Thanks to all those who attended and supported History Lab North East’s ‘History outside the Academy’ workshop. The day was built around a widely acknowledged problem facing researchers. On the one hand historians (and academics more broadly) are increasingly required and expected to disseminate their research to a non-academic audience. However, they also face a range of challenges, problems and pitfalls in doing this. Academics are expected to meet a wide range of criteria within academia – centred around results driven research outputs as well as teaching responsibilities – leaving little time for additional non-academic work. If time can be found, it is unclear how to balance the types of broad narratives that are so often a part of public history with the intellectual rigour and analysis expected in academic research. There are also questions about how academic research can actually be disseminated to a non-specialist audience? Without clear methods or directives in place even if researchers have the time and desire to reach new audiences, doing so is often dependent on their own initiatives. The workshop contended with these issues in a variety of ways.
The first paper of the day was given by Ellen Crabtree who gave an enlightening account of Madeleine Rebérioux’s activities during the Vietnam War. In particular, Ellen focused on the challenges that Rebérioux faced as an academic when she stepped into an especially visceral contemporary political debate and attempted to take action within that context. A notable member of the Communist Party, Rebérioux formed a key part of a transnational network that included American academics such as Noam Chomsky and which aimed to supply books to Hanoi University. Such a scheme was plagued by both practical issues and ideological fissures about the literature that should be provided. Despite its problems, ultimately the scheme represented a new form of academic militancy through which those in ‘Western’ institutions demonstrated solidarity with their peers in Vietnam.
The second paper of the day, presented by David Hope, gave an account of his own work and experience of stepping outside of the academy. David highlighted how Adam Smith’s seminal eighteenth century work The Wealth of Nations has been claimed by contemporary free-market advocates and right-wing thinkers in a way that minimises the text’s historical context. As a historian David seeks to critique this analysis of Smith but runs the risk of becoming a political agent himself. How to place contemporary politics in a proper historical context whilst avoiding becoming embroiled in partisan political debate is a difficult question and one with which Rebérioux must have also contended.
In the third paper of the session, David Thom brought out many of the broad themes of the day. An interesting comparison was drawn between history and poetry, and specifically the comments of Jeremy Paxman about the necessity for poets to connect with the public and not operate in closed artistic circles. As David is himself embarking on a new research project that looks at military service tribunals during the First World War, the centenary commemorations present opportunities for public engagement activities. However, as a PhD student with an expectation of rapid academic development in a strict three year timescale there appears to be an inherent tension between public engagement and academic research. With these seemingly conflicting expectations and the limited time available to meet them David runs the risk of creating two entirely different research projects – one ‘academic’ one ‘public’.
Following these papers the group was joined by John Wynne-Griffiths and Jo Moody from the National Trust who spoke about how the National Trust as an organisation engages with the public. From this discussion two main themes emerged. First, the techniques used by the Trust to ‘reach’ the public highlights just how much work needs to be undertaken to effectively engage with a broad audience. The Trust has to balance its own responsibilities as regards conservation with the provision of a visitor-centred experience that attracts high visitor numbers and ensures an enjoyable experience for people of all ages and backgrounds. Second, the opportunity for postgraduate researchers to work with and for organisations like the National Trust was explored, especially how postgraduates’ specialist knowledge and abilities were valued by the organisation. Postgraduate students were offered advice on how to approach charitable organisations like the National Trust and broader issues surrounding postgraduate employability were also discussed.
|History Lab North East 2014 – Postgraduate researchers learn about the inner workings of the National Trust.|
The day concluded with the History Lab North East AGM. The following topics were discussed and will be addressed by the committee before the next event: 1) new representatives need to be chosen by the different member institutions to replace outgoing members; 2) a host institution and workshop theme need to be decided for the next event (a take on ‘publishing’ was raised as a possible theme); and 3) different ways to fund and raise the profile of future events were discussed.