Editors Note: This is an archived blog post from 30/1/2012.

Whose Past? History, Public Engagement and the Future of the historical disciplines

Wednesday, 22nd February 2012, 1.00-4.30pm,

University of Manchester, Roscoe 1.010,

Lunch will be included.

Public interest and engagement with history has grown over the past decade. In part this has been driven by new media that provide a much more direct link between the interested public and historical sources (for instance through the availability of census and family records on-line, or the efforts by museums and libraries to digitize their collections). The production of history-based content by traditional media, in particular radio and TV, has both accompanied and stimulated this interest.

But how can historians forge links between their own research and this wider audience? How can the historian’s expertise – a critical engagement with the past – contribute positively to this growing public engagement? Such questions are crucial, particularly at a time when the historical disciplines are being asked to demonstrate the ability to speak to a broad audience. The challenge is to do so in ways that enrich both way in which the public engages with the past, and the very ways in which history is researched.

This workshop will be led by historians with a proven track record of public engagement and experts in the production of historically-based content for public audiences to discuss with students and researchers how the profession can meet these challenges.

This event will be of particular interest to doctoral students in the historical disciplines who are interested in thinking how best to generate an impact from their research, or those interested in pursuing careers not in academia, but in history-related public facing professions beyond their graduate studies.

To book a place, sign up through eprog here.