Perspectives on Public History in Colombia

This article discusses the main characteristics of public history in Colombia, taking into account the challenges of the current political context. From a Latin American perspective of public practices of history, characterized by collaborative research and dialogue between diverse disciplines and knowledge, we analyze some of the experiences developed in Colombia in recent decades. We particularly study the ways in which public history has fostered an open discussion around the armed conflict, the recent peace process, and the social mobilizations of the last years.

What is the Public of Public History? Between the Public Sphere and Public Agency

Public history constitutes a historical field, it includes several related journals, membership organisations, research centres, undergraduate and graduate programs all over the world. Most importantly, Public History has been marked by growing historiography and an increasing public interest in history. However, there is a lack of research on the most important constituent element of Public History, the ‘public’. The aim of this paper is to shed light on how Public History has approached the public in the last four decades. By focusing on the two different forms the public has taken, the public sphere and the public agency, the paper examines the notion of the public as it appeared in the historiography and how it determined the epistemology and methodology of Public History.

Popular and Public History

This essay offers a reflection on the role public and popular history play in creating understanding and awareness about early modern history. It considers Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks’ chapter “Popular and Public History” in her book, What is Early Modern History, and uses Wiesner-Hanks’ ideas as a starting point to expand understanding of early modern scholarly identity, the role museums and historic sites could play in creating broad awareness about the early modern period, and why podcasts provide historians with a powerful tool to help non-historians better connect with and understand the early modern period.