Part of doing public history is exploring the ways in which moments of the past are disseminated and interpreted outside academia. In this special episode, playwright Nicole Burton and director Rikki Howie Lacewell sit down with Dr. Debbie Harwell (Instructional Assistant Professor of History, University of Houston) to discuss their stage adaptation of her book, Wednesdays in Mississippi: Proper Ladies Working for Radical Change, Freedom Summer 1964 (University Press of Mississippi, 2016). Both page and play detail the civil rights initiative led by Dorothy Height of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW). Together with Polly Cowan, their plan was to send interracial and interfaith teams of northern women down to Mississippi during 1964 as a way of supporting rural Black communities and civil rights workers. Beyond delivering aid, these women quietly fostered change by holding intimate, cross-racial meetings with Southern women, where honest conversations helped shift attitudes and build grassroots support for the civil rights movement. While neither Burton nor Howie Lacewell readily identifies as a public historian, their efforts to convey underrepresented histories are firmly grounded in archival research and oral history methods. Even so, both stress that it’s not just about the facts - it’s about cultivating an experience for audiences to connect with the truth of the past.  

To learn more about the play, Wednesdays in Mississippi, read coverage here. 

For more on Nicole Burton and her work:

• https://www.nicolejburton.com/ 
• www.pipelineplaywrights.org

For more about Rikki Howie Lacewell: https://www.confidencetheatrics.com/about

The Center for Public History at the University of Houston. https://uh.edu/class/cph

In this special episode, Miranda Ruzinsky and Katie Truax – UH graduate students in public history – highlight the tradition of community support in Third Ward demonstrated through the institutions and public spaces associated with the funeral process. The role of black-owned businesses, churches and religious leaders, and public remembrance like murals are central to the neighborhood’s resilience in difficult times of death and grief.  

This episode was researched, recorded, and produced by Miranda Ruzinsky and Katie Truax for the Center for Public History at the University of Houston. 

To learn more: 

Beverly, Trevia Wooster. “At Rest: A Historical Directory of Harris County, Texas Cemeteries (1822-2001).” Reference Material, n.d. Genealogy Collection. Houston History Research Center. 

Bruines, Myron. “Walter Allen Ford.” Funeral Program. McCoy & Harrison Funeral Home: 4918 Martin Luther King Boulevard, Houston (Tex.), 77021; Jones Memorial United Methodist Church: 2504 Almeda Genoa Road, Houston (Tex.), 77047; Houston Memorial Gardens: 2426 Cullen Boulevard, Pearland (Tex.), 77581, April 14, 2016. African American Funeral Programs. Houston Public Library Digital Archives.  

Houston Mural Map. https://houstonmuralmap.com/. 

Najarro, Ileana. “Black Funeral Homes in Danger in Some U.S., Houston Communities.” Houston Chronicle, January 23, 2019.  

“Our History - McCoy & Harrison Funeral Home,” June 11, 2018.  

Wilson, Ezell. “Third Ward, Steeped in Tradition of Self-Reliance and Achievement.” Houston History, April 18, 2011. 

All check out the amazing collections at the African American History Research Center at the Gregory Campus. 

Oral Histories conducted by Miranda Ruzinsky:  

Dickson, Pastor Donald, Interview, March 9, 2024. 

McCoy Abernathy, Helen. Interview, February 24, 2024. 

Music courtesy of:

Freesound.org

"remix of 45145__hammerklavier__GOSPEL_INTRO_TRADITIONAL_even_BRIGHTER_reverbed.wav" by Timbre. CC BY-NC 4.0. 

"Street Gospel Hip Hip Piano - 75bpm - Bbmaj" by nnaudio. CC BY 4.0.   

Freemusicarchive.org

"Little Wooden Church" by The Trumpeteers. PDM 1.0.   

"Free Spacy Organ (F 003)" by Lobo Loco. CC BY-SA 4.0.  

https://sarah-bereza.com/hymn-accompaniments/

The Center for Public History at the University of Houston. https://uh.edu/class/cph

All over the United States, communities and individuals banded together to support the country during the Second World War. Houston’s Third Ward was no different in this respect. In this special episode, UH graduate students Austin Lee and James Burke weave together accounts originally documented in the African American newspaper, The Houston Informer. From the men and women in the armed forces to the merchant marine sailing supply ships and the volunteers on the home front, Third Ward residents supported their country even amid segregation and racism. After the war, many of these same volunteers returned to their community and gave back in the form of long careers serving their neighbors. 

This episode was written and recorded by Austin Lee and James Burke for the Center for Public History at the University of Houston. 

An archive of the Houston Informer can be found at the African American History Research Center at the Gregory School, a part of the Houston Public Library system. 

Music courtesy of:
OpenMusicArchive.org
Don’t Go ‘Way Nobody performed by George Lewis & His New Orleans Stompers and written by Buddy Bolden.  PDM.
In The Dark-Flashes performed by Jess Stacy and written by Bix Beiderbeck.  PDM.

freemusicarchive.org/
“Taboret,” “Rate Sheet,” “Lacquer Groove,” “The Coil Winds,” and “Ray Gun – FasterFasterBrighter” by Blue Dot Sessions. CC BY-NC 4.0. 

https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/
Anchor's Away. Performed by Navy Band. 

Sound Effects by:
Freesound.org
S17-10 Depth charge with water sounds.wav by craigsmith.  CC0 1.0.
old typewriter sounds by Grauda 1982.  CC0 1.0.
06 Warsaw Długa street in february 2012 about 3 PM.wav by MaciekKubera. CC0 1.0.
Waves by Bittermelonheart. CC0 1.0. 

Day of Infamy Speech courtesy of the National Archives:
President Franklin Roosevelt’s “Day of Infamy” Speech. John G. Bradley. PDM.

The Center for Public History at the University of Houston. https://uh.edu/class/cph

In 1977, thousands of women gathered in Houston, Texas, for the first and only federally funded National Women’s Conference (NWC) in U.S. History. Their purpose was to set and deliver an agenda to the president that would ensure that women’s rights would be a central focus in the wider human rights debate. 

The Sharing Stories from 1977 Project, led by Dr. Leandra Zarnow (Associate Professor of History, University of Houston) and Dr. Nancy Beck Young (Moores Professor of History & Director of CPH, University of Houston), seeks to preserve and amplify this important political moment through a massive, crowdsourced digital archive. In Part I of their conversation, Drs. Zarnow and Beck Young introduce their practice of “big biography” - capturing the lives and demographics of over 2,000 delegates, 30,000 conference observers, and 150,000 regional participants. They emphasize that the success of this monumental project is only possible through the collective efforts of educators, students, researchers, archivists, and NWC participants from across the country. 

