Seminar 3: Oblique, Relational, and Hands-On: A New Public Humanities Practice

Leaders: Matthew Pavesich (Johns Hopkins University), Nancy Small (University of Wyoming) and Michelle LaFrance (George Mason University)

This seminar invites participants from many different career stages and institutions to
reimagine both public engagement and the work of the public humanities through readings,
discussions, and collaborative, hands-on development of projects. Led by three scholars actively
engaged in public projects, Matthew Pavesich (DC/Adapters), Nancy Small (Re-Storying the West), and Michelle LaFrance (Historic Cemeteries of Northern Virginia). Participants will explore alternative understandings of the humanities and the rhetorical work of the public humanities. We will ground the development of newly imagined projects in rhetorical approaches that understand public humanities work as arts-based, collaborative, experiential, and participatory, such as making, storytelling, walking, remembering, preserving, listening, and building relationships with communities. Participants may expect small and large group conversations, creative-invention work on a project of their own, and discussions with local community organizers. Together, we will explore how scholars and community partners might create new forms of public knowledge, public memory, and public life that move beyond dissemination toward shared inquiry, meaning making, and collaborative interventions in public life.