President of the graduate organization Public History Professionals (PHP), Derek Pridemore had to think on his feet when the history department let him know the university had pulled their funding, and the Public History Symposium might not be able to happen this year.
“Previously the history department would use the funding that it had for activities like this to help out the symposium committee, which was usually just public history graduate students. When the funding was pulled, the only way for it to happen was if the student organization took over and completely did everything,” Pridemore said. “As the president, I went to our meeting and asked if they wanted to take on this responsibility, and everyone voted yes.”
Pridemore presented at last year’s symposium and felt like the event could have been bigger and had more people involved to get the word out about the program and its accomplishments.
“The public history program at Wright State is the second or third oldest in the country, so to lose it would be very sad. Wright State does not really talk about how many museum professionals and archivists are being produced here. They are getting jobs all over the world in some of the biggest museums,” Pridemore shared.
In the first session of the symposium, students from outside of WSU are coming in to present to attempt to make Wright State known for public history again. Unlike topics such as science or math, you are more likely to be able to understand history even without a background in it, according to Pridemore.
“These nine presenters that we’re having have done hundreds of hours of research and work. Public historians are not the gatekeepers of history, we don’t collect all of these objects and artifacts and hold them locked down. Everybody is a public historian, essentially,” he said.
Session two focuses on African American history, and is the part of the symposium Pridemore is most excited for.
“I care so much about African American history, because I believe that is one part of American history that is distorted and not represented well. People need to learn more about African American history now more than ever with what’s going on in the country,” he shared.
Pridemore said he is incredibly grateful for the support of the history department, even when they couldn’t afford to put on the symposium due to the loss of funding. “PHP took a lot of responsibility to do this and we’ve done a lot of work, but we couldn’t have done it without the support and the help from the faculty and the staff of the history department,” he said.
It will take place on Friday, March 16 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in 163 Student Union.