In Part II of this episode, Drs. Zarnow and Beck Young are joined by three such collaborators - Dr. Judy Tzu-Chun Wu (Professor of History and Asian American Studies, University of California, Irvine), Dr. Stacie Taranto (Associate Professor of History, Ramapo College), and Dr. Emily Westkaemper (Associate Professor of History, James Madison University). They discuss how Sharing Stories has promoted strong intergenerational exchange, especially as students realize that many of the issues of the 1970s are still the issues of today. 

Check out this amazing project: https://sharingstories1977.uh.edu/discover

The Center for Public History at the University of Houston. https://uh.edu/class/cph

The power of an archive to elevate an underrepresented community cannot be overstated. Since the early 1990s, Recovering the US Hispanic Literary Heritage Program ("Recovery") under Arte Público Press at the University of Houston has focused on collecting and making accessible the written legacy of Hispanic and Latino peoples from colonial times to the late 20th century. In 2017, this effort to expand the historical record of the US took new form with the establishment of the US Latino Digital Humanities Center (USLDH), the first of its kind in the country.

In Part I of this episode recorded in Fall 2023, Dr. Gabriela Baeza Ventura (Deputy Director for Arte Público; "Recovery" Director; USLDH Co-Director; Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies), Dr. Carolina Villarroel ("Recovery" Brown Foundation Director of Research and Co-Director of USLDH), and Dr. Lorena Gauthereau ("Recovery" Digital Programs Manager) discuss the deep community connections and trust fostered by their approach to the digital archive. Their insistence on sharing authority and inquiry with the people donating material breaks down academic barriers, while the respect they give to each item digitized - including adding bilingual metadata - increases accessibility and representation.

In Part II of this episode recorded in Fall 2024, we get to hear about the efficacy of this practice through the experience of three student interns (Monica Jiminez, Natalia Siboldi, and Yadira Hermosillo), who helped process one family’s archive - the Morales Funeral collection. An introduction to their work is provided by Mikaela Selley, CPH alum and "Recovery" Program Manager.

For more on the amazing work of "Recovery" and USLDH, check out the embedded links above.

See also the written publications of these scholars, including:
Baeza Ventura, Gabriela, María Eugenia Cotera, Linda García Merchant, Lorena Gauthereau, and Carolina Villarroel. "A U.S. Latinx Digital Humanities Manifesto" in Debates in the Digital Humanities 2023. Edited by Matthew K. Gold and Lauren F. Klein, 2023.

Baeza Ventura, Gabriela, Nicolás Kanellos and Carolina Villarroel. “Twenty-Five Years of Recovering Our Written Legacy” in Writing/Righting History: Twenty-Five Years of Recovering the US Hispanic Literary Heritage. Edited by Antonia Castañeda and Clara Lomas. Houston, Arte Público Press, 2020, 5-18.

Transition music: "Por Medio De La Lectura" by Los Amparito. CC BY-NC-SA 2.5 MX.

The Center for Public History at the University of Houston. https://uh.edu/class/cph

A historian and two engineers walk into a conference….

Rather than the start to a joke, this is a core component of the project, "Algorithms and Power Systems Architecture: Using Historical Analysis to Envision a Sustainable Future.” Led by Dr. Julie Cohn, a research historian (Center for Public History, University of Houston), and two electrical engineers, Dr. Daniel Molzahn (Assistant Professor in the School of Electorical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Tech) and Dr. Sairaj Dhople (Oscar A. Schott Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Minnesota), this interdisciplinary team is united by a shared vision that building the power grid of the future depends on a thorough understanding of the past and the people and ideas behind the technology. In their conversation recorded in January 2024, Drs. Cohn, Molzahn, and Dhople discuss one portion of the project: collecting oral histories from academic and industry leaders in electrical and power systems engineering. From the inclusiveness of their methodology to the enthusiastic response of the engineering community, it is evident how productive these kinds of partnerships between the humanities and STEM can be.

Check out the project: https://sites.google.com/view/power-systems-history/home

Learn more about the project leads:
Dr. Julie Cohn - The Grid: Biography of an American Technology (MIT Press, 2017)
Dr. Daniel Molzahn - https://molzahn.github.io 
Dr. Sairaj Dhople - https://cse.umn.edu/ece/sairaj-dhople  

The Center for Public History at the University of Houston. https://uh.edu/class/cph

Latino cARTographies is an interactive digital archive and exhibition reimagining Houston through an inclusive vision of Latino art, artists, and community. This project was developed out of the University of Houston’s Center for Mexican American and Latino/a Studies (CMALS) as the brain child of Dr. Pamela Anne Quiroz (Distinguished Professor of Sociology, University of Houston). After hosting the 2019 Latino Art Now! - a national visual arts conference - Quiroz joined with Juana Guzman (former vice president of the National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago) to preserve this experience, art, and culture for a wide public audience. Using TouchCity™ technology developed by Gibson International, Quiroz, Guzman, and a research team of faculty and students gathered hundreds of hours of data and 2,000 images related to 250 Latino artists, 80 landmarks, 17 arts organizations, and other important sites within Houston’s Latino communities. As mobile digital boards, public audiences can now experience Latino cARTographies throughout the city of Houston, at Bush Intercontinental and Hobby Airports, The Heritage Society, Multicultural Education and Counseling through the Arts (MECA), the Mexican Consulate, and Art Museum, TX. 

In Spring 2023, the team took the digital board to a new level with an immersive, cinematic event. A selection of artists and organizations were integrated with music and animations and then projected on walls 20-feet tall for a 270-degree wraparound experience. A few days later, Quiroz and Guzman sat down to talk with Dr. Debbie Harwell in the CMALS office, reflecting on the three-year project, audience reception, and plans for the future.

To learn more about Latino cARTographies, see their official page through the Center for Mexican American and Latino/a Studies: https://www.uh.edu/class/cmals/latino-cartographies/index

On the TouchCity™ platform, see Gibson International's webpage: https://www.gibsoninternational.design/portfolio/latino-cartographies/

The Center for Public History at the University of Houston. https://uh.edu/class/cph

In an increasingly digitized world, public historians have new opportunities to reach wider audiences than ever before. However, translating our work online for and with public audiences requires more than simply uploading essays and images. 

