Notes from the Field

New Twitterstorians Enter the Fray

2010-02-04T20:21:00.001Z

@KristyDermody – Museum curator based in Adelaide
@profblmkelley – Blair Kelley, historian recently quoted in the New York Times!
@SIMuseum – Staten Island Museum
@HistorySA
@MuseumofSamoa
@exploratorium – Exploratorium, San Francisco

Despite #followamuseum day, some museums are not getting much Twitterlove... Support your local museum (and one on the other side of the world!)

New Twitterstorians Enter the Fray

2010-02-04T20:20:00.000Z

New Twitterstorians Enter the Fray

2010-02-04T20:15:00.000Z

Jacob's Golden Ladder Gets Slippery at the Top...

2010-01-11T23:55:00.003Z

Stepping late here into the churning waters of the job market debate in history. Marc Bosquet has effectively critiqued the AHA’s data (and their “supply side” economic focus). One of the comments on Historiann’s blog added a pertinent point which is often overlooked in this long-running debate. Kathleen Lowrey said

“If you were 24 years old and choosing between a few years reading and writing and thinking on a self-chosen schedule vs. a 40 hour week yea until death as a cubicle critter, you might take the gamble of grad school, too. Cake now vs. no cake ever (cake being leisure time, self-direction, feeling one’s existence is meaningful, being surrounded by interesting like-minded people) — I’d probably make the same choice.”

The “cake now” vs “cake never” attraction of graduate school is, I believe, a strong factor. I certainly met PhD students who said that they only enrolled “because I got funding” and three years of salary (in the UK) was too good to turn down. Not to overgeneralise, but these were also people who seemed ambivalent (or flat out uninterested) in their academic research, and in a number of cases never finished anyway. So in a sense they got a free 3 year holiday: and when it’s offered like that (there is no punishment for not completing, for simply walking off at the end of the three years having taken the money and produced nothing), it’s hardly surprising people take it up. I also met people who – faced with (realistically) spending up to a year after their undergraduate degree looking for a job – decided to enrol for a Masters degree at the same time, so their “jobseeking” year also accrued them an additional qualification. Of course, if they were performing well in the Masters course they would be encouraged to apply for PhD places, and this is one track by which people end up in humanities PhD programs. It wasn’t their original plan, but when a funded opportunity appears, weighing that against scouring the want ads while living back with one’s parents makes a PhD sound like a pretty good option. In fact, at that post-BA stage, a funded PhD place can be the “bird in the hand” over the unknown outcomes of the general job market.

But the other element raised, that fresh graduates of 22 see their options as “wage slave” vs the intellectual world of academia, is a key one. The undercurrent in graduate school (at least as I experienced in the humanities) is that it is a noble vocation, an “independent” way of life (in the same sense of “indie” films versus blockbusters, and you can well imagine the kind of cultural snobbery that goes with it). People who left academia to pursue another job were described as “selling out”. So there is a strange contradiction, between an attitude that regards academia (in the humanities) as some kind of free, creative realm, but then turns around at the end to complain that the time spent in grad school did not provide a professional qualification that would lead directly to a job.

...and heaven’s walls too high to hear the trouble down below

Is some of the problem that (some) senior people don’t understand what the job market is like now? It seems hard to believe anyone could be unaware, but some of the advice circulating while I was a PhD student suggests that this really is the case. I knew people who simply applied for 12 hypercompetitive postdocs and were surprised not to get one, and senior profs who talked about Junior Research Fellowships and British Academy Postdocs as a natural progression, as if they were easy to come by.
I’ve also heard from people serving on search committees who were SURPRISED to get 100+ applicants for a position. How long ago was your last interaction with the job market if that’s a surprise?

Trains and cities and observations

2010-01-06T21:32:00.000Z

I am on the Coast Starlight, Amtrak’s service from Seattle to Los Angeles. This train features the Pacific Parlour Car (yes, that is PARLOUR with a U), a lounge car for sleeper passengers featuring a bar, some dining tables, and some cool swivel armchairs for looking out the windows. These carriages are originals from the 1950s, restored and brought back into service for just the Coast Starlight. There is also an afternoon wine and cheese tasting (which I hadn’t known about before boarding, so was pleasantly surprised. My previous Amtrak experience was short commuter journeys on the East Coast). This journey really puts European rail travel into true, crummy perspective. Even the so-called “First Class” on the Eurostar is nothing like this good (and the basic class Eurostar “dining car” - which involves being sold some microwave noodles – wouldn’t be so annoying if the tickets weren’t actually more than I paid for this trip, which includes a bed and all meals).

