Barker (2015) - The Conversation - is
Ryan “The Brickman” McNaught a
"history-maker"?
Ian Willis (2012) - The
Conversation - amateur
(local) or academics? Can
it be both?
Nota:
"For the enthusiastic amateur of
local history, the academic historian is in a
different world. Academics are often at a
city-based university. Their journals are
remote, guarded by a peer-review process.
And their conferences beyond the resources
of the amateur. This world is not readily
entered by the amateur who, unlike
professional historians who receive a
regular salary, are volunteers with limited
means. "
Also "Some academic historians think they are
the only ones with the keys to the past. This is a
form of professional arrogance. It creates a
perception of aloofness."
Are filmmakers also history-makers? How much
influence do they have in this role?
SWF (2015) Past Imperfect - Mike Carlton does not
consider himself a historian, but a storyteller whose
stories are about history
Nota:
Writes with a novelists eye – no grand historical
approach – can easily gets the fact right as a journalist.
Compared to the trained historians on this panel - Carlton seemed far less reflective of his
practice as a history-maker and certainly was not discussing the impact of historiography -
e.g. POMO and Braudel like Hoskins
Pubic Historians? Prof. Hilda Kean (2014) - suggested that
these 'amateur historians' – threaten academic historians
perhaps? – they have access etc without intervention of
academics
Nota:
"They call themselves
historical consultants, museum professionals, government historians,
archivists, oral historians, cultural resource managers, curators, film and
media producers, historical interpreters, historic preservationists, policy
advisers, local historians, and community activists, among many many other job
descriptions.
All share an interest and commitment to making history relevant and useful in the public sphere."
Syria, 2015
South Korean Government: (Oct, 2015; Sang-Hun): "South
Korea has declared that beginning in 2017, its
middle and high school students would be taught
history only from government-issued textbooks,
prompting criticism that President Park
Geun-hye's conservative government was
returning education to the country's
authoritarian past."
Nota:
" Monday's administrative directive to wrest control over history
textbooks from private publishers comes after months of heated public debate
over how to teach children history. The controversy has focused largely on how
to characterise the history of modern Korea, including Japan's colonial rule in
the early 20th century and South Korea's tumultuous, often bloody march toward
democracy.
For years, conservative critics have charged that left-leaning authors
poisoned the current textbooks and students' minds with their "ideological
biases". The critics were especially upset with the way the textbooks
described North Korea and the military dictators who once ruled South Korea, including
Ms Park's father, Park Chung-hee, who seized power in a 1961 coup and remained
in control using torture and martial law until 1979." - Would involve changing the law to allow the government to write textbooks
"Park Han-yong, a chief researcher at the Centre
for Historical Truth and Justice, based in Seoul. "This is a history coup
that supporters of pro-Japanese collaboration and the past dictatorship have
been preparing for 10 years."
"Some of the privately-published textbooks now in use in South Korean
schools delve into long-hidden aspects of the recent past: collaboration with
Japanese colonialists, mass killings of civilians during the Korean War and the
abuse of political dissidents under the dictators. Conservatives criticised
what they called "masochistic historical views" in the books and
accused the authors of inculcating youngsters with "left-leaning nationalism"
that they said emphasised ethnic affinity with North Korea while casting an
unfavourable eye on the US role in modern Korean history."
Debate over how to represent particular episodes in South Korean past in school texts: Conservative
(led by President Park Geun-hye) vs left-wing & current textbook (private) publishers - concerning how
North Korea & military dictators who once ruled South Korea, relationship with Japan during WWII,
civilian deaths during Korean War are being taught & represented - Park's father seized power in coup
in 1961 so she has a vested interest in this
SWF (2016), Distorted Histories - - Larissa Behrendt - Professor of Law - writer of novels &
filmmaker as has found that these mediums have the most effect in the community in
changing attitudes of people etc - now has written Finding Eliza: Power & Colonial Storytelling
- “I do not claim to be a historian – I came to this story as a reader” – just fascinated by the
story.
What are the historical debates?
Academic vs Popular
Barker (2015) - The Conversation -
the use of Lego to entice a new
audience into the Nicholson
museum - yet is this so unusual? -
Barker points out the use of
dioramas & cork models has a
lengthy history.
Nota:
"In recent times,
there has been much debate on museum visitor
engagement and reassessment of the concept
that museums must be exclusively reserved for
the “real” or the “genuine”. I argue that the idea
of a museum of exclusively “genuine” material
is a relatively recent invention."
Academic vs Amateur
Ian Willis (2012) -
The Conversation.
Nota:
"Local history
is one of the most popular forms of history in
Australia. Yet there is a yawning gap between the
enthusiastic amateur and the academic historian.
While some academic historians engage with local
history, sadly there is an entrenched snobbery
from the academy."
Also - "Some historical societies are even able to
bridge the gap. They provide a stimulating
environment that interests academic historians."