 In this conversation among the directors of SYRIOS (recorded Fall 2023), we learn how a digital exhibit devoted to ancient coins from Syria experiments with new technologies and techniques from data science and digital media. Specifically, SYRIOS draws upon user experience (UX) research to enlist public audiences in the full process of creating an online exhibit. Drs. Kristina Neumann (Associate Professor of History), Peggy Lindner (Assistant Professor of Information and Logistics Technology), and Liz Rodwell (Assistant Professor of Digital Media) discuss how the success of a digital project hinges upon UX, from imagining users through personas, enlisting testers for new concepts, and intentionally making space for even the most surprising feedback from public audiences of all ages.

Check out the prototype digital exhibit for SYRIOS: https://syrios.uh.edu/

The Center for Public History at the University of Houston. https://uh.edu/class/cph

Over the course of the 20th century, Houston evolved into a global city as immigrants from across the world came to call the city home. In this special supplement, undergraduate students from the University of Houston explore Houston’s undertold immigrant stories. Together, they reveal a range of experiences that uncover often overlooked textures of the city.  

In this episode, students recount the lives of Jewish-Latin Americans who settled in 1960s and 1970s Houston. These immigrants belong to two ethnic groups, and while building a life in their new homes, they created a new community of their own. 

How did a meeting between the dictator Fidel Castro and a Houston congressman, Mickey Leland, help a young, Jewish prisoner in a labor camp become a successful doctor in Miami? Listen now for the story of Salomon Imiak.  

This episode was written and recorded by Devin Herrera, Nicole Hopkins, Christian Dodd, and Charis Wu as part of HIST 3317: Making of Ethnic America (Spring 2023).

The oral history with Salomon Imiak was recorded by Dr. Mark Goldberg (Associate Professor of History, University of Houston).

Music courtesy of:
freesound.org
por el camino by Connie Mendez. Attribution NonCommercial 4.0. 

https://freemusicarchive.org/home
The Devil's Dance by Cuban Cowboys. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0.
Come Again by Holizna. CC0 1.0.
le manège pour les Antilles by Jean Toba. CC BY-SA 4.0.
Funk and Flash by Blue Dot Sessions. CC BY-NC 4.0.
Sadness by Gurdonark. CC BY 3.0.
Thoughts by Gurdonark. CC BY-SA 4.0.
Stereo Funk by M33 Project. CC BY-NC 4.0. 

The Center for Public History at the University of Houston. https://uh.edu/class/cph

Over the course of the 20th century, Houston evolved into a global city as immigrants from across the world came to call the city home. In this special supplement, undergraduate students from the University of Houston explore Houston’s undertold immigrant stories. Together, they reveal a range of experiences that uncover often overlooked textures of the city.  

In this episode, students recount the lives of Jewish-Latin Americans who settled in 1960s and 1970s Houston. These immigrants belong to two ethnic groups, and while building a life in their new homes, they created a new community of their own. Listen now for the story of Sara Esquenazi, a Cuban immigrant to Houston. 

This episode was written and recorded by Chloe Levy, Jenna Goodrich, Jesus Tobar, and Preston Parkhurst as part of HIST 3317: Making of Ethnic America (Spring 2023).

The oral history with Sara Esquenazi was recorded by Dr. Mark Goldberg (Associate Professor of History, University of Houston). 

Music courtesy of: 

https://freepd.com/

https://freemusicarchive.org/home

“Sunset Soul” by Ketsa. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 Deed.

“Cuban Heat” by John Bartmann. CC0 1.0 Deed. 

“La vieja” by Las Sirenas del Son. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Deed.

“Vida” by Lido Pimienta. CC BY-NC 2.0 CL Deed. 

“Nyghtlon. Classical Guitar Solo” by M33 Project. CC BY-NC 4.0 Deed. 

“Vino Tinto” by Serge Quadrado. CC BY-NC 4.0 Deed. 

“Worth Fighting For” by Independent Music Licensing Collective. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 Deed. 

The Center for Public History at the University of Houston. https://uh.edu/class/cph

Over the course of the 20th century, Houston evolved into a global city as immigrants from across the world came to call the city home. In this special supplement, undergraduate students from the University of Houston explore Houston’s undertold immigrant stories. Together, they reveal a range of experiences that uncover often overlooked textures of the city.  

In this episode, students recount the lives of Jewish-Latin Americans who settled in 1960s and 1970s Houston. These immigrants belong to two ethnic groups, and while building a life in their new homes, they created a new community of their own. Listen now for the story of Enrique Kuperman, a Chilean immigrant who founded Hebraica Houston to serve the Latino-American Jewish community within the city. 

This episode was written and recorded by Sophia Le, Alena Aguilar, and Luis Zuluaga as part of HIST 3317: Making of Ethnic America (Spring 2023).

The oral history with Enrique Kuperman was recorded by Dr. Mark Goldberg (Associate Professor of History, University of Houston). 

Music courtesy of: 

https://freepd.com/
https://freemusicarchive.org/home

“Dancing in the Fields” by One Man Book. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED

“El Elyon” by Psalters. Public Domain. 

“The Father, The Son, and the Harold Rubin” by Ehran Elisha, Harold Rubin and Him Elisha. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 DEED

“Zemer Atik” by The Rosen Sisters. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED

The Center for Public History at the University of Houston. https://uh.edu/class/cph

In Spring 2022, Dr. Mark Goldberg (Associate Professor of History, University of Houston) decided to try something new with his undergraduate history course. As a way of enriching his students’ engagement with Jewish Latinx culture, Goldberg partnered with Holocaust Museum Houston to guide his class through the recording and archiving of six interviews with members of this community. A year later on November 28, 2023, Goldberg sat down with one of his undergrads, Miranda Ruzinsky, to reflect on the intellectual and personal impact of their participation in the Sephardic Latinx Oral History Project. Their conversation demonstrates how revelatory an experience practicing public history can be for undergraduates - from learning how to actively listen when conducting an oral history to being part of building an archive of a hidden community to collectively presenting these living stories to a public audience.

To access the Sephardic Latinx Oral History Project: https://hmh.org/education/sephardic-latinx-oral-history-project/

To read more about student engagement in this project: https://www.uh.edu/provost/university/qep/sephardic-latinx-oral-history-project/

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/education/article/UH-students-worked-in-revolutionary-project-17131856.php

The Center for Public History at the University of Houston. https://uh.edu/class/cph

In the practice of public history, how the wider community receives a project is just as important as the intentions behind its creation. As work done for and with public audiences, the exhibits, media, and spaces we cultivate form a dialogue where agency is shared, emotions are welcome, and diverse experiences are honored. As Dr. Stephen Vider comments in Season 2, “I think that we place so much emphasis on the intellectual value of our research, but I think many people engage with history in a much more bodily and affective way - in an emotional way - and I like how public history draws that out.”

