The history curriculum in UK schools is to be overhauled with the help of Simon Schama, an announcement made five months after the controversy sparked by the alleged invitation extended to Niall Ferguson. The concerns remain the same: that history is disappearing through falling demand, at least in state schools; that where it is taught, the topic-based approach of the… Read more »
Formally launched by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger in 2001, Wikipedia — the “free encyclopedia that anyone can edit” — has become the first (and often only) stop in Internet fact-finding. With well over ten million articles to date, Wikipedia has evaded overt corporate influence through a non-profit structure and currently ranks among the top ten most visited sites on… Read more »
Performance is an important theoretical concept in the history classroom. It has been deployed in various contexts, from a social historian’s concern with the ‘public transcript’ of the theatre of the dominant classes, and its counter-theatre of resistance, to cultural and gender historians’ readings of ‘performativity,’ wherein the cultural fictions of collectively performed gender produce and reinforce prevailing notions of normalcy. … Read more »
Are the archaeologists leading the way to a new mode of public engagement? A discussion and comparison of public archaeology and history.
The first steps towards building a historical time machine are underway south of the border. A group of American history educators have founded an ambitious plan to create the “Civil War Augmented Reality Project.” This first time machine will be a literal window into the past. By taking advantage of smart phone and tablet computer technology, as well as their… Read more »
Some reflections on teaching history, equity and equality in the university classroom.
by Lisa Rumiel On Tuesday, September 14th the Toronto Public Library (TPL) will kick off its 6 part History Matters lecture series. As you might have guessed from the title, the idea for the series was inspired by what’s been going on over the past couple years with the folks at Active History – both at the blog and the… Read more »
Jamie Trepanier reflects on how historians and history departments can engage with models of community service-learning.
Since 1977, International Museum Day has taken place across the world on, or around, the 18th of May. This day is meant raise public awareness towards some of the daily challenges that museums face and allows members of the public a glimpse into the way a museum operates. Each year the International Council of Museums (ICOM) chooses a theme that it… Read more »
This post re-caps the inaugural event in the Approaching the Past workshop series, which is co-sponsored by ActiveHistory.ca. It discusses what we did at the workshop, and hopefully helps people learn some teaching tips.