Travelling by train often involves seeing the oldest parts of a city, the historic core where the main station was built. Seattle’s King St station made me wonder – were there other big stations too at some point? (the name “King St” - as opposed to “Union Station” or even just “Seattle Station” suggests a need to differentiate it by location from other stations in the same city). The station itself is undergoing restoration, which is part-way through now. There is an opportunity to peek up where some ceiling panels have been removed and see the original ceiling, another 15’ or so above. This beautiful plaster moulded ceiling was covered in a 1967 “facelift” which involved a lower suspended ceiling and fluorescent lights. Fortunately the original was not erased, so it is possible for it to be brought back. It is a great shame – an urban tragedy – that the same could not be said for New York’s Penn Station, where a beautiful original was obliterated to build a concrete cavern with the soul and charm of a multistorey carpark in a bad neighbourhood.

San Diego to Boston and All Points Between - thoughts on the AHA

2009-12-28T15:36:00.002Z

About a week ago, I received an email (from a group I had never heard of) inviting me to move my AHA panel from the Hyatt. The issues were the hotel owner’s stance on gay marriage, and some labour issues. They weren’t offering alternative venues, but suggested that some people were using their own hotel rooms (I am not expecting a huge audience for my paper, but I was hoping for a better crowd than 3 people sitting on my bed). Shortly thereafter, I received a message from the AHA saying much of the message was disinformation, there is no labour dispute at the hotel, and repeating the outcome of discussions at the last AHA meeting: the hotel was booked years ago and pulling out at this stage would be more financially damaging to the AHA than to the hotel. A series of panels on the history of marriage will be held at the Hyatt.

Tenured Radical and others have discussed this proposed boycott and why it was not going to work for the AHA financially. This series of sessions on marriage being held at the Hyatt also generated some H-NET discussion, with a couple of responders saying they expected the panels to take one side of the debate (no papers endorsing an anti-gay marriage perspective). I don’t know yet but I suspect this will be true. And that’s unfortunate. I am in support of gay marriage, but I don’t think this is the type of thing on which the AHA should have a position.

I don’t know Mr Manchester or have any particular interest in his views, but as I understand it he participated in the elections as a citizen, legally exercising his democratic right to support a particular viewpoint, and donating money to the cause he supported. After all, it’s not just Doug Manchester holding a certain opinion, evidently thousands of Californians agreed with him. The subtext I’m sensing is that the Hyatt has become the focus for a lot of anger from AHA members who were unhappy with the passing of Proposition 8. If the Proposition had not passed, I don’t think anyone would be suggesting boycotting the hotel.

The more general complaint I’ve heard about the AHA in terms of its location is the cost: I think I’m paying more for my hotel this year than I did last year (which was New York at New Years). I will be interested to see how much attendance is down due to the economic downturn (as opposed to the lower attendance which is apparently typical whenever the AHA is on the West Coast).

I have been told that the reason we go to cities like Philly or Boston is that they are much cheaper than, say, Miami in January. But the cities that have hosted the recent meetings and are on the calendar for the next few years seem to offer a fairly unimaginative shuffle, with New York and DC on high rotation. (I understand the Washington meeting of 2008 was a last-minute replacement for New Orleans, but perhaps they could have moved the 2014 meeting away from DC).

2005 - Seattle
2006 - Philadelphia
2007 - Atlanta
2008 - Washington, D.C.
2009 - New York
2010 - San Diego
2011 - Boston
2012 - Chicago
2013 - New Orleans
2014 - Washington, D.C.
2015 - New York
2016 - Atlanta

I don’t know how the AHA chooses the destinations: does it depend on local members campaigning for it, like the Olympics? Obviously it has to be a city where a local organising committee can make arrangments, so a city with a density of members does make sense (also because all the people living and working in New York or Boston can make a good base, whereas at another city a higher proportion of attendees have to come in from outside). I get all of that, but it would be good to see some other cities getting into the mix. Baltimore? Savannah? Providence? Memphis?

