As many of you know (or will shortly), I spent much of my career doing public scholarship–apparently so much of it that I cannot be considered an “emerging voice” (no, not bitter, why do you ask?).
A bit over a year ago, I discovered the AskHistorians subreddit. Like many people, I thought Reddit was for Nazis, people who thought Nazis were too tolerant of minorities, and people who thought Nazis were a Jewish conspiracy theory something something Israel.
As it turns out, though, AskHistorians is probably one of the best curated, best moderated forae where professional historians and amateur/history buffs come together: questions are posed, and serious answers are given, with a host of moderators to keep out and delete the unserious and/or uninformed comments.
AskHistorians is doing an academic conference — short papers (10 minutes), delivered by video, no registration fees, with plenty of opportunities for everyone to join in the fun. I’ll be delivering a paper on the importance of epidemics for social history (recorded two weeks ago, in fact); with an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session on Wednesday the 16th.
There are also several networking events, including a chance for people interested in graduate school to talk to other academics about what it’s like.
It’s a great chance for everyone interested in history to hear some interesting (short) papers, and for those interested in public history to be introduced to the forum. Check it out!
Christopher S Rose 