Published by De Gruyter Oldenbourg

Volume 2 Issue 2 -

October 2019

Issue of International Public History

Contents
Journal Overview

Section on family history, edited by Tanya Evans and Jerome de Groot

January 11, 2020

Emerging questions in family history studies

Tanya Evans

Article number: 20190013

January 11, 2020

Introduction: Emerging Directions for Family History Studies

Tanya Evans, Jerome de Groot

Article number: 20190014

Abstract

This introduction charts the rise of family history across the globe and its international impact upon culture, biomedicine, and technology. It introduces the contributions to this special issue from interdisciplinary scholars based in the US, Canada, Brazil, Europe, Australia and India that have collaborated internationally over the past three years. It argues that public historians need to take the practice of family history seriously and that all scholars can learn from its collaborative, integrated, international practice. We are presented with overwhelming evidence of the need to decentralize and trouble the Eurocentrism of existing historical scholarship. This special issue provides a platform for the conversations we have been having about family history over the past three years and encourages others to join in.

January 31, 2020

Family History and the Global Politics of DNA

Sarah Abel, Krystal S. Tsosie

Article number: 20190015

Abstract

The global DNA ancestry industry appeals to various “markets”: diasporic groups seeking to reconstruct lost kinship links; adoptees looking for biological relatives; genealogists tracing their family trees; and those who are merely curious about what DNA can reveal about their identity. However, the language of empowerment and openness employed by DNA ancestry-testing companies in their publicity materials masks the important commercial and private interests at stake. Drawing particularly on the experiences of Native and Indigenous American communities, this article highlights some of the contradictions and dilemmas engendered by the industry, and questions to what extent its practices can empower users without infringing upon the rights of other groups.

January 11, 2020

Family History Collaborators in Conversation

Ashley Barnwell, Laura King

Article number: 20190016

Abstract

Ashley Barnwell and Laura King converse about their collaborations with family historians in Australia and England. They reveal the potential uses of collaboration when challenging understandings of ‘the family’, decolonizing and declassing historical scholarship on the family and the wellbeing benefits for family history researchers and carers.

Open Access January 14, 2020

“The Genealogical sublime”: An Interview with Julie Creet

Jerome de Groot

Article number: 20190017

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January 14, 2020

The Roles of Authenticity and Immediacy in Engaging Family Historians in Online Learning Designed to Advance Academic Skills

Kristyn Harman

Article number: 20190018

Abstract

A rapid increase in the availability of digitized archival resources of relevance to family historians together with increasing individual fascination with genealogical research led to the University of Tasmania introducing a fully online Diploma of Family History in 2016. The course’s emphasis on authenticity through a variety of modalities and the sense of immediacy with which its online learning environment is imbued combine to engage and retain students’ interest as they focus on locating and contextualizing their own ancestors as research subjects. Permeating family history with academic skills promotes best practice in locating, analyzing, storing, and publicly presenting family-centric research materials for the edification of current and future generations.

January 31, 2020

Practical Solutions: Genealogy and the Potential of Public Pedagogy in Poland

Ewa Jurczyk-Romanowska

Article number: 20190019

Abstract

The article deals with the development of genealogy in Poland, indicates its interdisciplinary character, as well as the socio-political context of its development. In particular, the possibility of using the genealogical passion of older people as a motivating factor to undertake education in the field of information and communication technology (ICT) was highlighted. As an example of good practice, the assumptions and preliminary conclusions of the research carried out within the Learning Tree project, which was implemented in Poland, Turkey and Italy, are presented. On the basis of the research it is stated that genealogy can be a factor encouraging the adoption of computer education by seniors, and consequently contribute to reducing the level of digital exclusion of older people by increasing their participation in the information society.

Conversation

Publicly Available January 31, 2020

“A Fool’s errand”: Lonnie Bunch and the Creation of the National Museum of African American History and Culture

Andreas Etges, David Dean

Article number: 20190020

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PH in

January 14, 2020

Some Reflections on Public History in Canada Today

David Dean, John C. Walsh

Article number: 20190021

Abstract

This article offers a reflection on the state of public history in Canada today. The authors focus on four particularly significant and related developments: the growth of the field within universities and colleges; the ways in which public history has helped re-shape research agendas; the influence of public history work outside academia; and Canada’s role in the ongoing process of what has been dubbed ‘the internationalization’ of public history. These developments reveal an intellectually rigorous, politically aware, and socially engaged public history that challenges boundaries in exciting and productive ways. The authors offer links so readers can explore recent controversies, issues, and debates in Canadian public history.

Reviews

October 1, 2019

Andersen, Tea Sindbæk and Barbara Törnquist-Plewa: Disputed Memory: Emotions and Memory Politics in Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe

Joanna Wojdon

Article number: 20190012

January 31, 2020

Paul Ashton and Alex Trapeznik: What is Public History Globally? Working with the Past in the Present

Christine Gundermann

Article number: 20190022

About this journal

International Public History is a major international stimulus to the field of public history, which has been growing all over the world, both as an academic discipline and as a self-identity for its practitioners. The peer-reviewed online publication IPH is a timely development, providing a much-needed publishing venue for anyone engaged in public history. Submissions to International Public History are assessed in double-blind peer review.

Published twice a year, IPH provides a mix of theoretical, research and "practice-oriented" scholarly articles on a wide range of topics. The multimodal journal offers readers a rich experience through the enhancement of articles using photos, film and audio clips.

IPH is the official organ of the International Federation for Public History.

About the society

The International Federation for Public History was founded in 2010 to create a network of public history programs, scholars, and practitioners for facilitating the international exchange of information on teaching and research in and the practice of public history. The Federation’s aim is to share recommended professional and academic best practices, including standards for evaluating public history scholarship. Fostering participation of public historians and their organizations in international congresses and other meetings of scholars in the field is one of its core issues.

IFPH’s main purpose is to build an international public history community to encourage, promote, and coordinate contacts, teaching, and research in public history.

Learn more about the International Federation for Public History here: http://ifph.hypotheses.org/