I walk on gilded splinters

2009-12-27T21:39:00.002Z

Since I moved to Munich, I’ve been exploring and trying to get a feel for the place. As an urban historian, I am fascinated by the different neighbourhoods and ways a city unfolds to the traveller. But ever since I first arrived, I have the strangest sensation: I’ll be walking along and it will suddenly feel like I’m in the US again. Like that sensation of first waking and expecting to see a different room.

It has been very disconcerting, and much like Swati Chattopadhyay described the colonial uncanny sensation for visitors to 19th century Calcutta. For me it is the unfamiliar seeming oddly familiar. Certainly there are buildings near my house that would not be out of place on the Upper West Side, and some other buildings with corner bay windows that for a second’s glance could be in San Francisco.
I still can’t put my finger on where this uncanny familiarity is coming from – perhaps years of watching Turner Classic Movies, as the wedding-cake plaster work on some of the buildings here is like those backlot sets depicting cities, both in the US and Europe (probably the same sets, in fact).

This familiarity, both comforting and jarring, makes me feel at home and yet dislocated.

A Very Twitterstorian Christmas

2009-12-20T18:26:00.001Z

Joining the list of historians on twitter:

@Jason_M_Kelly
@jenhassum
@sugar_bird – Laura Mitchell
@bellhistory
@brockter – Terry Brock
@filmphotos
@idlethink – Rachel Leow

And a shout-out to @larrycebula for posting this video (one of the few moments history is COOL in popular culture ;)
http://northwesthistory.blogspot.com/2009/12/good-will-hunting-and-amazon-reviews.html

CFP: Cityscapes in History Conference

2009-12-11T13:37:00.001Z

Call for Papers:

"Cityscapes in History: Creating the Urban Experience," at the
Center for Advanced Studies, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany, 29th and 30th July, 2010.

The conference aims at bringing scholars from various disciplines together
to study the history of the urban experience. One of our main themes will be the performative and ritual aspects of urban life, and the built environment.

We invite proposals for individual (20 minute) papers or 3 paper panels.

Please submit a 300 word abstract per paper, for panel submissions an abstract for each paper plus a brief (<200 word) summary of the panel.

Submissions to

Katrina Gulliver
katrina.gulliver@lrz.uni-muenchen.de

Helena Toth
helena.toth@lrz.uni-muenchen.de

Deadline for submissions is Friday 22nd January; notifications will be sent of the acceptance of papers by Friday 12th February.

Twitterstorian Update

2009-11-22T16:54:00.001Z

The list of Twitterstorians continues to grow, and here’s another batch. Click back through this blog archive to find earlier editions, and please send recommendations to me on Twitter or in the comments here.

@HarryHistorian
@wilkohardenberg
@sharre
@RobAroundBooks
@MCiocchi
@hyttedrommen (Norwegian) and @finnarne (English) - Finn Arne Jørgensen
@historiografia
@Thomadaneau
@Bibliomancienne
@cabachand
@Cjouneau
@Jonathanrnash
@civilwarhist
@westprocrastina
@alozach
@BlancheMaynard
@Gradlon
@Black_Squirrel

Organisations and groups:
@Esehtweets – European society for Environmental History
@birkbeckems – Birkbeck Early Modern Studies

Important Lesson for Historians

2009-11-20T20:20:00.001Z

More amusement at http://www.somethingawful.com/d/photoshop-phriday/improper-propaganda-posters.php

Transnational History Forum

2009-11-19T20:21:00.001Z

Visit Transnational History

More Twitterstorians

2009-11-19T16:47:00.002Z

Another few to add to the list

@laineydoyle - Elaine Doyle
@JakePollock
@cliotropic - Shane Landrum
@clarianalucas
@kalbers
@chelleburt
@Jthorndike
@gcolliasuzuki
@tournevis

Groups and organisations:

@PublicHistory
@halbion
@connectedhistory

I'm on History News Network!

