Tag: #bmorehistoric

July 1, 2015

Call for Papers: Baltimore Revisited – Social History for the Twenty-First Century City

Baltimore Revisited: Social History for the Twenty-First Century City will draw from a wide range of researchers inside and outside of the academy to tell the stories of how and why Baltimore looks and functions as it does today. We are specifically looking for heavily researched pieces written in an accessible voice that can offer new perspectives on the city’s social history grounded in the specific places, neighborhoods, and communities in Baltimore. Each chapter could stand alone, but together, they will offer a newer vision of local history from the ground up to complicate our view of the past, as well as the present.

June 12, 2015

Join us for Bmore Historic—Baltimore’s preservation and public history unconference

Bmore Historic — Baltimore’s annual unconference on preservation, public history and cultural heritage—is returning to the Maryland Historical Society this fall on Friday, September 25.

Bmore Historic isn’t like most historic preservation workshops or trainings. Bmore Historic is an unconference—a gathering that emphasizes the important contributions that each and every participant brings into a full day of discussion sessions, workshops and conversations. We invite neighborhood activists, history teachers, graduate students, museum professionals and preservationists to share their knowledge about how preservation and public history can make Baltimore a better place to live, work and learn.

Each year we love to bring together a diverse community of history nerds who want to network with neighbors and improve our shared efforts to turn historic places and cultural heritage into a vital resource for our community. Over the past four years, hundreds of participants have led or participated in sessions on everything from modernist architecture to records management to deindustrialization and historic preservation to finding an 21st century audience for historic sites!

Sounds interesting? Learn more about Bmore Historic and check out our tips and tricks for unconferences. If you’re sold already, you are welcome to go ahead and register to join us this fall. If you have questions or ideas, please comment here, get in touch at 301-204-3337 or share your thoughts on the Bmore Historic Facebook Group.

October 22, 2014

News: Field Tripping – Getting Historic

Thank you to everyone who came out and joined us for our Bmore Historic 2014 unconference earlier this month. Read Kate Drabinski’s column for a great take on the day or check out the unconference blog for more details.

Field Tripping: Getting Historic, Kate Drabinski, Baltimore City Paper, October 21, 2014.

“Thing is, though, my job also means that this year’s Bmore Historic Unconference is as much a field trip as a work obligation, and I got to spend the day sharing equal parts curiosity and righteous indignation with a wide swath of Baltimore-area history buffs, museum professionals, preservationists, students, and nerds as we asked those good questions of what counts as history, whose histories matter, and what the heck we should do with them…

Other sessions served as skill-building workshops in oral history, DIY genealogy, connecting youth to history and heritage issues, and how to use open-source web resources to curate online archives and collections. Eli Pousson from Baltimore Heritage shared its Explore Baltimore Heritage app that allows users to pull up historic photographs and narratives of sites all over the city from their smartphones. Drawing on her work in oral history as part of University of Baltimore’s Baltimore ’68 project, Elizabeth Nix led a packed workshop on how to do oral histories. Participants shared their ongoing Baltimore-based projects gathering the stories of such wide-ranging groups as veterans, LGBTQ people, youth, elders, laborers, suburbanites, and alt kids. These projects hope to bring out the many different and diverse ways that people have made Baltimore home.”

July 30, 2014

Registration now open for Bmore Historic unconference and a game jam with THATCamp Games

Do you work at a museum or library? Volunteer for your neighborhood design review committee or preservation commission? Teach history at a local public school or college? Then we invite you to join us for Bmore Historic unconference at the Maryland Historical Society on Friday, October 10!

Bmore Historic is a unique opportunity to connect with students, scholars and professionals in public history and historic preservation for discussions, workshops and creative presentations on the issues that you care about.

How do we know you will like Bmore Historic? Because you set the agenda! Bmore Historic is an unconference where participants work together to propose the topics, set the schedule and facilitate the sessions throughout the day. An unconference is an alternative to a typical professional or academic conference where the schedule is set months in advance. Participants share session ideas online before the event and the schedule isn’t set until morning of October 10. Session leaders are encouraged to facilitate a conversation, not deliver a PowerPoint presentation! Registration is only $10 for students and $15 for professionals including breakfast and lunch.

Bmore Historic is also a great opportunity to build skills thanks to volunteer-led workshops running throughout the day. We are currently planning workshops on topics including managing digital archives and new approaches to engaged scholarship. Please let us know if there is a topic, skill or tool you want to see included.

This year, we’re especially excited to share a fun program for anyone interested in exploring the intersections of history, education, and games: the Bmore Historic Game Jam. The game jam will be a lively and experimental dive into the potential of games to bring history to life in new ways organized in partnership with THATCamp Games – an unconference on humanities, technology, games, and learning taking place at the Baltimore Harbor Hotel on October 11-12.

Learn more about Bmore Historic 2014 or get in touch with questions or suggestions. Registration for Bmore Historic and THATCamp Games is now open so sign up soon!