In that spirit, join Aracely Lara, a first generation Mexican-American graduate student in public history, as she processes the “100 Years of Stories: Documenting a Century at the University of Houston” exhibit at the M.D. Anderson Library. Learn how she finds radical hope in the perseverance of alumnae before her like Yolanda Black Navarro, Maria Jimenez, and Graciela Saenz. 

This episode was researched, recorded, and produced by Aracely Lara for the Center of Public History at the University of Houston. 

To learn more: 

• Gomez, Denise. “Yolanda Black Navarro: East End Reina.” Houston History 15.2 (April 2018): 8-12. 
• Gomez, Denise. “A Life of Activism: Maria Jimenez.” Houston History 12.3 (July 2015): 14-18.
• Gomez, Stephanie. “Gracie Saenz’s Life of Public Service.” Houston History 15.2 (April 2018): 13-17. 
• "Latina Leaders. 100 Years of Houston: 1997-2007." Houston Public Media.  

Oral Histories from the UH Libraries Special Collections:

• Jimenez, Maria. Feb. 25, 2012. 
• Navarro Black, Yolanda. March 28, 2006. 

Saenz, Graciela Guzman; Grevious, Danielle & Bobadilla, Eladio. Oral History Interview with Graciela Guzman Saenz, July 8, 2016, video, July 8, 2016; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth984718/m1/: accessed Dec. 26, 2023), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting TCU Mary Couts Burnett Library.

Music via the Free Music Archive:

• Gregor Quendel – “Debussy – Clair de Lune – L 75.mp3” - CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 
• Monplaisir – “Red Hair, Blue Sky” and "Hélice" – Public Domain
• Patrick Davies – “Piano Medley For Those in Various Places.mp3” – Public Domain
• HoliznaCC0 – “Poor, But Happy” – Public Domain

The Center for Public History at the University of Houston. https://uh.edu/class/cph

In 2027, the University of Houston in Texas will celebrate its centennial anniversary. In honor of that upcoming milestone, the Center for Public History (CPH) partnered with UH Libraries and Houston Public Media to collect, share, and preserve stories related to the university’s legacy across one hundred years. On November 30th, 2023, the three project leaders – Dr. Debbie Harwell (Instructional Assistant Professor of History and Editor of Houston History magazine), Mary Manning (University Archivist in Special Collections, M.D. Anderson Library), and Fujio Watanabe (Manager of Media Production, Houston Public Media) – came together to discuss the collaborative process of training students how to transform archival material and oral histories into magazine articles, television and radio spots, pop-up displays, and ultimately, a public exhibit, "100 Years of Stories: Documenting a Century at the University of Houston." This kind of public history work requires deep research, advanced planning, and flexibility, but the outcome is indispensable in helping a wider community understand the importance and influence of a local institution and its dynamic people.

To learn more about the "100 Years of Stories" project: https://uh.edu/class/ctr-public-history/projects/100-years-of-stories/100-years-home.php

On Houston Public Media's "100 Years of Houston, 1927-2027": https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/100-years-of-houston/

On Houston History magazine: https://houstonhistorymagazine.org/  

To support the Center for Public History: https://uh.edu/class/cph 

The Center for Public History at the University of Houston. https://uh.edu/class/cph

In 1977, over 100 people with disabilities and their allies occupied a federal building in San Francisco for almost a month. Part of the national 504 Sit-In, this remarkable protest sought to finally sign into law Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (1973), which would make it illegal for any federally funded facilities or programs to discriminate against individuals based on their disability. Not only was the protest successful, it paved the way for the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990.  

In this final episode of Season Two (recorded on July 19, 2022), Dr. Wes Jackson speaks with Dr. Cathy Kudlick (Professor of History and Director Emeritus of the Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability, San Francisco State University) and Fran Osborne (Freelance Designer/Museum Consultant and Lecturer in Museum Studies, San Francisco State University) on their public exhibit about the 504 Sit-in. First launched in 2015, “Patient No More: People with Disabilities Securing Civil Rights” not only captures this pivotal historical moment but exemplifies innovative public history practice by making accessibility and community involvement integral to its design. 

Check out the amazing virtual exhibit for “Patient No More”: https://longmoreinstitute.sfsu.edu/patient-no-more.

Learn more about the Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability: https://longmoreinstitute.sfsu.edu/. 

Explore the Global Museum at San Francisco State University: https://museum.sfsu.edu/global-museum.

For more on Dr. Kudlick: https://longmoreinstitute.sfsu.edu/catherine-j-kudlick.

For more on Prof. Osborne: https://art.sfsu.edu/fran-osborne.

The Center for Public History at the University of Houston. https://uh.edu/class/cph

What do millennia-old plagues have to do with the current COVID-19 pandemic? In this episode (recorded on May 11, 2022), Dr. Kristina Neumann sits down with Drs. Merle Eisenberg (Assistant Professor of History, Oklahoma State University) and Lee Mordechai (Senior Lecturer, Hebrew University of Jerusalem), late antique & medieval historians and hosts of the podcast Infectious Historians. Now with over 100 episodes, this dynamic series engages past disease outbreaks and contemporary questions through a series of interviews with historians, scientists, and public policy experts. Drs. Eisenberg and Mordechai dissect their process and vision for the podcast, specifically how it serves as an interdisciplinary seminar and living archive for academic and public audiences alike. They discuss the bad historical comparisons for modern disease that often spread throughout our culture and the social responsibility of historians to correct these narratives. Most importantly, they emphasize the use of history to remind everyone that human beings matter in a pandemic.

Listen to Infectious Historians: https://infectioushistorians.com/.

Learn more about Dr. Mordechai: https://huji.academia.edu/LeeMordechai.

Learn more about Dr. Eisenberg: https://cas.okstate.edu/department_of_history/faculty_bios/eisenberg.html. 

The Center for Public History at the University of Houston. https://uh.edu/class/cph

According to Dr. Stephen Vider (Assistant Professor of History at Cornell University), capturing feeling is just as important to public history as transmitting knowledge. Whether collecting an oral history or cultivating a museum exhibit, Dr. Vider emphasizes the ethical responsibility to honor people’s bodily and emotional responses to history. As he tells UH History graduate Timothy Vale (PhD, 2022) in their conversation recorded on May 6, 2022, valuing the full human experience has played a key role in shaping each of his projects. This includes the 2017 exhibition, AIDS at Home: Art and Everyday Activism, at the Museum of the City of New York, which explored how artists and activists have mobilized domestic space during the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Now, as the director of Cornell’s Public History Initiative, Dr. Vider teaches students that doing historical research with the public is more than an intellectual exercise, but a high stakes and even personal endeavor that elicits emotion and contributes to the contemporary world.