2009-10-19T17:59:00.001+01:00

Read my article, “The Woman Who Attempted to Etch Herself into the History of the Cuban Revolution” here http://hnn.us/articles/118150.html

More Twitterstorians

2009-10-06T10:22:00.000+01:00

@CynthiaBlue44
@PlantExplorer
@Lidian
@bonesholmes
@captain_primate

History Carnival #80

2009-10-04T10:52:00.001+01:00

To begin, we have two new tools or sources that will be useful for historians:

Marcin Wilkowski on Friendsourcing on Twitter (for academic purposes)
http://historiaimedia.org/2009/09/30/friendsourcing-on-twitter-for-academic-purposes/

At War and Health, a new database of mediæval soldiers’ records
http://conflicthealth.com/data-on-250000-medieval-soldiers-is-online/

And two pieces on the new uses of digital archives:

Trevor Owens on Mining Old News for Fresh Historical Insight
http://www.trevorowens.org/2009/09/mining-old-news-for-fresh-historical-insight/

Indicommons Cold Case Unit: Dorcas Snodgrass – how the mystery of a nurse’s disappearance in 1912 is getting attention via flickr.
http://www.indicommons.org/2009/08/03/the-indicommons-cold-case-unit-dorcas-snodgrass/

Curious historical people:

Elizabeth Kerri Mahon at Scandalous Women blog discusses The Unsinkable Molly Brown, and how her real life differed from the fictional depictions (don’t they always?). I was interested in what I read about her at the Colorado History Museum recently, which was very different from the ‘Calamity Jane in a Hoop Skirt’ image of the various Titanic films.
http://scandalouswoman.blogspot.com/2009/08/unsinkable-molly-brown.html

From Soldier's Mail: Letters Home 1916-1919, Sgt. Avery’s letter from the base hospital in Bordeaux
http://worldwar1letters.wordpress.com/2009/08/19/base-hospital-no-6-at-bordeaux-8191918/

Judith Weingarten on fancy dress parties, fashion design, and a Victorian fascination with Queen Zenobia
http://judithweingarten.blogspot.com/2009/08/double-duchess-and-zenobia.html

Lidian at The Virtual Dime Museum on a famed fortune-teller in 1850s New York
http://thevirtualdimemuseum.blogspot.com/2009/09/magic-and-matrimony-dark-doings-of.html

Reassessments and discussions:

From Philip Blue, Gaziantep and a thought on ‘Orientalism’
http://philipblue.blogspot.com/2009/09/gaziantep-and-thought-on-orientalism.html

Jonathan Dresner at Frog in a Well on Hirohito's last birthday
http://www.froginawell.net/japan/2009/09/hirohitos-last-birthday/

Discoveries:

Alan Baumler has been writing about his visits to the Shaanxi Provincial Archives, and this post looks at the work the archivists are doing
http://www.froginawell.net/china/2009/09/looking-behind-the-curtain/

At the Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog, a piece on touselle – Louis XI’s “miraculous wheat”
http://agro.biodiver.se/2009/08/selling-touselle/

Thanks to Sharon Howard, Elizabeth Kerri Mahon, Penny Richards, Philip Blue, Jonathan Dresner, Richard Landers, and Jeremy Cherfas for nominations.

http://www.historycarnival.org

Another bumper crop of Twitterstorians

2009-09-30T00:53:00.001+01:00

I’ve discovered dozens more in the last few days, so in no particular order:

@mdiane_rogers
@Matt10000
@materialculture
@mike_taylor_
@ChuckCrossett
@liyi509
@Publius_Clodius
@LauraKSwain
@jbcrider
@rashedchowdhury
@andrew_holt
@skt022
@Occidentaljihad
@ChloeOkoli
@MissMarmelstein
@daniellaperry
@jacklord
@mc_hunter
@aelewisTA
@BrianRobick
@robync85
@lybberty
@Burrite
@mlouisalocke
@MichaelAronson
@RScottClark
@charlottelydia
@dvhunter
@GraniteStudio
@WestonsuperMum
@jtheibault
@tehm
@dalyhistory
@historydaily
@c16history
@historyofall
@tonysearl
@myhistorylog
@historyanorak
@dacromwell
@b_hawk
@karlsteel
@omfjallen
@tehm
@jennifernbrown
@tannerritchie
@kevinlevin
@tjowens
@burkeandhare
@WiredHumanities
@oldsundy
@antoniaschreibt
@pfletch4
@str8history
@baolson
@jbcrider
@ProfSpoon
@clinefelter
@Wendell_Howe
@CCHistoryProf
@nkogan

