Digital Public History sessions at the XXII International Congress of Historical Sciences (ICHS-CISH)

Academic Historians promoted a Historic1st international reflection on the Digital Turn in History during The XXII International Congress of Historical Sciences organized by the International Committee for Historical Sciences – Comité International des Sciences Historique (ICSH-CISH) in the city of Jinan in China, between August 23 and August 29, 2015 in Shandong Hotel.  (You can still Download the Full Programme, look at the Practical Information and visit the Jinan Congress Web Site.)

For the first time in its own history, the ICHS promoted some panels and events around Digital History tahnks to the American Historical Association (AHA) and the Internal Federation for Public History(IFPH-FIHP), a permanent Internal Commission of the CISH. Both associations actively contributed to the main CISH programme in Jinan. The IFPH also organized its 2nd Annual International Conference during the XXII International Congress of Historical Sciences with a session dedicated to Digital Public History.

One of the four Major Themes during this quinquennial meeting of historians from all over the world was about the Digital Turn in History/Le tournant numérique en Histoire. Many defections were registered still in July but, at the end, Robert Frank, professor of History of International Relations at Paris 1 Sorbonne and, at the time of the conference, still secretary general of the International Committee for Historical Sciences, succeeded in maintaining three different digital history events: two panels and an evening session about digital public history.

This was the specific digital history programme

Session 1:  Digital History: Challenges and Possibilities 

9 AM-12:15 PM – Movie Hall, Shandong Hotel – http://www.ichschina2015.org/cms/Agendanew/1084.jhtml

 With the support of the American Historical Association 

Organizers: 

• Tom Dublin (SUNY Binghamton) and Kathryn Kish Sklar (SUNY Binghamton)

Participants:

What is PH International, Interview Jinan, August 27, 2015

• Tom Dublin and Kathryn Kish Sklar (SUNY Binghamton): History of Women:  Challenges of archival database construction
• Kathryn Sklar: New Digital Media and the New History of Human Rights
• Patrick Murray-John:  Omeka, a (partly) international platform
• Serge Noiret: Who owns History and Memory in the web? Challenges and Possibilities of Digital Public History
• Alla Kovalova:  Digital Historiography and Authors’ Rights: Challenges and Perspectives
• Yvan Combeau (Université de La Réunion-Océan Indien): The Screen and Digital Archives 

Session 2:  New Tools, New Narratives, New Histories

2 PM-5:15 PM- Movie Hall, Shandong Hotel  

Discussants:

• Tom Dublin (SUNY Binghamton) and Kathryn Kish Sklar (SUNY Binghamton)

Participants: 

• Adam Kosto (Columbia University): Digital Developments: Medieval European Diplomatic Sources
• Silvia Orlandi (Sapienza University of Rome): EAGLE  European network of ancient Greek and Latin epigraphy:  Ancient inscriptions in the digital era
• Andrea Nanetti (Singapore Nanyang Technical University) and Siew Ann Cheong (Singapore Nanyang Technical University): Web based automatic narratives for interactive global histories: The maritime silk road 1205-1533
• Guido Abbattista: Digital frontiers for research on Modern History: resources and methodology
• Jean-François Sirinelli: L’historien, le politique et le numérique : un triangle complexe

The International Federation for Public History (IFPH) contributed also to organise seminars and sessions with the ICHS  about Digital (Public) History and the Digital Turn in History described below.

Major Theme 4 – Digital Turn in History

Thème majeur 4 – Le tournant numérique en Histoire

Evening Session –  7:45 PM-9:30 PM/19 h 45-21 h 30  – Movie Hall, Shandong Hotel

Promoting Digital History internationally: Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media projects and the role of THATCamp (The Humanities and Technology Camp) – Promouvoir l’Histoire Numérique internationale: Les projets du Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media et le rôle de THATcamp (The Humanities and Technology Camp)

– Serge Noiret (President of the International Federation for Public History; European University Institute, Florence): Introduction

University of Shandong Students helping at any moment

– Patrick Murray-John (Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, Department of History and Art History, George Mason University): The Humanities And Technology Camp: How an informal conference structure spreads knowledge and interest in the Digital Humanities

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Round Table 9/Table ronde 9 – Why Public History ?

