Public Engagement

Wikipedia has a stub that defines "Public History" as "the practice of history outside of the traditional academic setting of the university. Public historians are historians who work in museums, archives, preservation, government agencies, or private historical research consultant firms. Public history is history that both engages the public and invites the public to participate in the writing of history."

At the University of Minnesota we introduce public history to students in a course—HIST 3001 Public History—which places it both inside and outside academia. The topic this semester is the history of Dinkytown, the neighborhood that abuts the UM Twin Cities East Bank campus on the northeast.

The instructors for History 3001, Lisa Marie Blee and Andrew Theodore Urban, have given the following course description:

History need not be resigned to books and classrooms. This semester, we will research and design exhibitions that explore the history of your local community: Dinkytown. This course provides an introduction to the theory, methods, practice, and politics of "public history." Public history refers to the possibilities and challenges of producing and disseminating histories in nonacademic settings. Through readings, workshops by professionals in the field, and course assignments, students will learn about diverse forms of public history, including exhibitions, oral history, documentary film and radio, and web sites. This class also emphasizes the ways in which historical knowledge may enhance community and civic engagement. The major project theme this year - a history of the Dinkytown area - reflects this emphasis. Finished exhibitions will be on display along side the Weisman Museum's forthcoming national exhibit on Bob Dylan, who lived in Dinkytown for a time. The class will create a neighborhood history made up of linked projects, each produced out of collaboration between students and community partners. The final neighborhood histories will be presented to a broad public audience and made available to the community as a resource. Students may conduct projects on a wide variety of themes. For example, social protest and the anti-war movement or changes in the commercial and residential landscape of the neighborhood are two possibilities.

The course culminates in an exhibit, "Dinkytown Histories: Multiple Stories, Multiple Meanings", which opens today at the Nolte Center Library before it moves next year to the Weisman Art Museum. The exhibit is composed of five different projects:

• "Dinkytown Dynamics: The Soundtrack to a Neighborhood, 1950s – Present" - This exhibit explores the important relationship between Dinkytown and music.
• "Preserving the Memory and Legacy of the Mill City" - This exhibit examines the history of flour milling in Minneapolis, and the complicated contemporary discussions surrounding the historic preservation of the mills, grain elevators, and other structures that still dot the city's landscape.
• "The Red Barn Incident" - About a 1970 police raid on a student sit-in protesting the Vietnam War and the takeover of small businesses by franchises.
• "Bridge or Barrier?: Highway 35W and its Impact on Dinkytown and the Surrounding Community" This exhibit explores how the construction of 35W and other changes in transportation have impacted the community, business, and social life of Dinkytown.
• "Public Art in Historic Dinkytown" - This exhibit looks at the recent addition of murals to Dinkytown's visual landscape, and the manner in which public art relates to community identity and visibility.

This is rich stuff, from which all of us at the U—whether resident, business owner, student, faculty, or staff—will learn a great deal in an enjoyable way.