Press Release - National Council on Public History

Press Release

From:

National Council on Public History Putting history to work in the world

Contact:

John Dichtl, Executive Director (317) 272-7142, [email protected]

Subject: Public History Awards for 2013 For Immediate Release Indianapolis, IN, February 18, 2013 — Please join us in congratulating this year’s award winners for outstanding achievement in a variety of public history formats. Full details about the recipients and their projects will be released in conjunction with the NCPH Annual Meeting in Ottawa next month. We hope you will help us celebrate at the Awards Breakfast on Saturday, April 20, at the Delta Ottawa City Centre Hotel, 8:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. For more detailed information on our award winners visit www.ncph.org Graduate Student Travel Awards The Graduate Student Travel Award provides assistance for conference travel costs for five graduate students who will present a session or poster or will participate in a working group at the annual meeting. Congratulations this year go to Laura Arata, Washington State University; Celia James, University of South Carolina; Laura Keller, Arizona State University; Amanda Noll, University of South Carolina; and Megan Southern, University of South Carolina Graduate Student Project Award This award recognizes the contributions of student work to the field of public history and provides assistance for conference travel costs. Award Winners Sarah Cloutier, Ellen Kuhn, Shawna Prather, and Ashley Wyatt, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, “The Terra Cotta Community History Project” New Professional Travel Awards Travel awards for individuals who are new to the field and practice of public history, these two grants assist new professionals in attending the conference, helping them become more connected with other members of the profession early in their careers. HRA New Professional Travel Award Claire Jerry, Curator, Paul Findley Archives, Illinois College NCPH New Professional Travel Award Caroline Muglia, Archivist, American Council of Learned Societies, Library of Congress

Excellence in Consulting Award The NCPH Excellence in Consulting Award recognizes outstanding contribution to the field of public history through consulting or contract work by recognizing professionals whose primary engagement with public history in the past five years is through consulting. Individual Award Winner Cathy Stanton, “Plant Yourself in My Neighborhood,” special ethnographic report for Martin Van Buren National Historic Site, National Park Service Group Award Winner Marla Miller, Anne Mitchell Whisnant, Gary Nash, and David Thelen, Imperiled Promise: The State of History in the National Park Service (Produced by the Organization of American Historians) Honorable Mentions Jennifer A. Stevens, Stevens Historical Research Associates, Voices of Courage, Champions of Excellence: The Story of the Idaho Education Association Since 1892 Virginia Adams, Kristen Heitert, Laura Kline, Stephen Olausen, Jenny Scofield, Public Archaeology Laboratory, Inc., National Historic Register Nominations

G. Wesley Johnson Award Named in honor of the founding editor of The Public Historian, this award recognizes the most outstanding article appearing in the NCPH journal during the previous volume year. Award Winner Elizabeth Belanger, Assistant Professor of History, Director, American Studies Program; Stonehill College, “Public History and Liberal Learning: Making the Case for the Undergraduate Practicum Experience,” The Public Historian Vol 34, No 4. Honorable Mentions Andrew Haley, Associate Professor of History, University of Southern Mississippi, “The Nation before Taste: The Challenges of American Culinary History,” The Public Historian Vol. 34, No 2. Julia Brock, Jennifer Dickey and Catherine Lewis, Museum of History and Holocaust Education, and Samir El Azhar, Université Hassan II Mohammedia, Ben M’sik, “Exploring Identities: Public History in a CrossCultural Context,” The Public Historian Vol. 34, No 4. NCPH Book Award Award Winner Denise Meringolo, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Museums, Monuments, and National Parks: Toward a New Genealogy of Public History (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2012) Honorable Mention Michael Scott Van Wagenen, Georgia Southern University, Remembering the Forgotten War: The Enduring Legacies of the U.S.-Mexican War (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2012)

Outstanding Public History Project Award This award is presented for work completed within the previous two calendar years that contributes to a broader public reflection and appreciation of the past or that serves as a model of professional public history practice. NCPH acknowledges the generous support of Stevie and Ted Wolf that makes this award possible. Award Winner Yolanda Chávez Leyva and David Romo, Department of History at the University of Texas at El Paso, “Museo Urbano at 500 S. Oregon.” Honorable Mention Starlyn D’Angelo, Shaker Heritage Society and Jose Kozan, Virtual Grounds, LLC, “Virtual Watervliet.” NCPH relies on its endowment to support the awards program and a variety of other programs and projects that fulfill the organization’s mission. We are especially grateful for major assistance in recent years from the History Channel and a National Endowment for the Humanities Challenge Grant. (Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.) Public or “applied” history happens when historians and their various audiences collaborate in trying to make the past useful. It is the conceptualization and practice of historical activities with one’s public audience foremost in mind, and it generally takes place in settings beyond the traditional classroom. The National Council on Public History is a nonprofit membership association that inspires public engagement with the past and serves the needs of practitioners in putting history to work in the world. NCPH builds community among historians, expands professional skills and tools, fosters critical reflection on historical practice, and publicly advocates for history and historians. Members of the organization include historical consultants, museum professionals, government historians, professors & students, archivists, teachers, cultural resource managers, curators, film & media producers, historical interpreters, policy advisors, and many others. Members confer at the annual meeting each spring and share their expertise in a scholarly journal (The Public Historian) in a quarterly newsletter, and in multiple online formats, such as the NCPH blog, History@Work. Learn more at http://www.ncph.org