9 AM-12/9 h-12 h – Zibo Hall, Shandong Hotel

Participants to the Roundtable "Why Public History"

  

With the support of the International Federation for Public History

 Organizers: Alix Green, (University of Central Lancashire) and Arnita A. Jones, (International Federation for Public History)

Commentators:

• Anna Adamek, Curator, Canada Science and Technology Museum, Canada
• Philip L. Cantelon, Chief Executive Officer, History Associates Incorporated, USA
• Bonny Ibhawoh, Associate Professor of History, McMaster University, Canada
• Serge Noiret, History Information Specialist, European University Institute, Italy

 3. Friday August 28 – 2 PM-5:15 PM – Zaozhuang Hall, Shandong Hotel: International Federation for Public History 2nd Annual Conference – #IFPH2015 – Session 3: Digital Public History

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IC 1 Friday 28 August afternoon/Vendredi 28 août après-midi

2 PM-5:15 PM/14 h-17 h 15 – Zaozhuang Hall, Shandong Hotel

Session 3: Digital Public History

Chair: Serge Noiret (European University Institute, Florence)

Jenny Gregory & Patrick Moore before the session on DPH

• – Jenny Gregory (University of Western Australia):
  Public History and the Use of Social Media
• – Patrick Moore (University of West Florida):
  The Many Faces of an Historical APP:  Next Exit History,” the Classroom and Community

Why Public History? Building a Round Table for the CISH Jinan World History Congress, August 2015

As permanent internal commission of the CISH-ICHS, the IFPH-FIHP is fostering the broadest possible international participation to the Call for Paper launched by the Comité International des Sciences Historiques – International Committee of Historical Sciences and especially for the round table on “Why Public History?”, organized by Arnita Jones (American Historical Association, USA, Secretary of the IFPH Steering Committee) together with Alix Green (University of Hertfordshire, UK, Member of the IFPH-FIHP) during the next 22nd world history congress that will take place in Jinan, China in August 2015.

The deadline for the call for discussants is November 30, 2013.

The full CFP is available as a PDF document on the CISH-ICHS website but is also fully reproduced here below.

XXIInd Comité International des Sciences Historiques 

(CISH-ICHS) Congress

Jinan, China 23 to 29 August 2015

Round Table n.9: Why Public History?

One of the major difficulties in exploring and explaining public history—and the role of public historians—is the on-going issue of definition. Definitions are shaped by context, and can display significant differences and tensions, both within national disciplinary communities and between them.

Writing in 1991, former World History Association president, Alfred J. Andrea, offered a breadth of scope in his definition that offers, at least, a point of departure. He sees public history as the application of ‘historical skills and perspectives in the services of a largely non-academic clientele,’ and of ‘the dimension of historical time in helping to meet the practical and intellectual needs of society at large’. His range of examples of public history take in public policy analysis, the understanding of cultural heritage, and helping a corporation ‘plan its future through an understanding of its past’.1

Yet it is easy to become overly pre-occupied with definition. The inevitable difficulties involved – and the reality that any outcome will be contested – can prevent further enquiry. We can ask what public historians do, and present the diversity of activities as a proxy for definition, but there is a need to be more intellectually ambitious. The paper that this roundtable will discuss will propose a different way to proceed. One powerful way to explore what public history is is to ask ‘why is public history as it is?’. This approach allows us to consider those important questions of context, to draw out the influences that have shaped public history fields in different contexts and to make comparisons that point to further development and dialogue.

This roundtable will therefore have a comparative dynamic. Taking a global perspective will undoubtedly reveal many differences in terms of public history’s concerns, priorities and self-conceptions. But we imagine we will identify far more things in common. The search of affinities – as the basis by which international conversations about public history can begin – is one of our central aims.

We do not anticipate or prescribe the topics or questions respondents will want to focus on. Rather, we suggest here a number of purposes to which history can be put in public as a way to start the thinking process.

The purpose of a distinctive form of knowledge will affect how people should be prepared for practice. What are the requirements of a public history education and how might those be captured in qualifications? The term ‘public’ conceals a whole array of constituencies with different, sometimes conflicting, perspectives and interests. What might determine their relative prominence and how might we understand and mediate between groups? The legitimacy of collaboration with certain groups, for example policymakers or marginalized constituencies such as offenders, is an area for consideration. For every purpose, a set of responsibilities is entailed: how can public historians respond to and manage these obligations?

Commentators are not limited to these areas of enquiry; we welcome consideration of any aspect of public history that responds to the paper with the broad aims of the roundtable in mind.

Alix Green
a.r.green [at] herts.ac.uk
Lecturer in History and Policy University of Hertfordshire

Arnita Jones
arnitajones [at] gmail.com
Executive Director Emerita, American Historical Association

(1) Andrea, ‘On public history’, Historian 53 (1991) p. 381.

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Les propositions ne doivent pas dépasser 2.500 signes et doivent être envoyées avec une courte biographie, simultanément aux organisateurs (Alix Green et Arnita Jones) et au secrétaire général du CISH Robert Frank : sgcish1@gmail.com au plus tard le 30 novembre 2013

Proposals should be a maximum of 2.500 characters – 350 words and should be sent with a short biographical note to the organizers (Alix Green and Arnita Jones) and to the Secretary General Robert Frank : sgcish1@gmail.com. by the 30th November 2013.