Learn more about Dr. Vider: https://history.cornell.edu/stephen-vider

Check out the Public History Initiative at Cornell University: https://phi.history.cornell.edu/ 

The Center for Public History at the University of Houston. https://uh.edu/class/cph

If a medical institution’s mission is to make cancer a relic of the past, the archivist’s role is to collect, preserve, and make that history available. So says Javier Garza, Senior Library Analyst and Archivist at the MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Historical Resources Center in Houston, TX. In his interview with graduate student Allison Anderson – recorded on November 19th, 2021 – Garza describes how he got involved in the dynamic and communal effort to document and digitally disseminate the development of the nation’s leading cancer center. Garza discusses the unique challenges of bringing medical archives and a robust oral history collection to the general public while balancing patient privacy and institutional transparency.

For more on MD Anderson's Historical Resources Center, go to: https://www3.mdanderson.org/library/hrc/index.html

To access “The Making Cancer History® Voices Oral History Project”: https://www3.mdanderson.org/library/hrc/interviews.html

Editing assistance of this episode provided by Dylan Allen. 

The Center for Public History at the University of Houston. https://uh.edu/class/cph

There are many ways to produce public history, but one of the most unique publications comes from the University of Houston. Houston History magazine is a student-written and edited publication dedicated to the under-told stories of one of the largest and most diverse metropolitan regions of the United States. Join Dr. Debbie Z. Harwell (Instructional Assistant Professor of US History, University of Houston) and PhD candidate Caitlyn Jones for their November 8, 2021, conversation about a recent issue focused on Houston’s San Jose Clinic. For one hundred years, this clinic has provided medical, dental, pharmacy, and specialty services to low-income and uninsured individuals. Dr. Harwell and Jones discuss how the magazine has captured San Jose’s legacy and then expand their conversation to the process, challenges, and joys of working with undergraduates through this public-engaged medium.

To learn more about Houston History magazine: https://uh.edu/class/ctr-public-history/projects/projects/index2.php

Read Houston History magazine online: https://houstonhistorymagazine.org/

Find out more about 100 Years of Houston: https://uh.edu/class/ctr-public-history/news/hpm-shuart-100-years.php

Support the work of Houston History: https://giving.uh.edu/publichistory/

Editing assistance of this episode provided by Dylan Allen. 

The Center for Public History at the University of Houston. https://uh.edu/class/cph

With debates about healthcare dominating the news, the past resonates all the more. American historian Dr. Ronit Stahl (Associate Professor of History, University of California: Berkeley) clearly illustrates this principle in her conversation with Dr. Mark Goldberg on February 11, 2022. Whether understanding the 2014 Hobby Lobby ruling about the birth control insurance mandate, the claim of religious hospitals to conscience rights and public funds, or the Trump administration’s ban on transgender troops, Dr. Stahl reveals how history can help us ask better questions about the present. This is no mere academic exercise but one of service to the wider public, as Dr. Stahl demonstrates through her many meetings with community groups and military organizations, numerous op-eds, and even a 2018 amicus brief before the United States Court of Appeals.

For more on Dr. Stahl’s work, see https://ronitstahl.com/.  

Historians’ Amicus Brief, written with Jennifer Mittelstadt, for Plaintiffs in Jane Doe 2 v. Donald J. Trump, December 10, 2018.

 Editing assistance of this episode provided by Dylan Allen.  

The Center for Public History at the University of Houston. https://uh.edu/class/cph

Digital and Analog. Big data and Qualitative Research. Humanities and STEM. Activism and Academia. For some, these concepts may seem like polar opposites, but each is integral to the work of Dr. Merlin Chowkwanyun, a historian at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. In his conversation with Dr. Josiah Rector on Dec. 7th, 2021, Dr. Chowkwanyun details his varied career on the intersection of history, data, and health advocacy. From publishing online once secret documents from toxic chemical companies to contextualizing racial health disparities within the ongoing COVID crisis, Dr. Chowkwanyun lives out the values of public history and encourages other historians to enter the crucial policy debates of our time.   

Visit Dr. Chowkwanyun online at http://www.merlinc16.com/. 

Explore the millions of pages of previously classified documents on industrial poisons through Project Toxicdocs at https://www.toxicdocs.org/.

Read Dr. Chowkwanyun's latest book, All Health Politics is Local:  Community Battles for Medical Care and Environmental Health (The University of North Carolina Press, 2022).

Editing assistance of this episode provided by Dylan Allen.  

The Center for Public History at the University of Houston. https://uh.edu/class/cph

You might not think of a night in jail as a “nice time,” but for public anthropologist, Dr. Alexandra Arkhipova (Wilson Center, DC), her arrest in Russia in 2017 was both an opportunity for research and part of a long-standing tradition for public scholars within her country. In her interview with Dr. Alexey Golubev - recorded on March 23rd, 2022, - Dr. Arkhipova discusses the difficult work of collecting and preserving information under the oppressive regimes of the Soviet Union and Putin’s modern-day Russia. A self-described “anthropologist of crisis,” Dr. Arkhipova uses social media to crowdsource for people’s memories and eyewitness accounts of protest against the authoritarian government and the current war in Ukraine. She talks about how this work of gathering and archiving people’s diverse experiences becomes its own form of protest against governmental censorship and attempted control of the historical record.

For more on Dr. Arkhipova's work, see https://www.wilsoncenter.org/person/alexandra-arkhipova.

The Center for Public History at the University of Houston. https://uh.edu/class/cph

In order to define, assess, and theorize what we do as public historians, we first need to know our own past as a field. So says Denise Meringolo, a distinguished professor of History at the University of Maryland: Baltimore County. In this final episode of Season 1, recorded on November 5th on 2021, Dr. Meringolo talks with Dr. Leandra Zarnow about her personal journey as an accidental historian and how this led to a discovery of the deep, radical roots of public history. Through their conversation, Dr. Meringolo highlights the unique challenges faced by practitioners engaging in social justice activism - from the temporariness of their projects to the emotive aspect of documenting community stories to their role in not only preserving but protecting the people they serve. This field is nevertheless grounded in what Dr. Meringolo deems a “crazy optimism” that public historians can truly promote change for a better future. 

