Histoy is a Cage Match

By Al Preston

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            Some very exciting news! I will be attending the DC History Conference’s Oral History Symposium in Washington DC this April!

            Conferences for historical and museum professionals are pretty common, and a welcome way to let people know what you’re up to and make connections. I will be representing both my university, Duquesne University, and the Holiday Pride as its director.

            For those who have never gone to a historical conference before, allow me to demystify it a little. For traditional history, history done at a university or institution with the intent to write books and teach at a college level, professionals come to present their research and sell their books. They give presentations or talks about their work, most of the time reading from a script. There is time for questions and answers from the other professionals in the room, and then they spend the rest of the conference mingling, making connections, and listening to other presentations.

            For some conferences, there is a room dedicated to posters made by professionals or students presenting their work in a more casual way. Like a convention, the posters and presenters are set up to be approached and asked about their research and work. Posters are really good for students; they allow them to meet professionals in their field and start networking with people that may help them advance their career.

            And that’s basically it. History can feel, in many ways, like an ivory tower. Far removed from non-history professionals. However, conferences for historians are much like conferences for other fields. Unless you’re with a bunch of medievalists. They can sometimes get a little rowdy and sometimes an exhibit on replica medieval weapons is present…let’s just say I’ve heard a few stories of fist fights (someone apparently hid the weaponry) in medieval conference parking lots.

            History is a cage match (a turn of phrase you’ll hear from a variety of professionals in the field), just mostly a verbal one. When writing a book or doing research, a historian is often searching for that new little nugget, a new way of looking at a moment, person, or period of time. Your book is just your method of convincing other people of what you’ve discovered. Sometimes, your argument bumps right into the argument of another professional and that’s when you get extremely pointed questions searching for the flaws in your work. Verbally, it can get a little heated sometimes.

            However, not all conferences are like that, and I do not suspect this conference will either. Public historians and museum professionals are much more laid back about their arguments about history. They’re more focused on the networking side of things and presenting their hard work. Oral history in particular is a long and difficult process that takes up a lot of time. Any project focused around collecting and presenting oral history is of interest to other museum professionals.

            I will be presenting the oral histories we have collected since the dawn of the Holiday Pride as an individual presentation rather than a poster. I won’t spoil anything yet, as the presentation and the museum’s first exhibit are closely related.

            I will say that I am thrilled to be going and looking forward to meeting other professionals and hearing what they think of the work we’ve done. Keep an eye on our Instagram come April to hear more!