What Kind of Historian Am I?
I have always thought of myself as more of a social historian with a bit of a cultural side. The re-inclusion of underrepresented groups in the historical record is the reason I wanted to become a historian. I have also always admired historians, and scholars in other fields, who are able to write good stories. Storytelling is how we as historians relay our information to a wider audience, and not just sharing our findings with other historians. I have always had trouble finding the purpose in history written in ways/language that only other historians can understand and appreciate. This is where new platforms of presentation can help historians reach a much larger audience. Digital history platforms, like websites, allows historic research and findings to reach people both inside and outside of the discipline, and do it in ways other than reading an article or book. I hope to create some form of a digital representation of my project, so I guess this makes me a digital historian as well. Like some of you I don’t always know what is meant by methodology and I am glad I am not alone.
As far as what kinds of methods I plan to use in my research and interpretation, I think I know some of the methods I will employ. Historian Carol Lasser uses images and rhetoric from antislavery publication in her article “Voyeuristic Abolition.” Her analysis of the images of female slaves is one of her methods I hope to emulate in my project. She uses these images to support her theory that sex and gender played a prominent role in the antislavery movement and abolitionists writings. Linking images to the rhetoric of abolition is where I believe her work is most convincing. The use of symbolic figures to represent slave and slavery, in Lasser’s article slave women, is a method commonly employed by historians, and is the major method of examination I hope to successfully employ in my research.
David,
See my comments on Sara’s post about methods. This problem of how to speak to different audiences and whether to do so using the same format for both is one that all of us as publishing scholars have to address. Publishers want books with broad appeal, either to the public or for classroom use, and it is a style even “purists” are beginning to appreciate. Adding a public history component to your research project promises to give you an opportunity to explore and push those boundaries.
David,
I agree with Dr. Jones that storytelling can sometimes be problematic, particularly when you are trying to appeal to a broad audience (including those historians that are very much against storytelling). Nevertheless, I also agree that a public history component could be a great way for you to expand the reach of your thesis. Do you have any ideas yet how you would incorporate public history into your thesis or what kind of project you would produce? You mentioned creating a website potentially but what about a museum exhibition? I’m just curious!
Laura,
At this point I am hoping to create a website to accompany my thesis. This will allow me to show my work in a more presentable format and capture a much larger audience. I hope to use the format to try and link the historical abolition movement with the contemporary fight against human trafficking. I think a museum exhibit would be in many ways similar to a website, though not as detailed perhaps.
Thinking about storytelling, David, I’m reminded of William Cronon’s AHA address that we read last semester, and of Nature’s Metropolis. I believe there is a place for storytelling, and that successful historians can teach us how to do this. Would a public history component help you to more subtly tell the stories you hope to tell?
Sara,
I was thinking about Cronon when I sat down to answer this week’s blog prompts. I think storytelling has a negative connotation among many historians and I find that disheartening. I think everyone interested in the potential future of history as an academic discipline should read or listen to Cronon’s address. I also enjoyed his use of stories in Nature’s Metropolis! I think an electronic format/website would allow me to tell a wider audience the story of past abolition strategies (particularly the importance of color) and how these tactics show up today in modern antislavery movements.
David, are you focusing on solely “symbolic” figures? Does this paint only a small portion of the populace that you are trying to represent> Have you considered looking at a wider swath of the people that you are researching. This way your research might paint a broader stroke, therefore maybe getting a better sense of the overall populace and not just the key, “symbolic” figures. I am looking forward to reading your final project.