For more on Dr. Meringolo’s work, see http://denisemeringolo.org/. 

Check out Preserve the Baltimore Uprising Archive Project at http://www.baltimoreuprising2015.org/. 

The Center for Public History at the University of Houston. https://uh.edu/class/cph

***WINNER OF THE 2022 UH MEDIA AND MOVING IMAGE STUDENT PRIZE COMPETITION, CRITICAL CATEGORY***

In this special episode, Jovan Slaughter - a UH graduate student in Public History - tells the story of Cream Burger, a family-owned burger joint on the edge of the UH campus. Opened in the early 1960s by her parents, Beverly Greenwood talks about her family’s 60-year mission to feed their community throughout the many changes of Third Ward. 

This episode was researched and recorded by Jovan Slaughter for the Center for Public History at the University of Houston.

To learn more: 

Correa, Melissa. 2021. “Cream Burger in Houston’s Third Ward celebrates 60 years in business.” KHOU 11. 

If you are in Houston, stop by Cream Burger at 3481 Elgin Street and talk to Ms. Greenwood yourself! 

Interview with Ms. Greenwood recorded by Jovan Slaughter on April 8, 2021. 

Music provided by:

FreePD

Free Music Archive:

CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

“Smooth Day” by Ketsa
“This Way for Joyous Street” by Ketsa
“Funky Garden” by Ketsa
“Blue Ones” by Ketsa 

The Center for Public History at the University of Houston. https://uh.edu/class/cph

A history of sports can be a history of the United States. So says Dr. Frank Guridy, an American historian at Columbia University and author of the book, The Sports Revolution: How Texas Changed the Culture of American Athletics (University of Texas Press, 2021). In his conversation with Dr. Mark Goldberg on April 13, 2021, Dr. Guridy explains how issues of race, labor, gender, and politics materialize in the stadium, whether it is segregated teams under Jim Crow or singing the national anthem before a game starts. As such, historians can use popular sports to enter the public arena, telling untold and silenced stories of marginalized communities to wide audiences outside the university.

For more on Dr. Guridy's work, see https://history.columbia.edu/person/guridy-frank/ and Twitter @fguridy.

The Center for Public History at the University of Houston. https://uh.edu/class/cph

For journalist and oral historian Dr. Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, her mission is clear: to record the experiences and contributions of Latinas and Latinos within the United States. As she explains to Dr. Josiah Rector during their conversation on March 2nd, 2021, for too long have her people been underrepresented within primary sources and scholarship. After noticing this lacuna in histories about WWII especially, Dr. Rivas-Rodriguez set out to establish the Voces Oral History Center at UT Austin in 1999.    

Since then, this project has captured 1,250+ oral histories on themes like political and civic engagement, Vietnam, and now, the COVID-19 pandemic. Along the way, Dr. Rivas-Rodriguez has learned valuable lessons about the process and technology for recording histories as well as how to best involve the public in this work.

Check out the Voces Oral History Center: https://voces.lib.utexas.edu/

See also the Voces YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSJD8CV0-mI

The Center for Public History at the University of Houston. https://uh.edu/class/cph

In this special episode, Rebecca Archer - a UH graduate student in Art History - tells the story of the Eldorado Ballroom, Houston’s “Home of Happy Feet.” Established in 1939 by Anna Dupree, this historic, black-owned music venue in the Third Ward launched the careers of many entertainers and featured some of the greatest acts of the 20th century. 

This episode was researched, recorded, and produced by Rebecca Archer for the Center for Public History at the University of Houston.

To learn more: 

Cutler, Leigh. 2006. “Eldorado Ballroom.” Houston History Magazine 4.1. https://houstonhistorymagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/eldorado-ballroom.pdf

"Eldorado Ballroom." Texas State Historical Association Handbook of Texas. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/eldorado-ballroom

"The Historic Eldorado Ballroom." Project Row Houses. https://projectrowhouses.org/space-rental

Govenar, A.B. 1990. The Early Years of Rhythm and Blues: Focus on Houston. Rice University Press.

Wood, R. and Fraher, J. 2003. Down in Houston: Bayou City Blues. University of Texas Press.

Oral Histories from the Houston History Project (Special Collections, UH Libraries):

Attwell, Ernie. Nov. 12, 2004. https://digital.lib.uh.edu/collection/houhistory/item/570/show/569

Brown, Hazel Jewel. Feb. 22, 2013. https://digital.lib.uh.edu/collection/houhistory/item/1623/show/1622. 

Burney, Zinetta. July 14, 2006. https://digital.lib.uh.edu/collection/houhistory/item/173/show/172. 

Music provided by:

Digital History:
“That Thing Called Love” Performed by Mamie Smith
“You Can’t Do What My Last Man Did” performed by Ethel Waters
Public Domain

Free Music Archive:
“Wooden Championships” and “Old River Boat” by Lobo Loco
CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

“Snake Rag” performed by King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band 
“Memphis Tennessee” performed by The Gulf Coast Seven 
“Strut Miss Lizzie” performed by Mary Stafford and her Jazz Band 
Public Domain

The Center for Public History at the University of Houston. https://uh.edu/class/cph

In this special episode, Sheri Schrader – a UH graduate student in Art History – details the life of Dr. John T. Biggers, a prominent African-American artist centered in the Third Ward. Learn about his career as an influential muralist and educator while serving as the founding chairman of the art department at Texas Southern University. 

This episode was researched and recorded by Sheri Schrader for the Center for Public History at the University of Houston.

To learn more about Dr. Biggers:
Glentzer, M. 2016. “Pioneer John Biggers Nurtured a Generation of Houston Artists.” Houston Chronicle. 

Harwell, D. 2011. “Beauty in the Eye of the Beholder: Third Ward Art Treasure but a Memory.” Houston History.

McNally, O. 1996. “John Biggers' Art Celebrates African Symbolism, Culture." Hartford Courant.

Wardlaw Short, A.J. 1979. "Strength, Tears, and Will: John Biggers' 'Contribution of the Negro Woman to American Life and Education'." Callaloo 5 (Feb.): 135-43. 

Trotty, S. 2009. “On The Table: TSU Murals.” The Faculty Speaks.

Sweeney, J. "Biggers, John Thomas (1924-2001)." Texas State Historical Society: Handbook of Texas.

To learn about the mural at the Blue Triangle Community Center, see http://www.the-bluetriangle.org/history/.