History Carnival and Still More Twitterstorians

2009-09-26T18:28:00.001+01:00

I will be hosting the History Carnival here shortly, please send entries to me via email or twitter, or via the form here http://historycarnival.org/
Nominate any recent blog posts on historical topics that you would recommend to other readers.
The carnival will be up next weekend, so entries in before then!

Meanwhile, back on the hunt for #twitterstorians:

@margiemcl Marjorie McLellan
@aehunt Andrew Hunt
@KrisLindbeck Kris Lindbeck
@bradshoebottom Bradley Shoebottom
@j_l_r
@lawhistory Josh Stein
@DrFredDOpie Fred D. Opie
@hugoschwyzer Hugo Schwyzer
@engbynik Nikki Rutledge
@GilTroy Gil Troy
@aaronsmoore Aaron Moore
@Woffproff Tracy Revels
@Miquettesfriend James Blakeley
@TheGradDean Amy McCandless
@HistoryCult Andrew Haley
@amycurry Amy Curry
@Krisrich Kristina Richardson
@mad4holly Michael A. Davis
@ekleinberg Ethan Kleinberg
@chaschick02 Heather
@ok_archive Jaime - historian of the Amazon, 19th-20th centuries.

Twitterstorians Redux

2009-09-14T14:10:00.005+01:00

Since I posted the list here, many people have visited, added themselves in the comments or messaged me about it. I even got a link on HNN!
I hope the #twitterstorians hashtag is useful and the list has helped you, dear reader, find some like-minded folk. But the (AFAIK) impossibility of searching twitter users by keyword in their profiles means it’s still tough to find people in particular fields. I excitedly went to watch this guide to “academic networking on twitter” http://www.academicevolution.com/2009/09/academic-networking-with-twitter.html but was disappointed by the Twitter 101 “advice”, no secret shortcuts or useful tools.

Here are a few more:

@jondresner Jonathan Dresner – also a colleague from Frog in a Well
@joannainchile Joanna McGarry
@joadraymond Joad Raymond
@missannersley Catherine Wright
@idlehistorian
@leasbreda Medievalist and Anglo-Saxonist

Still more! (24/9)

@cornelwest
@kevindmccann
@russeltar
@candace_nast grad student at University of
Windsor in Ontario, Canada. Also working on a digital history
guide for students looking for graduate programs.
http://dhguide.pbworks.com/
@ericmjohnson - Eric Johnson, history of science
@FashionHistoria - Heather Vaughan
@misciel - Michelle Laughran
@keithramsey
@Justinfloyd
@heidenkind - Tasha B., Art History
@gildomingo

Twitterstorians

2009-09-07T10:42:00.000+01:00

Yesterday, I asked where all the historians were on twitter. Thanks to the generosity of retweets, my message got around, and I received greetings from many – and I decided to compile a list here (including anything they posted about what they work on).

@jcmeloni Julie Meloni
@jaheppler Jason Heppler - History PhD student at the University of Nebraska-Linicoln
@jmcclurken Jeff McClurcken - My own fields are 19th C. US families, veterans, gender, mental institutions, & the digital humanities
@sfern Susan Fernsebner - historian of 19th-20th c. China, working on material culture, colonialism
@parezcoydigo Chad Black - colonial Latin Americanist, working on 18th c. Quito, Ecuador.
@history_geek Holly Tucker - early-modern history of medicine.
@glrichard Gregory Richard - legal/Southern U.S. hybrid history Ph.D. student
@lucyinglis Lucy Inglis - London from 1660 to 1836.
@twicklicious Jan Cornelius - Ancient Greece, specializations: Neolithic and Bronze, Cycladic and Mycenean mainly ... currently not more than a "hobby"
@marri Marri Lynn
@TheHistoryWoman Gaby Mahlberg
@Greeneland Julie Greene - US labor, politics, and empire, I tweet mostly on history matters and contemporary labor.
@Airminded Brett Holman - Historian of the British fear of aerial bombardment, early 20th century here.
@llmunro Lisa Munro - I'm a grad student: I study 19th c. cultural history of Guatemala
@maureenogle Mareen Ogle
@boston1775 J.L. Bell
@mercpol Nick P.
@kristenkim03 Kristen - a grad student in U.S. History.
@tanya_roth Tanya Roth - PhD candidate, US/women's history

