Public history

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The term Public History (German: public history) refers to a whole range of activities that deal mainly outside the academic environment with history. These areas include memory culture , monuments , memorial sites , the archives , oral history and museology .

The term came up in the US and Canada in the late 1970s. Since then, this field of work has become increasingly professional. In the German-speaking area, these fields of work are largely treated separately.

definition

Public history is difficult to define because it encompasses a wide range of activities. But three characteristics can be named:

  • the application of historical methods
  • the concentration on a public benefit that goes beyond the mere storage of documents and the academic processing of the field
  • the emphasis placed on professional training and practice.

The US National Council on Public History put it this way in 1989. Public history serves to "promote the utility of history in society through professional practice", i. H. to "promote the social benefits of history through professional practice".

Subject

The subject of Public History can be studied in various formats at universities in the Federal Republic of Germany and Switzerland in the master’s phase. At the universities of Hamburg, Heidelberg and Cologne, public history is offered as a major or as a course in history master’s courses. Students have been able to enroll for a consecutive Master’s degree in Public History at Freie Universität Berlin since 2008 and at Ruhr University Bochum since 2017 . Further master’s programs in the field of public history are the master’s course "History Didactics and Public History Communication", offered as a joint master at various Swiss universities with the Leading House Pedagogical University of Lucerne , and the Master’s course in Public History and Cultural Mediation at the University of Regensburg from the winter semester 2018/2019 .

The subject of the course is described on the homepage of the Department of History and Cultural Studies at the Free University of Berlin as follows: It (the course) is based on technical issues, but takes more into account the aesthetic, political and commercial dimensions of dealing with history than before.

This subject, newly constructed in the Federal Republic of Germany and Switzerland, which has its origins in the US university system, consists in content of a mixture of museum education , history didactics , "public history presentation", cultural management and public relations, communication of media skills, a small subject-specific part in teaching and studying modern history and contemporary history.

The University of Heidelberg is promoting the Master’s course with the line “Public History” as democracy science.

A master's degree (Master of Arts) can be obtained in the Federal Republic of Germany and Switzerland after completing a four-semester 1-subject master's degree. The range of subjects studied is very narrow. At some universities - for example in Cologne - students have the opportunity to choose a second subject from the humanities and social sciences canon in order to acquire important specialist skills with regard to source work and the necessary language acquisition.

This subject, which is less based on traditional historical methods and is intended to train graduates to work in the media, publishing houses, museums, memorials, associations, foundations and companies , is available at a university of applied sciences, as a postgraduate course after a five-year undergraduate degree with a master’s degree or in an auxiliary scientific field to be located within the classical historian training. This problem was already pointed out during the Public History in Studies and Training workshop , which took place in March 2015 at the University of Hamburg (see the report on the above workshop).

The joint master's degree in Switzerland - offered by the Lucerne University of Education and the University of Friborg together with the Universities of Lucerne and Basel and the University of Education of the FHNW, St. Gallen and Vaud - comprises three areas of study: history didactics, cultures of history and memory; Historical didactic mediation and research practice; Contemporary history. Among other things, it aims to train young scientists for the universities of teacher education.

The master’s degree in Public History at the Ruhr University Bochum places a special emphasis on practical phases, which can a. expresses itself in a high presence of actors from the areas of public presentation and communication of history (museums, archives, memorials, media institutions, history offices, etc.) in teaching and an internship semester.

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Public History and Cultural Mediation course at the University of Regensburg
  2. ↑ http://www.geschkult.fu-berlin.de/e/phm/studium/gegenstand/index.html
  3. ↑ http://www.uni-heidelberg.de/fakultaeten/philosophie/zegk/histsem/forschung/HPH_Profil.html
  4. ↑ http://www.geschkult.fu-berlin.de/e/phm/studium/index.html
  5. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of October 13, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ↑ http://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/tagungsberichte/id=6044&view=pdf
  7. ↑ https://www.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/public-history/aufbau/index.html.de