Defining Ourselves as Public Historians

In the almost five months since I made the decision to pick up my life and move to London to attend UWO I’ve heard one question more times than I care to count. Imagine this scenario:

I’m sitting across from my grandma, this is probably the second to last time I saw her before I moved.

“So, Nana,” I say, “Mikkel and I are moving to London- I’m going to the University of Western Ontario to do my masters in Public History.” Now my nana is a smart cookie, and age certainly hasn’t slowed her down any, but I can tell watching her that she’s trying to decide what on earth this “public history” is. Finally she breaks down and asks:

“Well dear, what exactly is Public History?”
At this point, I flounder, like I’ve floundered almost every time I’ve been asked this question. Its not even an issue of not knowing, its an issue of the complexity, subjectivity, and sheer scope of my potential answers. Sometimes I tell people its museum history, or cryptically, history as we present it to the public, or even more theoretically, I tell people it’s the study of how we as a group remember our history and how what historians do to present it changes that.

It was reassuring to realize that as a budding public historian I am not alone in my inability to create a single complete definition of my field. In fact public historians in general have not been able to create one overarching definition. For example In her 2007 Presidential address of the Canadian Historical Association, Margaret Conrad summarizes 7 or so definitions from 4 different historians.

So, if we haven’t been able to come up with one definition or perhaps mission statement for our field, what then are we as student public historians studying, how do we define what we hope will become our life’s work? Perhaps instead we should define how public history is different from academic history, or, perhaps one overarching definition might be too limiting to a broad field that in my opinion bridges the gap between academia and the public. Perhaps we should flounder, so that we can continually redefine ourselves in a quickly changing world.

Source:

Conrad, Margaret. (2007) "2007 Presidential Address of the CHA: Public History and its Discontents or History in the Age of Wikipedia" Journal of the Canadian Historical Association. 18(1). p. 1-26.

Let's Start at the Very Beginning

The idea of a blog, to me, is at once both an anxiety-ridden concept and one I must confess to being extremely curious about. I have never had a blog, let alone a diary, I don’t contribute to online forums, and I haven’t written letters since junior high. I am not a recorder, and I certainly don’t record my thoughts for the world to see. So, to quote Maria Von Trapp, “Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.” The beginning here, I guess, is me.

I was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia on a rainy Saturday in November 1983. Until June 29^th, 2009 I lived there. I attended Sacred Heart School of Halifax where I got a strong basis in academics, and then proceeded to make the rounds of local universities. Something Halifax has in spades. I started at Dalhousie University in September 2001 in a science degree, leaning towards, of all things, neuroscience and medicine. I very quickly realized that medicine was not for me, and instead followed my strong interest in environmental issues to Dal’s fledgling Environmental Programs department. I graduated in May 2006 with an unofficial minor in history and decided I wanted to become an environmental educator. I enrolled at Saint Mary’s University as a change of pace to get the rest of my requisites for a teaching degree. At Saint Mary’s I fell in love with history, and in particular Public History which I had first been briefly introduced to by Dr. Claire Campbell at Dalhousie. It was, however, Dr. Nicole Neatby at SMU who truly introduced me to public history and was integral in my introduction to oral history, social memory, and more specifically UWO’s public history program. At that point, I gave up on the BEd and my mind was made up- I needed a break, but I would apply to Western for fall 2009.

That, essentially, is how I ended up here, writing my first post in my first blog practically shaking in my seat. Hold on world, Becca Rahey has a blog, this could get interesting- at least as soon as I figure out what to write about.

The incredible, but apparently inevitable has happened.

Fasten your seat belts world, Becca Rahey has a blog.