I was already following a few historians, so here they are too:
@big_valley Susan Johnson-Roehr – architectural history
@larrycebula Larry Cebula – of Northwest History
@adevenney Andrew D. Devenney
@sepoy Manan Ahmed – of Chapati Mystery
@sharon_howard Sharon Howard – of Early Modern Notes
@publichistorian Suzanne Fischer
@hallnjean Norma Hall
@joguldi Jo Guldi
@TenuredRadical Claire Potter
@kmlawson K. M. Lawson – of Frog in a Well
@dancohen Dan Cohen
@worldhistory Russ Lewis
@digitalhumanist Dave Lester
@clioweb Jeremy Boggs
@sterflu Sterling Fluharty

Apologies if I have missed anyone out, if you want to add yourself or others please post a comment or message me on twitter @katrinagulliver

UPDATE - New additions:
@peregrinatrix Alexandra Guerson - phd candidate working on xn-jewish relations in late medieval spain
@TimHitchcock Tim Hitchcock - 18th century London, gender, sexuality, masculinity
@marcinwilkowski Marcin Wilkowski
@HouseHistorian Melanie Backe-Hansen
@quackwriter Caroline Rance - My interest is 18th & 19thC history of medicine, and I write historical novels.
@JimTurnerAZ Jim Turner - Arizona, New Spain, Reconquista, and Conquest of Mexico.

Further updates - 9/9
@kristamccracken
@gentlemanadmn
@heritagetwit
@hist_enthusiast

Still more! (plus the folks in the comments below)
@daintyballerina Early Modern drama & politics. Jacobean stage.
@conservadora Lara Kelland
@historine Anna Gesa
@theofel
@WWIIToday A.T. Nelson
@foundhistory Tom Scheinfeldt
@historying Cameron Blevins

And some twittering institutions of interest to historians:

@HistoryatCamb
@museumist
@UChicagoPress
@LookBackMaps
@history_book
@TheHistoryPress
@nypl
@HornimanMuseum
@NHM_London
@I_W_M
@britishmuseum
@HistoryCompass
@chnm
@nybooks
@HISTORY_Daily
@ihr_history
@HistoryTimes
@mitpress
@penguinusa
@historyfaculty
@smithsonian
@NYHistory

Online Journals and academic respectability

2009-09-06T13:51:00.000+01:00

Why do the humanities seem resistant to credible online-only, open-access journals? Obviously they are not going to have the heritage of the AHR, EHR, and other journals whose worthiness has been demonstrated by longevity as well as quality. But is there room in history for legitimate e-journals? I can think of a few, but the first response when I suggested an online journal to a colleague recently was “Would it count for tenure?”.

I don’t know why the simple fact of being online should cast doubt on a journal’s value. Given the slow publication process that seems to afflict many humanities journals (6-12 months for acceptance; 12-24 months before articles appear), I would expect many scholars to be clamouring for an opportunity to get their work out more swiftly, in a peer-reviewed venue.

How is such publication judged next to an article in a peer-reviewed print journal? I have never been on a committee making such an assessment, but my sense is that an article in Fabulous Online Research is judged as less worthy than one in Mediocre Print Journal.

The slow process of research and publication in history of course also means that citation indices are of limited value (compared to the sciences) in demonstrating a publication’s worth (especially of particular articles, which will take years to start appearing in the footnotes of other published pieces). And ranking of humanities journals by science matrices also tends to produce results very much at odds with the level of esteem in which journals are held within the discipline.

