Wonderful clarity and focus @gvgktang! You say the history
profession has lost touch with the original role of history as a catalyst for social change...
You urge support for communities to collect self-made testimonies and “seek connection and political relevance through activist and social service organizations.” I think others in the class (as well as at large) would agree.
The big question, however, is interest and capacity on the part of the potential orgs you select. How would you go about judging that in order to make awards?
Great question! Based on our class readings, and especially Peter Dobrin's work on organizational capacity, I wanted to find groups that:
I used GuideStar for the financial research and the organizational websites for the programmatic portion. What do you think?
(Also, AAU is already interested in collecting community histories. I'm sure funding and collaboration could help them grow the project.)