The oral history of  Harvey Johnson is courtesy of the African American Library at the Gregory School. https://digital.houstonlibrary.net/oral-history/harvey-johnson_OHGS0051.php

Music provided through the Free Music Archive:
“Drop” by Ketsa
“Brain” and “Driving to the Delta” by Lobo Loco
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

“Patriotic Songs of America” by New York Military Band and the American Quartet
CC BY-NC 3.0

“Piano Hymn” by Unknown

“Medley” by Various
CC BY-NC-ND 3.0

See also "Patience Party" through https://freepd.com/.

The Center for Public History at the University of Houston. https://uh.edu/class/cph

In this special episode, Ana Girard - a UH graduate student in Art History - relays her interview with Houstonian artist Maya Imani Watson. A prolific artist in multiple mediums, Watson specifically discusses her two mini murals beautifying Third Ward. 

This episode was researched and recorded by Ana Girard for the Center for Public History at the University of Houston. 

For more on Maya Imani Watson, please see her personal website. http://www.mayaimaniwatson.com/

To see her murals and others in the Third Ward, see the official Mini Mural Program. https://minimurals.org/property_category/third-ward/

To listen to the entire interview with Rev. William Lawson, see the Oral Histories from the Houston History Project through UH Libraries. https://digital.lib.uh.edu/collection/houhistory/item/500

To learn more, see Gil, J. 2019. ‘Remnants of History’: Artists Preserve Third Ward’s Culture through ‘Mini Murals’.' Houston Chronicle. 

Music:
FreePD. https://freepd.com/
“Sita’s Song” by Siddharta Corsus. Free Music Archive. CC BY-NC 4.0.   
“Prisoner” by Paty and the Cakes (Ana Girard).
“Useless Dreams” by Ketsa. Free Music Archive. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. 

The Center for Public History at the University of Houston. https://uh.edu/class/cph

In this special episode, Allison Anderson - a UH graduate student in U.S. history - tells the story of five African American female physicians who served the Third Ward community. This episode also provides the history of the Houston Negro Hospital (now Riverside General), which was established on June 19th, 1926, as the first non-profit hospital for black Houstonians.

This episode was researched and recorded by Allison Anderson for the Center for Public History at the University of Houston.

For more on African American Doctors of Houston, please check out the exhibit "To Bear Fruit For Our Race" through the UH Center for Public History.  https://www.uh.edu/class/ctr-public-history/tobearfruit/

To listen to the entire interview with Dr. Edith Irby Jones, see the Oral Histories from the Houston History Project through UH Libraries. https://digital.lib.uh.edu/collection/houhistory/item/670/show/1518

For the history of the Houston Negro Hospital-Riverside General, see the special archival collection through UH Libraries. https://digital.lib.uh.edu/collection/hnh

To Learn More:

Emmett J. 1915. “Efficiency.” In The Red Book of Houston: A Compendium of Social, Professional, Religious, Educational, and industrial Interest of Houston’s Colored Population. Houston, Texas: Sotex Publishers.

"Learn About the History of Third Ward, Houston." Texas Happens.

Zaveri, Mihir and Cindy George. 2018. "Harris County Agrees to Buy Closed Riverside Hospital in Third Ward." Houston Chronicle.

Music:
"Piano" by Jota_a_ene. Free Music Archive. CC BY-NC 3.0.
FreePD.

The Center for Public History at the University of Houston. https://uh.edu/class/cph

In this special episode, Brandy Black - a UH graduate student in anthropology - tells the story of the Texas Southern University women who organized and participated in Houston’s Student Civil Rights Movement. Although many of these women remain unknown, Black highlights three preserved in the archives: Holly Adrienne Hogrobrooks, Deanna Lot Burrell, and Halcyon Sadberry Watkins.

This episode was researched, recorded, and produced by Brandy Black for the Center for Public History at the University of Houston.

Special thanks to Jon Schwartz for use of clips from his film This is Our Home, It is Not for Sale (1987). For the full film, please contact the filmmaker at dashhamm@aol or see the UH Libraries Digital Archives at https://exhibits.lib.uh.edu/s/tioh/page/welcome and https://av.lib.uh.edu/media_objects/j3860694x .

To learn more:
Anderson. Michael. 2017. “Eldreway Stearns and Houston’s Student Rights Movement”. Houston History Magazine. Vol 14.2. 

Behnken, Brian D. 2005. "Count on Me: Reverend M. L. Price of Texas, a Case Study in Civil Rights Leadership”.  Journal of American Ethnic History. Vol. 25.1: 61-84.

Berman, David. 1998. Untold Stories: The Strange Demise of Jim Crow in Houston.

Black History Month: Dr. Halcyon Sadberry Watkins Recalls Houston’s First Sit-in. 20 January 2016. https://fabsculture.com/dr-halcyon-sadberry-watkins-recalls-houstons-first-sit-in/.

Cole, T. R. 1997. No Color Is My Kind: The Life of Eldrewey Stearns and the Integration of Houston. Austin, TX. University of Texas Press.

"Houston Civil Rights Movement Pioneer and TSU Alumna Holly Hogrobrooks Passes." Texas Southern University. News Media.

"Houston Woman Remembers Bloody Sunday." 7 March 2015. KHOU.com.

Mendoza, Moises. 2010. “Houston Honors TSU Pioneers for Sit-in that Made Strides”. Houston Chronicle. Chron.com.

"Struggles and Success: Sections from the Handbook of African American Texans." 2015. Texas State Historical Commission.

Music provided by Freesound.org. 

The Center for Public History at the University of Houston. https://uh.edu/class/cph

When filmmaker Carla Ulrich talks about her work, the word that emerges over and over again is “community.” A director, writer, and producer based out of Fort Smith in the Northwest Territories of Canada, Ulrich has over ten years of experience making independent films which tell indigenous stories. In her conversation with Dr. Kairn Klieman recorded on December 11, 2020, Ulrich explains that filmmaking serves both to protect and promote her community. Documentary and dramatic films authentically preserve tribal life and culture, thus challenging stereotypes too prevalent in movies. For example, her most recent work, Three Feathers (2019), examines the power of restorative justice for three young men, who learn to love the land and each other through the patient teaching of their Elders . Ulrich also talks about how the process of filmmaking creates community, as each member of the team relies on one another in a collaborative experience familiar to many public historians. Finally, Ulrich endeavors to enable the next generation through her YouthRise Project, workshops that teach filmmaking to young people so that they can record their own creative ideas and capture the legacy of their community.

Check out Carla Ulrich's films:
Three Feathers (2018) - https://www.threefeathersthemovie.com/
Hickey Gone Wrong (2015) - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5059704/
Stolen Sisters (2008) - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2956038/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Learn more about Carla Ulrich and her film company, Dayah Films at www.dayahfilms.com.

