ALES Archives and Public History - Part Three
Speaker: Tom Furber
Communication of archives as public history - our final event in this series The Archives for Learning and Education Section have planned a series of three events in 2024 on the communication of archives as public history. The stories within archives are communicated to individuals and groups in the reading room, in learning activities, and through informal presentation and publication in, for example, webinars and blogs. The sessions will consider the impact of public histories and showcase examples of these activities.
Across this series, attendees will: clarify their understanding of public history (in a time of Culture War hostility to some stories being surfaced); recognise their responsibilities to engage audiences with women's, queer, black and disability histories and identify good practice with both non-traditional audiences and potentially distressing material. “Public History” is an increasingly common but still nebulous term. In this talk Tom will talk about what public history is, the ways in which the archive sector has already been doing public history and how the archive sector can benefit from and contribute to this wider conversation.
About our speaker Tom Furber is a research fellow at the London Centre for Public History and an Engagement and Learning Officer at The London Archives (formerly London Metropolitan Archives). His Doctoral research looks at inclusive engagement practice in an archival setting. At The London Archives he works on a broad portfolio which includes schools and universities, public programming and community engagement.