The Future of Knowledge Mobilization and Public History Online: Supplementary Reading

Sara Wilmshurst

In August 2024 representatives from multiple online history projects, universities, and public history institutions met in London to discuss key topics in online knowledge mobilization. Over the next several months attendees will publish essays reflecting on the topics we discussed. One, from Mack Penner, is already live. In the meantime, here are some open-access resources that intersect with workshop content.

Canadian History Blogging: Reflections at the Intersection of Digital Storytelling, Academic Research, and Public Outreach by Tina Adcock, Keith Grant, Stacy Nation-Knapper, Beth Robertson and Corey Slumkoski (2016)

Our workshop included discussions on the state of Canadian history blogging and its relationship with the academy. This paper reminds us of the origins and intentions behind some long-standing Canadian online history projects, and they ways they have changed the historian’s craft.

There Is No Solidarity In A Meritocracy: Precarity in the History Profession in Canada by Steven High (1 May 2021)

Much of our discussion at the workshop revolved around the economics of historical scholarship: funding online projects, compensation for (and inability to compensate) contributors, the labour students and precariously employed colleagues do to keep these projects going, and what it looks like to be a professional historian outside the academy. This document, the Canadian Historical Association’s response to the Precarious Historical Instructors’ Manifesto, digs into the “fundamentally unfair and exploitative” structures that underpin the Canadian historical profession.

Appropriation vs. Incorporation: Indigenous Content in the Canadian History Classroom and How and When to Invite Indigenous Speakers to the Classroom By Skylee-Storm Hogan and Krista McCracken with Andrea Eidinger (2019)

Skylee-Storm Hogan-Stacey provided valuable insight from their experience publishing on history blogs as an Indigenous scholar and taught us a great deal about making online history projects welcoming and productive spaces for Indigenous colleagues. Skylee-Storm, Krista McCracken, and Andrea Eidinger have published about respectful and responsible relationships with Indigenous people and communities. The essays above are fantastic resources in themselves, and refer to myriad additional materials.

From Policy to Practice: The Evolution of SSHRC Application Processes, 1979-Present by Ian Milligan (2024)

One of the workshop sessions inspired a spirited discussion about the SSHRC funding many online history projects and individual historians rely on to conduct their research and make their work publicly accessible. We pondered ways online history projects can collaborate with one another and with university researchers to make the most efficient and effective use of those funds. We agreed it was essential for online history projects to understand federal priorities if we expect to sustain our projects and assist our colleagues.

Milligan’s article traces SSHRC’s evolving priorities and application requirements. Of particular interest is his commentary on knowledge mobilization, which has become a Tri-Council priority without gaining equal weight in most university tenure-and-promotion evaluations.

Catching Up on Open Access by Brian Owen (19 April 2023)

Owen’s article outlines the Tri-Council’s evolving position on open access publishing and contextualizes it within global trends. All the online history projects represented at the workshop are open access, and we agreed this was a valuable feature of our work. Considering how much misinformation circulates online, it is essential to maintain quality-controlled, open-access platforms. It is especially important considering how few peer-reviewed publications are open-access at time of publication, and how expensive it can be for researchers to ensure their works are open to the public.

Sara Wilmshurst is an editor at Active History and a PhD student at the University of Guelph.