Is there some reason (other than bibliophile aesthetics or traditionalism) that online publications are deemed not as good as those in printed journals?

History Metablog

2009-07-07T13:11:00.000+01:00

I have been discussing with Larry Cebula (of Northwest History) the idea of a large discussion forum for historians. He has written a post here
http://northwesthistory.blogspot.com/2009/07/rethinking-h-net.html suggesting that the way to go forward is for H-NET to be that vehicle. While that would be great, and some H-NET lists are huge in terms of membership, they are small in terms of regular posters – and I’m not sure that H-NET is the way to capture people for such a project. The current H-NET list system of moderation means that ‘discussions’ tend to wither on the vine with the delay (sometimes days) of posts being forwarded on by the moderators. Twitter obviously offers immediacy but the brevity of tweets means no in-depth conversations. A twitter feed that updated people on new posts on the group blog, though – that would work.

I am a participant at Frog in a Well, and this and other group blogs have shown how these arrangements can work, and work well. But the challenge is to set up a blog where

All participants are equal: there is not one blog owner and everyone else just adding comments at the bottom
People register, under their own names, so it is a discussion forum for academics, and not random spam monkeys
A critical mass of participants is needed to get things moving, my estimate is 50+.

At the Anglo-American Conference!

2009-07-02T16:10:00.000+01:00

I am at the Anglo-American conference, which is the annual conference at the Institute of Historical Research (which is where I work). http://www.history.ac.uk/aac2009/ The conference has been going since the 1920s, and it’s fun to look at the posters for the past years and see the big names giving the keynotes addresses.
This year the theme is cities! So there are urban historians everywhere. Swarming.
One interesting thing is that the conference has a twitter hashtag, #aac_2009, which is something I would like to see other history conferences adopt. The AHA, for instance... You can follow the feed, at http://www.history.ac.uk/aac/twitter.html
All sessions will also be recorded, and I believe the plan is to release them as podcasts.

Last weekend I was at the World History Association conference, which was fun! I enjoyed visiting the town, and the National Parks Service really stepped up providing guided tours and plenty of information about the local area.

There were some great papers (mine, of course ;) and opium and Jesuits came out as particular themes (not in the same paper though, at least not that I heard!). Marion Diamond gave a fascinating paper about the 18th century reception of Opium, on a panel with a paper from Frances Karttunen about the opium addicted women of Nantucket, and I loved the keynote address by Dane Morrison about Salem and the China trade, from the perspective of expatriate Salemite communities through East and Southeast Asia in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Some elements could have been better organised, one comment I heard from a number of people (and with which I agreed) was the apparent lack of awareness of people coming from outside the US to attend (it’s called the WORLD history association, people!). The information on transport was limited, and distances were all given in times, e.g. “X is only five minutes away” - meaning the time it takes to travel there BY CAR. Nobody seemed to know the timetable for the shuttle bus, or how long it would take (I was given estimates anywhere from 10 minutes to 30 minutes), and not enough time was allowed to get between the conference sites at the Peabody Essex Museum and Salem State College by bus between panels.

Nonetheless, it was a fun experience, and I’m interested in the theme for next year’s WHA, ‘The Pacific in World History’.

Archives...

2009-05-21T22:04:00.000+01:00

When I talk to people outside academia about my work, I am often told "Oh, but you can get all of that from the internet". They seem surprised that I have to go and visit physical records, often many miles away.
Digitisation of records is a great gift for historians, but is limited too by the searchability (or lack thereof) of catalogues. The serendipitous possibilities that come of flicking to the next page, or the next file, or just of rifling through piles of ephemera, is lost in the digital project.
I have spent a lot of time in the past looking at newspapers on microfilm, and part of the fun for me is looking at what else is on the page: the other stories, the advertisements, what made up the world of those people for whom the story was NEWS.

Anyone know anything about MySQL?

2009-05-09T12:59:00.000+01:00

I am trying to install the database system in order to run WordPress, and I don't know what I am doing. I've downloaded it, clicked for it to install itself, but I haven't got any further than that. I can't find /usr/local/mysql and have no clue.

Anyone use MySQL for research? I'm not a quant. person, so I've barely mastered excel spreadsheets.