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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Life after thirty: the history workshop |
Authors: | Lissoni, Arianna Nieftagodien, Noor |
Year: | 2010 |
Periodical: | African Studies (ISSN 1469-2872) |
Volume: | 69 |
Issue: | 1 |
Pages: | 1-139 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | South Africa |
Subjects: | historiography social history local history history education cultural heritage popularization conference papers (form) 2009 |
External link: | https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/cast20/69/1 |
Abstract: | On 3-5 April, 2009, on the occasion of thirty-odd years of the History Workshop (HW) at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), South Africa, a colloquium was convened to both celebrate its longevity and reflect critically on its practice. The cluster of papers collected here as articles represent a snapshot of the debate that took place. The cluster is organized, ostensibly, around the colloquium's five substantive panels: social history, oral history, public history, local history, and history in education. The first panel on social history, to which Deborah Posel's paper was a contribution, interrogated the radical roots of social history while questioning its continued existence and present agenda. The panel also reflected on the relationship between social and labour history, and if the latter has become over the years the 'neglected sibling'. Noor Nieftagodien's paper on 'local history' comes from the panel of the same name, where the focus was on how to move from localized case studies to broader generalizations, on the relationship between researchers and communities and their transformations since the late 1970s, and the crucial issue of the possible parochialism of local histories. Cynthia Kros and Ciraj Rassool both addressed the panel on public history and heritage, in which the relationship between history and its various publics, the political responsibilities of historians to public history, the politics of representation, and the commercialization of heritage and memorialization projects were debated. Sekibakiba Peter Lekgoathi's paper was part of the history in education panel, which evaluated the HW's engagement with the teaching of history in secondary schools through its teachers' workshops in the context of the changing curriculum since the 1990s, especially with regards to the controversial 'outcomes-based education' (OBE) curriculum and the adoption of oral history methodology in schools. Opening the collection is Philip Bonner's keynote address, which provides an overview of the HW's genesis, growth, and potential future direction. Neeladri Bhattachary's paper, based on his talk in the social history panel, his final remarks at the colloquium, and a public lecture on Indian historiography (held in conjunction with the colloquium), offers a comparative lens on the key debates raised by the colloquium. The issue is introduced by Arianna Lissoni and Noor Nieftagodien, with Shireen Ally. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [ASC Leiden abstract] |