Reconstruction and Reenactment and Their Role in Recovering History (A Roundtable)
Sponsoring Organization(s)
Higgins Armory Museum
Organizer Name
Kenneth Mondschein
Organizer Affiliation
Higgins Armory Museum
Presider Name
Kenneth Mondschein
Paper Title 1
Discussant
Presenter 1 Name
Michael A. Cramer
Presenter 1 Affiliation
Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY
Paper Title 2
Discussant
Presenter 2 Name
Lisa Evans
Presenter 2 Affiliation
Independent Scholar
Paper Title 3
Discussant
Presenter 3 Name
Darrell Markewitz
Presenter 3 Affiliation
Wareham Forge
Paper Title 4
Discussant
Presenter 4 Name
Greg Mele
Presenter 4 Affiliation
Freelance Academy Press
Paper Title 5
Discussant
Presenter 5 Name
Neil Peterson
Presenter 5 Affiliation
Wilfrid Laurier Univ.
Start Date
11-5-2014 10:30 AM
Session Location
Bernhard 210
Description
This past Congress saw several extraordinarily popular and successful reenactment/recreation activities—the judicial duel performance, the wine-hour astrolabe workshop, the plainsong workshop, the iron smelt, and, of course, the medieval beer-tasting. But how useful are such activities to our academic disciplines? Are they valuable to understanding the past, or mere sideshows? How can they increase interest in our subject in an age of reduced budgets and relentless focus on math and science education? How can they find a place in pedagogy without seeming like pandering? How should hiring and tenure committees look at such activities? Finally, what historigraphical issues and difficulties are involved, and how can these distort our view of the past? Several of the participants from this past year's activities have stepped forward to participate in a roundtable to discuss their activities, what insights they provide, and their place within the larger academic discipline.
Kenneth C. Mondschein
Reconstruction and Reenactment and Their Role in Recovering History (A Roundtable)
Bernhard 210
This past Congress saw several extraordinarily popular and successful reenactment/recreation activities—the judicial duel performance, the wine-hour astrolabe workshop, the plainsong workshop, the iron smelt, and, of course, the medieval beer-tasting. But how useful are such activities to our academic disciplines? Are they valuable to understanding the past, or mere sideshows? How can they increase interest in our subject in an age of reduced budgets and relentless focus on math and science education? How can they find a place in pedagogy without seeming like pandering? How should hiring and tenure committees look at such activities? Finally, what historigraphical issues and difficulties are involved, and how can these distort our view of the past? Several of the participants from this past year's activities have stepped forward to participate in a roundtable to discuss their activities, what insights they provide, and their place within the larger academic discipline.
Kenneth C. Mondschein