will discuss this assignment, which will partly serve as an early evaluation of your formal writing skills, during our first meeting.
Feb. 9 -- The Ways: Who? (Part II — Heritage Tourism) This session will continue our examination of audiences by focusing on Heritage Tourism, a distinct subset of the tourism market that many public history outlets attempt to capture. Heritage tourists, however, are, at best, hazily understood. Are they people who travel to simply visit the places that represent “important” people and events of the past, or does the term imply a much more active and engaged historical adventurer? We will also explore dimensions of the subset, such as Dark Tourism, which has come to represent critical revenue streams, even entire survival strategies, for public history programs around the world.
Feb. 16 -- The Ways: Where? (Part I — Museums) This session begins our consideration of the various venues where public history is and can be practiced, exploring their particular challenges and opportunities, starting with the most ubiquitous of indoor defined spaces — heritage museums—and the ways in which they differ from other kinds of settings, such as art or natural history museums.
Feb. 23 -- The Ways: Where? (Part II — Historic House Museums) This session continues our consideration of the various venues where public history is and can be practiced. We will explore their particular challenges and opportunities, by focusing on the most conspicuous and controversial of the defined indoor spaces— the Historic House Museum.
Mar. 1 -- The Ways: Where? (Part III — Defined and Undefined Outdoor Spaces) This session continues our examination of public history sites by looking at outdoor spaces, such as national historical parks and similar sites. We will look especially closely, as case studies, at the Minute Man National Historical Park in Concord, Massachusetts, and the Freedom Trail in Boston. This session will also explore the ways in which public history is practiced anywhere. It could be found in the middle of a crowded street on a weekend afternoon. It could take the form of a Historic District, with plaques and other interpretive guides, or of a “flash” program intended to immerse “guests” in a directed experience in an untraditional space.
Mar. 8 -- The Ways: Where? (Part IV — Online) The Internet seems to produce new ways to engage in the practice of public history, whether through Twitter, Instagram, Periscope, or other platforms. Each, however, asks something different of the public historian, differences which we will explore in this session.
EXERCISE (due before next class, March 22): Evaluate the comprehensive guest experience at a heritage site of your choosing, including, if applicable, its online presence, marketing, its physical representation (signage, etc.), print collateral (interpretive or other descriptive materials), and price points (for tickets, programs, add-ons such as audio tours), and overall impression of its ostensible mission and success in achieving it. Assign it a final rating out of five stars, along with a summary that might be easily posted to a website such as TripAdvisor.
Mar. 15 -- NO CLASS (Spring Break)
Mar. 22 -- The Means: How? (Part I - Narrative and Interpretation Methods) Once a public historian is clear on why she or he is practicing public history and where they are to do it, the question next becomes “how?” How does a public historian engage audiences? What the most effective manners? Through costumed interpreters? An actor that portrays Susan B. Anthony? An exhibit of artifacts? We kick off the second half of our course with an examination of such means, beginning with the methods of direct interpretation — from funny clothes and guided tours to street theater, static plaques and signage.
EXERCISE (due before class on Mar. 29): Draft a treatment for a 20-minute costumed program to be performed at the public history venue of your choosing. It could be anywhere from Harvard Yard to the middle of Boston Common to the mezzanine of your nearest shopping mall, or at one of the sites we discuss and visit during the course of the term. Note that my intention is to share these assignments with the site in question, after we have evaluated them.
Mar. 29 -- The Means: How? (Part II — Books and Broadcasting) Regardless of how much time and money is spent on identifying and engaging audiences, even with the advent of social media, the most powerful and pervasive means of practicing public history remains through popular books, movies, and television. From comic books to documentaries, they play a greater role in shaping the historical perceptions and consciousness of people around the globe than any other mediums.
EXERCISE (due before class on April 12): Using your smart phone or other digital device, produce a three-to-five minute “sizzle reel” that provides an overview of a historical video project that explores a particular aspect of the past. You are required to follow no particular genre, such as documentary film or history-based fictional television series, but you will need to justify your choice as the proper avenue for telling that particular story. These reels will be shown to all members of the class later in the semester.
Apr. 5 -- The Means: How? (Part III — Technology and “Digital” History) Whether through an app or a touchscreen or 3D printing, technology is changing the way in which public historians can help audiences engage the past. Some heritage sites, such as the Edward M. Kennedy Institute base their core experience on it. Most public historians, however, seem to have not yet found the right formula, making it one of the most confused and contested dimensions of the practice.
Apr. 12 -- The Means: How? (Part IV — Fundraising) No public historian can escape the fundamental fact of the practice that every dime spent on salaries, programs, outreach—even fundraising—comes from asking other people to give her or him their money. Whether through major donations, memberships, governmental and foundation grants, gift shop revenue, or, increasingly, crowdsourcing sites such as Kickstarter, understanding the basis of fundraising in the public history area is critical to success.
EXERCISE (due before class on April 19): Representing the public history venue of your choice, draft a memo (five pages, maximum) to the Funding Officer of a Foundation that desires to support a year of programming in either religion, slavery, or women (choose one), which has the possibility for renewal on an annual bases. You have been told that the funder wants to see a range of different kinds of programs, but that she is especially fond of costumed interpreters. Also include a budget for the request, broken down for each type of program you propose. You know, however, that the Funder has provided up to $200,000 for especially detailed and targeted proposals in the recent past. The proposals will be critiqued by professionals familiar with the funding process.
Apr. 19 -- Patriot’s Day The class session on this day will be devoted to one of the most prominent commemorative public history events in America—the anniversary of the battles of Lexington and Concord. Readings and session details will be discussed in a prior class.
Apr. 26 -- The Means: How? (Part V — Organizational Management) Understanding the ways that organizational structure, from Boards of Trustees to Collections Management and Historic Preservation, impact a public historian’s capacity to practice can make or break even the most worthy endeavor. We will also discuss the Final Project at this session.
May 3 -- The Means: How? (Part VI — Marketing and Public Relations) Effective public communications require an understanding of an organization’s mission (what it exists to do), its vision (how it intends to do it), and the best ways to communicate both to the right audiences. Although social media has driven down the transaction costs of efforts to increase visibility, it has correspondingly increased the importance of clarity and professionalism to ensure not only that it helps promote your efforts, but also that it does not harm them.
May 10 -- The Means: How? (Part VII — Ethics) In the end, integrity is the most important value of the practice of public history. Without it, there will be an inevitable deterioration of authenticity, perhaps to raise scarce funds or please a troublesome Board member, which can result in a loss of public confidence in the organization's reliability. We will discuss ethics and integrity in the practice of public history for the last class because of that signal importance.
FINAL PROJECT (due by 5:00 pm on May 14): Write a 25-page Strategic Plan for a public history organization.
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Course Summary:
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