On the YouthRise Project, see www.youthriseproject.com. 

The Center for Public History at the University of Houston. https://uh.edu/class/cph

***WINNER OF THE JOSEPH A. PRATT HOUSTON HISTORY PRIZE (CENTER FOR PUBLIC HISTORY), 2022***

In this special episode, Caitlyn Jones - a UH graduate student in public history - tells the story of Emancipation Park in Houston's historic Third Ward. Founded in 1872 by formerly enslaved people to host Juneteenth celebrations, the park remains a pillar of the community, a symbol of the long tradition of Black resistance, and a testament to Black life in Houston.

This episode was researched, recorded, and produced by Caitlyn Jones for the Center for Public History at the University of Houston.

To learn more:
Blair, C.D. “De-Ro-Loc: Houston’s Forgotten Festival.” Houston History 16.2 (March 2019): 7-12. 

Blue, C.P. “Emancipation is a Park.” Houston History 9.3 (June 2012): 15-19. 

Gray, L. “Friends of Emancipation Park hope renovation revitalizes neighborhood.” Houston Chronicle, Nov. 1, 2013. 

McCullough, O.Y. “Yates, John Henry [Jack].” Handbook of Texas Online. 

Theis, D. “Behind the New Look of Houston’s Oldest Park, a Complex Racial History.” Texas Observer, June 2017.  

Oral Histories from the Houston History Project (Special Collections, UH Libraries):
Brown, Hazel Jewel. Feb. 22, 2013. https://digital.lib.uh.edu/collection/houhistory/item/1623/show/1622. 

Burney, Zinetta. July 14, 2006. https://digital.lib.uh.edu/collection/houhistory/item/173/show/172. 

King, Ester. Aug. 16, 2010. https://digital.lib.uh.edu/collection/houhistory/item/1415/show/1414. 

Yates Alumni. Oct. 8, 2015.  https://digital.lib.uh.edu/collection/houhistory/item/2491/show/2490. 

This podcast features the original recording "George Floyd" by Sweet Lou.

Music provided through the Free Music Archive:
"Old River Boat" and "Area 42" by Lobo Loco
"Pine Apple Rag" by Scott Joplin 
"Grief", "Delight",  and "The Boss" by Dee Yan-Key
CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

"Wade in the Water" by Dee Yan-Key
"Sunday Picnic" by Lobo Loco
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

"Roll Jordan Roll"  by The Joy Drops
CC BY 4.0

"Afronauts" by Crowander
"Isolation" and "Letter to Summer" by Audiobinger
"Urban Haze" by Scott Holmes Music
CC BY-NC 4.0 

The Center for Public History at the University of Houston. https://uh.edu/class/cph

The past contains stories that are complex and messy, heavy and painful. Nevertheless, it is the obligation of the historian to talk about these crucial topics and make them accessible to people far beyond the university.  

This is the driving mantra of Dr. Richard Mizelle, Associate Professor of History at the University of Houston and scholar of race, medicine, and disasters, both environmental and manmade. During his interview with Dr. Wes Jackson, recorded on December 17, 2020, Dr. Mizelle advocates for getting into good trouble. Whether discussing lead poisoning or diabetes, floods or hurricanes, or even the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Mizelle argues that people - from general audiences to medical professionals - need help in understanding how history informs their lives. He talks about the public erasure of African American stories, memory, and experiences due to systemic racism, but also how this “ignorance-making” can be confronted by embracing “different ways of knowing,” creatively examining music and historical fiction as archival records, and simply engaging in tough conversations about health crises and how biases and barriers can shape the well-being of a person.

For more on Dr. MIzelle:
Website: https://www.richardmizelle.com/

The Center for Public History at the University of Houston. https://uh.edu/class/cph

In this episode of Public Historians at Work, Dr. Monica Perales sits down with Amy C. Evans, a Houston-based artist and oral historian, to talk about her work documenting people’s diverse stories over good food and art. In their conversation recorded on December 4, 2020, Amy describes the organic process through which she came to identify as a public historian, first working as an oral historian with the Southern Foodways Alliance and more recently as an independent documentarian and artist in the city of Houston. 

Through their conversation, we learn how public historians can explore complex and often difficult histories through food and recover lost spaces and stories through a variety of creative media. Finally, Amy explains her most recent project, Houston in 2020, which documents the impact of current political, economic, and cultural factors on five black artists in Houston.

For more on Amy C. Evans, see:

"Art and Pie" - https://www.amycevans.com/

"Houston in 2020: Self-Employed Black Artists" - https://www.houstonin2020.com/

Twitter @artandpie

The Center for Public History at the University of Houston. https://uh.edu/class/cph

Historians “are an essential core, an essential thread of the world of ideas, of meaning, of insight and more. The question is how to make that manifest.”  

So says Dr. Martha Jones, Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor and Professor of History at Johns Hopkins University. In her conversation with Dr. Leandra Zarnow recorded on October 16, 2020, Dr. Jones discusses the obligation she feels to step into the public square, whether it is elevating the deep contribution of African American women to our democracy, challenging the whitewashing of a suffragist monument in Central park, or providing help to those in the throes of the birthright citizenship debate. Driven by an impatience and eagerness to make history accessible, Dr. Jones advocates for the opportunity and obligation of academics to broaden their audience through collaboration, working local, and taking the initiative through old and new media alike.       

To learn more:
https://marthasjones.com/
Twitter @marthasjones_

The Center for Public History at the University of Houston. https://uh.edu/class/cph

Whether asked in class or on Twitter, public historian Dr. Brian Behnken has gotten used to hearing one question, “Why didn’t I know this before?” 

In this episode, Dr. Behnken, Associate Professor of African American and Mexican-American civil rights activism at Iowa State University, talks with Dr. Monica Perales about the hunger of public audiences for more contextualization of contemporary issues. Through their conversation recorded on October 1, 2020, we learn about the challenges and opportunities for historians when they engage in public-facing scholarship – whether correcting problematic narratives about Aunt Jemima or exploring the long legacy of communities of color creatively organizing against police injustice. Dr. Behnken explains how this kind of work renewed his own research, in particular how the past can be mined for a century of community mobilization, concrete solutions, and coalition building in order to achieve real reform in the present.

Learn more:
https://history.iastate.edu/directory/brian-d-behnken/
Twitter @HistoryBrian

The Center for Public History at the University of Houston. https://uh.edu/class/cph