Oral History

My minor is public history. One example of public history is oral history-- a field and research tool I intend on using for my own research. However, there are organizations and social justice activists that use oral histories to give voice to marginalized people in the here and now. One great example of this is the Voice of Witness nonprofit book series. They are taking volunteers.. summer project? 

GIS

Last week I met up with a visiting grad student, Kyle, from UT-Austin who is doing research on Houston's highways for his dissertation. My former topic was the 610 loop, and highway designs and how they construct space and change the the ethics of place, but I am gladly ceding that field of investigation to him. When I learned that Kyle is hoping to use Geographic Information Systems, or GIS, in his project, I remembered how interested I was in using GIS as well. I don't think I would use it in the traditional sense, to show movement (or people, resources, etc) over time, but I think it is a useful analytic tool for all types of disciplines, and the humanities (and the historian) just needs to harness it in the way that is most beneficial to their research. Historians of the 20th century would find GIS especially useful because of all of the data that we have access to. Going beyond the written word to visual representations of changes in the historical record is an innovative way to address different types of historical problems and reach out to different types of audiences in a more interactive way. Colin Gordon's study on St. Louis, Mapping Decline, made exclusive use of historic data on redlining and racial zoning in St. Louis to write his book and create a GIS web project. He is an inspiration.

Jobs? Jobs!

I thought this article posted on the American Historical Association website was great. It talks about the reaction to the job market for American History Ph.Ds. To those of you outside of academia, it probably seems like common sense, or something similar to what you have experienced on the job market. I liked that they mentioned that there are already a cohort of PhDs with jobs outside of academia that are perfectly happy and publishing with academic presses, so this "dilemma" is nothing new. I have always thought the skills I am learning from my experience are valuable and marketable and don't think there is just one job out there for me because of that. 

ASEH Graduate Student Liaison

Some graduate professionalization updates: 

-The American Society for Environmental Historians is meeting in Madison, Wisconsin from March 28-31 and I intend to be there! I'm applying for the graduate liaison position, which would make me the leader of the ASEH's graduate caucus (new as of 2011) and the representative of the society's graduate student community, which is somewhere around 80-90 people. I'm really pumped about this opportunity and will start drafting ideas about how to expand and retain membership and serve its members. I talked to Will Knight, the current liaison, this morning via Skype and I learned a lot about the group. They seem to have strong participation and involvement, so it's going to be important to keep the momentum going! I find out in December about the position, but either way I will be a member of the caucus just to be more involved and help build community. 

-I am working on finding funding to do research in Chicago for a couple of months this summer. I think I need to be at the Chicago Botanic Garden Archives, the Newberry Library and the Chicago History Museum, to examine the Garden's history and background, but I will also be looking for other archives and libraries in the area that might reveal the urban culture of the city in the post-war period. The history department has funding for the travel for this type of trip (Murray Miller Scholarship), but Dr. Brosnan also has an application for grant money for a research assistantship at the Newberry in the works. Fingers crossed!

-Finally, Dr. Cathleen Cahill from the University of New Mexico came to UH to give a talk on her new book, but she also came to our environmental reading group to talk about her project on Highway 101. It was really interesting to see the very beginning stages of a new book project and somewhat relieving to see that it is not all that different than what I am going through with my dissertation proposal. A major difference seems to be that she has more resources accessible to her in the form of colleagues she can reach out to and the simple knowledge of where to find sources from her past research experiences. I guess it just goes to show the benefits of networking and reaching out to your academic community.

Intro to Public History Crash Course

By historical standards, my project time period is pretty recent. Some academics might think that writing about people that aren't dead yet is risky because these people still have a perspective and memory of what happened and because we might not have a complete understanding how the processes historical actors set in place have effected society. I, however, as a public historian believe that studying such a recent time period is an invaluable opportunity because I have access to the individuals I am writing about! 

I will have to keep in mind how big a role I want interviews (in the form of oral histories) public history I want to play in my work. There are a lot of examples of how oral histories can contribute to written historical works. Monica Perales' Smeltertown goes beyond using her oral histories merely as accounts to examine how events, places and people are remembered and the role memory plays in inventing and reinventing their identity. Other historical works utilize oral histories as layer of perspective otherwise lost to the historical record. There are always a bias to the historical record, which does not exclude written sources. Given this fact, it is important for historians to approach their subject from as many perspectives as possible to have a multi-dimensional and holistic approach when forming an argument about what happened.   

Findings

My trip to the Chicago Botanic Gardens last weekend was so great! The library director pulled material for me from their archives and had everything waiting for me in their rare books room. I spent two and a half hours pouring over Chicago Horticultural Society records, newspaper clippings and newsletters from the 1950s through the 1970s. I have a basic understanding of how the institution came together and a list of VIP who made it happen, but there were a couple of great nuggets that I think could be connected to large historical issues. For example, the horticultural society had to fund a dam to divert water from their property that was polluted and purchase water from Northbrook and another suburb. Also, how significant to the chosen location of the garden is the fact that the majority of members were from the northern suburbs?

I had a really interesting conversation with Daniel Greene, the VP for research and academic programs at the Newberry Library today about my project and teasing out the issues of class--perhaps by bringing in the Missouri Botanical Garden into my analysis. I think class and place are both important themes to my project. Class, because a more affluent community's easier access to money can make projects happen faster (though there are always challenges and opportunities that accompany your status, high or low), and place, because the version of nature that is valued and created by a community is related to both its topography and culture. Keeping these larger issues in mind is critical as I continue to research, because they contribute to a framework for my argument that I can lean on when my source material gets overwhelming.

Parks and Rec

Quick mental break for a show about a parks department. I wish I could somehow work this into my dissertation... sugar rush!