In the coming year, public engagement should focus on how Americans understand history, racial justice, LGBT+ equality, and the women’s rights movement.
One important humanities question that has made several appearances in different forms is how Americans remember and memorialize history, particularly in regards to the eras surrounding the American Revolution and the Civil War. This has come up in discussions about statues of Confederate leaders and/or slaveholders. It also came up in the Trump Administration’s 1776 Commission which released a paper entitled “The 1776 Report.” While many historians found many flaws in it, this report along with debates regarding statues point to the importance the general public has been placing on national history recently and how this history is perceived. There has been a recent surge in the public appreciation of how history affects the present.
This partially stems from the question of racial justice and how it connects to the history of race relations in the United States. Over the summer of 2020, attention once again turned towards the racial component of police brutality. This opened up other discussions about racial justice as well, such as racial representations in the media. The discussions have not ended with the end of the year, however, and how to understand and implement changes in how the United States handles race will continue to be an important point. I think that how history is remembered should remain a prominent point in trying to address this question.
Determining how to remember and understand history is also related to the question of LGBT+ rights in the United States. There has been a lot of public discussion in the wake of the Obergefell v. Hodges case that legalized same-sex marriage in 2015 of future steps in pursuit of equality. While it has gotten a lot of attention as an important topic, the public needs to be engaged in a way that promotes a deeper understanding of these issues and their historical context. Given that 2020 saw a lot of discussion of how claims of religious exemption relate to LGBT+ equality that was not totally resolved, I think LGBT+ rights should be significant points in terms of public engagement.
Gender equality is another topic that has had a lot of attention recently but still needs to be pursued. In terms of public engagement, I think that there needs to be a deeper understanding of what struggles women still face and what has been done for women’s rights throughout history. Now that the U.S. has a female vice president and the Equal Rights Amendment is regaining steam, it is important for Americans to develop their understanding of gender equality issues and their historical context.
2021 is a critical time for the public to engage with humanities questions such as how Americans understand history and the evolution of equal rights movements and where they are going today. Through public humanities projects, especially in digital platforms, these questions can engage the public and develop deeper understandings.
