"Dublin Core:Title","Dublin Core:Subject","Dublin Core:Description","Dublin Core:Creator","Dublin Core:Source","Dublin Core:Publisher","Dublin Core:Date","Dublin Core:Contributor","Dublin Core:Rights","Dublin Core:Relation","Dublin Core:Format","Dublin Core:Language","Dublin Core:Type","Dublin Core:Identifier","Dublin Core:Coverage","Item Type Metadata:Text","Item Type Metadata:Interviewer","Item Type Metadata:Interviewee","Item Type Metadata:Location","Item Type Metadata:Transcription","Item Type Metadata:Local URL","Item Type Metadata:Original Format","Item Type Metadata:Physical Dimensions","Item Type Metadata:Duration","Item Type Metadata:Compression","Item Type Metadata:Producer","Item Type Metadata:Director","Item Type Metadata:Bit Rate/Frequency","Item Type Metadata:Time Summary","Item Type Metadata:Email Body","Item Type Metadata:Subject Line","Item Type Metadata:From","Item Type Metadata:To","Item Type Metadata:CC","Item Type Metadata:BCC","Item Type Metadata:Number of Attachments","Item Type Metadata:Standards","Item Type Metadata:Objectives","Item Type Metadata:Materials","Item Type Metadata:Lesson Plan Text","Item Type Metadata:URL","Item Type Metadata:Event Type","Item Type Metadata:Participants","Item Type Metadata:Birth Date","Item Type Metadata:Birthplace","Item Type Metadata:Death Date","Item Type Metadata:Occupation","Item Type Metadata:Biographical Text","Item Type Metadata:Bibliography","Item Type Metadata:Player","Item Type Metadata:Imported Thumbnail","Item Type Metadata:Referrer",tags,file,itemType,collection,public,featured "The Library ",,"Growing up outside Atlanta, Georgia, my dad and I would spend hours at the local library, requesting and checking out the full limit of books allowed. We often had to ask forgiveness for misplacing many books. Fast forward to summer 2020: Last summer will forever be imprinted in the collective memory. After the lockdown from COVID-19, my university library unlocked its doors once again. I was brought back to a place that can transport us anywhere- through all the multitude of resources within those bounds. The library is an amazing place that provided/s comfort in a troubled time; I remembered a childhood with many hours spent there and am reminded of the power of the humanities. I lost and found my borrowed books once again. The library is a space where I move and look outward, where I cross boundaries. Cataloguing the impact of the humanities is no small task, and the influence is far beyond a lifetime, encompassed well in the beauty of a local library. ",,"The University Library",,"Summer 2020","Katie Ireland Kuiper, 29, Ph.D. Candidate ",,,,,,the-university-library,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"Collective Memory,COVID-19,Family,Libraries",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/18/485/Library_Stacks.jpeg,Text,"Graduate Student Residents 2021",1,0 "Statues and the Shapeshifting of History",,"As a young girl visiting Vicksburg, Mississippi, Julia Nguyen encountered a Civil War statue. It altered not only the way she understands history, but the way she thinks about that very concept. ",,"Civil War statue in Vicksburg, Mississippi",,,"Julia Nguyen, historian and grant-maker",,,,,,statues-shapeshifting-history,,,,,,"
I’m Julia Nguyen and my Humanities Moment, or at least this one because my life has been full of Humanities Moments, as a child—so a relatively early one—going to the National Military Park in Vicksburg, in Mississippi. I was raised in a family that has always been very interested in history, but going to that park really changed the way I thought about both history and the way that we think about history.
I remember being about twelve and the guide is explaining that the park is full of monuments that have been erected by individual states, veteran’s groups, other kinds of institutions, and explaining, for example, that every one is different and that the states themselves or the veteran’s groups decided what they wanted their monument to look like and what that was going to say about, say, involvement of troops from Mississippi in the siege of Vicksburg or the involvement of troops from Massachusetts.
That was the first time I had ever really thought about historical memory as a concept, and the idea that a monument is not just about the history, it’s about how society or a group or an individual wants us to remember the history. For a twelve-year old, that kind of blew my mind. This idea that monuments and historic sites are not themselves history; they are a representation of history. That has always really stuck with me.
I can still remember that moment so clearly, and as I then as an adult studied history in college, went on to graduate school—my own work as a historian is not in historical memory, but that concept continues to shape the way I think about the practice of history and the way that I do history myself: the idea that doing research and writing history is also a representation of what I or any other historian wants society to know or think about the past.
When I write history, I’m not writing the pure past. It doesn’t exist. I’m writing an interpretation, and I think sometimes we as historians, and it’s I think a natural human tendency—“Oh yes, of course, historians of the past were influenced by their own biases or perspectives, or the limitation of the sources that they had access to, but we do things better now!” Certainly, in some cases that’s true. We have access to more sources in some cases. You know, certainly the history of the Cold War can be written differently after the fall of the Soviet Union. But it’s still being shaped by our own perspectives, our own biases, the society in which we live and operate.
I try to keep that in mind as I do my own historical research and writing. Also of course, I think that now that we’re in a moment that monuments have become flashpoints again, it’s important to remember that sort of “ah-ha” moment, that sort of moment where my perspective was completely shifted, and remember that the monuments themselves are not the history. They are a representation of the history, and it’s important to know the full context in which they were erected and also to know the message that the creators wanted to convey, and what that says about them as individuals and organizations, and what it says about us as a society and the way that we choose to remember—or not remember—certain aspects of our history.
",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"",,"NEH ""Contested Territory"" summer institute","Collective Memory,Historians,History,Statues,U.S. Civil War (1861-1865),U.S. History,Vicksburg, Mississippi,Vocation",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/222/Brigadier_General_Lloyd_Tilghman_Vicksburg_Monument.jpg,Sound,,1,0 "The Only Person of Color in the Room",,"At 95, Betty Reid Soskin is the oldest active U.S. Park Ranger. Having lived through wars, racial segregation, and other turbulent times in our history, she says empathy and world peace are possible through the humanities.
To celebrate its 40th year anniversary of grant making, programming, and partnerships that connect Californians to each other, California Humanities invited a group of 40 prominent Californians to explore what the humanities mean to them. For more information visit California Humanities: We Are the Humanities.
",,,"California Humanities",,"Betty Reid Soskin, U.S. National Park Service Ranger","Standard YouTube License",,,,,betty-reid-soskin-us-national-park-ranger,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"",,,"African American History,American Civil War & Collective Memory,Ancestors,Collective Memory,Empathy,Historic Sites,Historical Memory,History,National Parks & Reserves,Peace,Race Relations,Slavery,United States Park Rangers,Women's History",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/5/56/1985_ribbon_cutting_African_American_Park_Ranger.jpg,"Moving Image","California Humanities: “We Are the Humanities”",1,0