If you would like to talk to me or hear me speak this month, Detroit is the place to be! I will be attending the annual meeting of the American Association for State and Local History September 15th through 17th, and in the course of those three days, I’ll be participating in three roundtable discussions and a tour of a local historic site.
On Thursday, September 15, 2016, at 3:00 pm local time, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers will be hosting a reception for the authors of their “Interpreting History” series, which includes my book Interpreting LGBT History at Museums and Historic Sites. Stop by the conference exhibit hall to learn more about the series and to chat with the authors, including myself.
Immediately following Thursday’s publisher reception, at 4:00 pm on September 15, 2016, I’ll be taking part in a public discussion about the book with Russell Lewis, chief historian of the Chicago History Museum and editor of the Rowman & Littlefield series. We’ll be chatting with the audience about the state of LGBT interpretation, as well as suggesting some best practices. This field is evolving at lightening speed, so I’m looking forward to a chance to discuss developments that have occurred since the book’s publication at the start of 2015.
The next day, Friday, September 16, I’ll have the opportunity to whip out my women’s history hat. I’ll be joining Rebecca Price, CEO of ChickHistory, and Lori Osborne, vice-president for operations of the National Collaborative for Women’s History, for a roundtable discussion on interpreting female friendship. This event takes place from 8:30 am until 9:45 am. We’ll be focusing primarily on the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when many professional women chose not to marry and instead partnered with other women. What are we to make of these relationships? How do we talk about them to twenty-first-century visitors? Come join the conversation!
As a complement to the Friday morning roundtable, at 1:30 pm on September 16, I’ll be taking part in an AASLH Women’s History Affinity Group tour of Rochester Hills Museum and Farm, a great-sounding historic site with generations of women’s stories to tell. We’ll tour the site, then facilitate a brainstorming session about how best to introduce stories of strong, non-conformist women to the wider public.
Finally, to wrap up this whirlwind, on Saturday morning, September 17, 2016, at 9:00 am, I’ll be part of a roundtable on women’s history more generally. We’ll be talking about integrating women’s stories into historic preservation, interpretation, and museum programming and tying women’s history to issues of contemporary gender equality. As with the earlier events, we’ll be looking to the audience to engage in the discussion and offer insight.
See you in Detroit!