History on film or TV: Widest
possible audience or lowest
common denominator?
Alex von Tunzelmann's Reel History
column in The Guardian
E.g. Exodus review - 2015 - Using the Book of Exodus as a source?
How can you be accurate? Yet the film does appear to diverge from
the historic POSSIBILITIES - also the supernatural elements of the
BOE: "Historians may raise their eyebrows but, as far as most
film-makers are concerned, these are the good bits."
Standards of accuracy - Tunzelmann
(2015) - the case of Alan Turing
SWF (2016) - Anna Clark found that most
ordinary Australians had never heard of 'History
Wars' - this is an elite debate - Review by Deery
(SMH, 2016) "The professional historian
conducting archival research is detached from
the keen amateur investigating a genealogical
website. Equally, the practitioners and the
devourers of popular history are remote from
the academic scholar whose journal articles
they would rarely read."
Video games - e.g. Assassin's Creed.
History Wars - reopened with the
March, 2016 UNSW 'invasion'
debates
Nota:
BBC -
The University of New South Wales (UNSW)
rejected claims on Wednesday it was "whitewashing" its curriculum.
Its Indigenous Terminology guide urges students to use the term
"invaded" rather than "settled" or "discovered",
and to avoid the word "Aborigines".
Queensland state Premier Annastacia
Palaszczuk said she supported universities teaching "the truth".
UNSW
Aims & Purposes of history?
Barker (2015) - The Conversation - discussing
Lego Pompeii - is the purpose to entertain or
inform? - Can it be both? "Education and
entertainment need not be mutually exclusive
in a museum."
Film/ TV - is the main purpose to entertain or
inform? Can we judge if the aim is to entertain
and not inform? What should the aims &
purposes of history be anyway?
Is it to help us to interpret or
comment on the present?
Thucydides & the Ukraine - the
'Thucydides Trap' & human nature (esp during war & crisis)
Nota:
P. Jones (2014) - "As rebels, terrorists, fascists, foreign forces, activists, separatists,
militants, militias, nationalist groups, Neo-Nazis, Right Sector forces
— take your pick — spread civil war across the increasingly lawless
cities of eastern Ukraine.... It was described with
horror by the contemporary historian Thucydides, who imagined war as ‘a
schoolmaster in brutality’, with both sides taking lessons from precedents
already set to go to far greater extremes of destructiveness,"
Jones (2014) - "Revenge
was more important even than self-preservation, while pacts were made merely to
overcome temporary difficulties. Neither justice nor the interests of the
people prevented men doing anything to win power by any means, and those who
relied on policy rather than brute force were easily destroyed. Conscience was
ignored: more attention was given to the man who could justify outrages
attractively. Those who remained neutral fell victims to both sides.
From the IRA to Syria and now
Ukraine — as Thucydides concluded: ‘so it will always be, while human nature
remains the same’.
Is Exodus (2015) a piece of Zionist propaganda
that deserves to be banned in Egypt?
SWF Mike Carlton (2015): Likes the idea of Coleridge:
History as a lantern on a stern which shines a light on
the waves behind it Use of history as a guide to the
past – can’t know where we’re going if we don’t know
where we’ve been.
Malcolm Turnbull & Thucydides by Classics Prof. Mackie (2015) - advising
Chinese president Xi Jinping (in Turkey) and Premier Li Keqiang (in
Malaysia) not to "fall into the Thucydides trap" - Mackie argues Thuc has
much to teach us about present.
Nota:
"The ancient motivation for war is
relevant to the current situation of China and the United States, or so it is
argued by American political scientist Graham T. Allison... You certainly won't find a simple answer to the scourge of terrorism in
the pages of Thucydides. But what you do find are some brilliant analyses of
social disintegration brought about by war or disease or socio-political strife
(stasis). These have a timeless character about them, and they are just as
relevant now as they ever were. When the people on the island of Corcyra
(Corfu) turn on one another in the Peloponnesian war (in 427BC) it descends
into unspeakable violence – Greek against Greek, oligarchs against democrats....Thucydides has much to offer us as we confront all sorts of crises of our own, especially after Paris. But one has to read him and think about what
he has to say. Not many do, which is a great pity. Malcolm Turnbull is clearly
one who has, and we can probably be thankful for that."
-
Paula Michaels (2014) - The Conversation - Paul Ham - raises
questions about the aims & purposes of academic history -
produced in universities for academic peers - should this be
the case? - Ham thinks they should engage the general public
more effectively - Michaels does not seem to share this opinion.
Is to perpetuate the truth ? Whose truth? To serve the
government's agenda/ POV? See South Korean example
SWF (2016), Distorted Histories: Anna Clark on Private
Lives, Public History - “Stories we tell ourselves are to
furnish ourselves with an identity” – at a personal level,
but also a national level - but this can be problematic!
