A new call for papers for a special issue of the Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences devoted to public history has just been announced.

Imagined as: “Going public: Mobilizing, materializing, and performing social science history” this call is inspired by the crucial role of public history in the formation of collective memory, identity, and critical social consciousness. It will feature articles that describe and analyze public history projects that draw on topics and themes from the history of social science to educate, inform, and create community engagement around social issues.

Articles should critically engage with issues such as the politics of representation and commemoration, making the past speak to the present, mobilizing affect, materializing history, the challenge of archival silences, the roles of community collaboration and stakeholder influence, counterstorying, and the challenges of doing recent history (where appropriate). Papers should move beyond description to examine the conceptual, analytic, historiographic, ethical, contextual, cultural, and political factors that played a role in how the project unfolded and/or what it may have accomplished or failed to accomplish.           

The link to the full call can be found here. Please feel free to email the editor, Alexandra Rutherford, directly with inquiries – alexr@yorku.ca