Across humanities disciplines, public scholarship brings academics and community members and organizations together in mutually-beneficial partnership for research, teaching, and programming. While the field of publicly engaged humanities scholarship has been growing for some time, there are few volumes that have attempted to define and represent its scope. The Routledge Companion to Public Humanities Scholarship brings together wide-ranging case studies sharing perspectives on this work, grounded in its practice in the United States.
The collection begins with chapters reflecting on theories and practices of public humanities scholarship. The case studies that follow are organized around six areas of particular impact in public humanities scholarship: Informing contemporary debates; amplifying community voices and histories; helping individuals and communities navigate difficult experiences; preserving culture in times of crisis and change; expanding educational access; and building and supporting public scholarship. The Companion concludes with a glossary, introducing select concepts. Taken together, these resources offer an overview for students and practitioners of public humanities scholarship, creating an accessible vocabulary rooted in the practices that have so advanced academic and community life.
Although drawing on case studies from the US, these examples offer perspectives and insights relevant to public humanities around the world. This book will be of interest to anyone working within the public humanities or wanting to make their work public and engage with wider communities.
Winner of the Choice 2025 Outstanding Academic Title Award
Table of Contents:
List of Contributors
List of Editorial Advisory Board
Acknowledgements
PART 1
Foundations and Frameworks for Public Humanities Scholarship
1. Introduction: Public Humanities Scholarship in Practice and Theory
Daniel Fisher-Livne and Michelle May-Curry
2. A Eutopia for Public Humanities: A Manifesto with Case Studies
Susan Moffat
3. Strategic Legibility: Making Collective Sense of Publicly Engaged Humanities Scholarship
Jacqueline Jean Barrios, Harris Kornstein, Ken S. McAllister, and Judd Ethan Ruggill
4. Reciprocity and Redistribution: Methodologies for Rethinking Public and Community-Based Humanities Research
Antoinette Burton, Jenny L Davis, Margaret L. Brennan
PART 2
Amplifying Community Voices and Histories
5. The Literary Legacies of Macon County and Tuskegee Institute: Zora Neale Hurston, Ralph Ellison and Albert Murray
Zanice Bond, Rhonda Collier, Caroline Gebhard, and Adaku Ankumah
6. Painting on Walls: Art History and Action in the Rustbelt
Erin Benay
7. A Public Humanities Experiment: DC/Adapters, 2013 – Present
Matthew Pavesich
8. Building Community Archives: Vietnamese Portland
Hannah Leah Crummé
9. Community Heritage and Archaeology at El-Kurru, Sudan: Amplifying Local Voices and Histories
Geoff Emberling and Suzanne Davis
PART 3
Preserving Culture in Times of Crisis and Change
10. Save Our Block: Public Humanities, Zines, and the Connecting the Classroom in Baltimore
P. Nicole King
11. Collaborative LGBTQ+ Public Humanities Scholarship: Expanding Educational Access Through Community Archives and Public History Exhibitions
Mary C. Foltz
12. San Antonio Storyscapes: Student Storytelling Partnerships
Jenny Hay and Lindsey Wieck
13. Addressing Slavery and Its Legacies: One Model for Moving Forward
Jody Allen, Jajuan S. Johnson, and Sarah E. Thomas
PART 4
Informing Contemporary Debates
14. Highland: A Publicly Engaged Historic House Museum
Mariaelena DiBenigno and Sara Bon-Harper
15. Vandalism and Storytelling in the Emmett Till Case
Dave Tell
16. Advocating for Intersectional Anti-Racism
Jennifer Ho
17. Climates of Inequality: Community Co-Curation and Action-Oriented Public Humanities at Minority Serving Institutions
Raquel Escobar and Wilmarie Medina-Cortés
PART 5
Helping Individuals and Communities Navigate Difficult Experiences
18. Benchmarks for Success: The Buildings-Landscapes-Cultures Field School in Milwaukee
Arijit Sen
19. A Veterans Oral History Project: Supporting Veterans Homecoming, Pedagogy, and the Community
Barbara A. Gannon and Jessica Oldham
20. Philosophy for Children as Trauma-Informed Pedagogy: Lessons from the Las Vegas Philosophy for Children Initiative
Amy Reed-Sandoval
PART 6
Expanding Educational Access
21. Transforming Moʻo and Moʻolelo: Stories from a Hawaiian, Community-Based, ʻāina Organization in Kailua, Oʻahu
Maya L. Kawailanaokeawaiki Saffery
22. Archaeology Outside the Academy: Public Practice at Frost Town
Alexander J. Smith
PART 7
Building and Supporting Publicly Engaged Scholarship
23. Uneven Ground: Making the Public University Work Anywhere People Gather, Learn, and Grow
Kendra Sullivan and Ángeles Donoso Macaya
24. History Labs: Building a More Effective Case for the Power and Efficacy of Humanistic Training
Jay Cook, Rita Chin
Glossary
Index
About the Author :
Daniel Fisher-Livne is Assistant Professor at Hebrew Union College- Jewish Institute of Religion, USA. He holds a concurrent appointment as Research Affiliate at the National Humanities Alliance, USA.
Michelle May-Curry is a Washington, D.C.-based curator, core faculty for Georgetown University’s Master of Arts in Engaged and Public Humanities, and Research Affiliate at the National Humanities Alliance, USA.
Review :
"Fisher-Livne (Hebrew Union College) and May-Curry (Georgetown Univ.) present essays by a variety of professors, museum curators, librarians, and others working in public humanities, which provide guidance to practitioners and demonstrate how vital such projects are to the further development of humanistic studies and to our communities. Intended for multiple audiences engaging with public humanities—whether in theory and research capacities or in designing, implementing, or evaluating actual projects . . . The case study format allows for easy adaptation of project ideas to other contexts, making it particularly useful for faculty looking for ways to involve students in community-based service learning projects. In a time when many question the relevance of the humanities in higher education and public life, this volume is critical. Summing Up: Essential. Undergraduates through faculty; professionals."
--M. Anderson, CHOICE