Nota:
-
Review by Deery, 2016, SMH Just as there is an individual need, as Clark suggests, for historical
connection, a need to be located within a longer and larger historical
narrative, so there is a national need for an informed historical memory. But
many nations, at different times, impose a selective amnesia. The past is
insufficiently remembered, inadequately confronted and, therefore, partially
reproduced. This act of forgetting produces a historical memory that is
deficient and defective. Carr's unending dialogue between the present
and the past is lacking
Why have the approaches to history
changed over time?
Technology
The Museum of Aust. Democracy - #Dismissal 1975 - "Relive
the events" via a Twitter feed or ANZAC Facebook profiles
Film/ TV
PODCAAAASTS!!! Some by amateurs/ limited
history training (Rex Factor) & some more
academic (In Our Time)
Archives being digitised (e.g, Trove) - easier access - does this open the door for
more people to be historians? BUT not all material is digitised - e.g. story of
female prisoners like Rebecca Sinclair at Long Bay/ SWF 2015 - Ian Hoskins would
not have found invaluable account about Will Hargreaves shell collection in an
archive
Nota:
Eleanor Limprecht on Cnnversations with Richard Fidler (3/8/2015)
Is information secure now? - Ovendon (2016): “It’s by no
means certain that the digital information created by
our parliament today will still be secure and reliably
accessible in 200 years.” - funding cuts, cyber criminals
etc
Digital Revolution: “Digitisation is having a profound effect on the ways in which information is
preserved, discovered, used and shared.” (Kiem, 2015) - history for a wider range of people
and/or by a wider range of people - democratisation? Who are the gate-keepers? Do we need
gate-keepers? (Ancestry.com?)
Shared Authority? Wikipedia vs JSTOR?
Changing the way we read! - e.g. London
Lives (2015) - links to sources
Is it meaningful, critical engagement? E.g. @HistoryinPics
SWF 2015 - John Gascoigne - "Imagination is linked to the
questions that you ask of the past – “questions change with
each generation” – “not to say that the past does not have its
own autonomy”.
Changing Perspectives
SWF (2016) Distorted Histories: embracing wider perspectives? - Larissa Behrendt trying
to include Indigenous perspective in the story of Eliza Fraser from 1836; Anna Clark trying
to include the perspective of 'ordinary' Australians on Australian history in Private Lives,
Public History
UNSW debates - March 2016 - Over the university using the
word 'invasion' to describe the colonisation of Australia
Nota:
Stan Grant on the issue - should the university be forcing students to use the word 'invasion' - "
Discovery
and settlement and invasion: these words frame the debate about our history. A
debate that should be based on fact and logic and respectful cogent persuasion
and argument.
I know what
I believe. I am prepared to make my case but I don’t wish to force that on
anyone else, in fact I welcome people who disagree and I absolutely reject any
organisation, government, or institution instructing or guiding or forcing
anyone how to think."
How has history been
constructed and recorded over
time?
Barker (2015) - The Conversation - The use
of Lego models - is it new? Or a revamp?
Nota:
"The model provides a means of
introducing students to issues of Roman daily life, architecture and
the history of the excavations in a visual way, different from their
classroom experience" - but it it that different to former use of cork
models, dioramas etc? "The use of Lego in a museum context is a
21st-century continuity of this much older tradition of displaying
interpretive models. Lego Pompeii and other models of this ilk are a
fun and engaging tool for reaching audiences in an exciting new way."
Ian Willis (2012) - The Conversation- "Local history is one of the
democratic forms of history practice, drawing on a variety of
disciplines. These include community history, family history,
genealogy and oral history. It also incorporates local aspects of
cultural and social history. Done well, local history also engages
in both national and transnational themes."
Also "As a collector of stories, the amateur practises a form of
antiquarianism often concerned with lists of facts... this
provides no commentary on the past or present, no argument,
and no analysis of sources and assessment of methods"
The construction of history on film - how is it similar/ different to
academic, written work? Should they be compared and how should
they be compared? (Use a recent film example!)
Robert Rosenstone & Hayden White
Public history - "the many and diverse ways in which history is put to work in the world... it is history
that is applied to real-world issues."- Prof. Hilda Keen (2014) - Sometimes – inviting people to take
part in history as constructed by others - E.G. - Stolperstein – stumbling block – monument to individual
victim of Holocaust by artist Gunter Demnig – 48 000 now in 18 European countries (2014).
Nota:
·
Artist
– Paul Cummins – London – ceramic poppies – 1 for each Brit soldier who died in
WWI – 4 million people looking at artwork that conveyed some meaning to them about
WWI
News Reports on UNHCR project with locals (such as art teacher/ painter Mahmoud Hariri) making Syrian
monuments out of scraps & available material in refugee camp in order to remember the history & teach
children in the camp about their heritage - e.g. some have been destroyed, like Deir ez-Zor suspension
bridge in 2013.