Open Forum

Why is it so hard to free ourselves of our imagined pasts?

Numerous studies have shown that individuals and groups cling to their beliefs about the past despite public historians' efforts to reframe the past in more accurate and authentic ways. Why should public historians continue to beat against the tides of nostalgia? What is at stake in this ongoing struggle? And how will this dialectic play out in America's 250th?

This the first of four M and C sessions devoted to civic learning.

Dan Spock, Director of Exhibitions at the North Carolina Museum of History, has worked in museums for over 40 years. Spock is an ardent advocate for participatory museum programs suffused with pluralism, and informed by visitor research. His work is rooted in an ethos that values museum-goers as active learners. He has explored the informal means by which the public experiences and values the past as natural pathways for engaging with history in a museum context. 

Topic: Museums and Change

Time: Sep 12, 2024 12:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88134569225

Meeting ID: 881 3456 9225