On Friday, March 23, 2018, 10am-12pm at Newport’s Colony House, Washington Square, Newport, RI, History Space, a joint program of the Newport and Rhode Island Historical Societies presents “Myth, Memory, History and Heritage,” a panel of public historians.
The panel will be moderated by Ruth Taylor, Executive Director of the Newport Historical Society, and will include: Jason Steinhauer, Director of the Lepage Center for History in the Public Interest at Villanova University, James Ludes, Vice President for Public Research & Executive Director, Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy, Akeia Bernard, Curator of Social History, New Bedford Whaling Museum, and Morgan Grefe, Executive Director of the Rhode Island Historical Society.
“Basically all democratic theory is built around the idea people have a roughly accurate and shared view of what’s going on. What if they don’t?” – Ezra Klein (2017)
The panel will discuss, for an audience of practitioners and the public, questions about how members of a large and diverse “we” perceive the past, and how differences in perspective can have consequences when we try to wrestle with current issues together. How can historic site managers and other public historians approach the myths that families and populations have repeated for generations when scholarship reveals something different? How should we approach cultural differences in how we think about the past? What roles can historical societies play in improving the level of historical literacy in our audiences (and why do we care)?
Reservations are required. Please RSVP to hrockwood@newporthistorical.org. Donations are welcome.