What is "hot" in history today?

[New England Nat]

There are some fields memory isn't going to leave, usually ones with particularly bloody pasts.  Holocaust Studies, latin american history, African American history, Western (American) history.  But those are also the fields that have been using them for a long time, so it's most developed.  It's a tool you have to have in the box, but just because you are using it doesn't mean anyone is going to be impressed. 

[kdavid]

I've been away from American academia for a long time, and my undergraduate was in English.

 

Could anyone recommend some primers on memory studies? I'm interested in learning more about the theory behind it.

[Andean Pat]

In U.S. history, I think Borderlands is pretty hot. I see a lot of postings on H-net about books, jobs, etc in that field. Suburban diversity, which is my field, is popular in urban history, which has its pluses and minuses. 

Excellent thread!!! I have discovered that my interests are quite hot. Now, "hot" we mean in cutting-edge schools (i.e. mostly North American, some European and Asian) as opposed to several schools that are behind. 

 

In addition to transnational approaches, I would say that gender studies still remain strong.  Urban/environmental history, memory studies, and digital research are also pretty big now, I think?

 

 

Borderlands is definitely still big but maybe somewhat on its way out of fashion - it's been "the big thing" in US history since what, the mid-late 90s? My understanding is environmental history is the hottest topic today.

 

Someone give me a primer on digital history, I don't know much about that outside of the archival context.

In Latin America is quite new, specially because traditional history and top schools, while diving into specific subaltern history such as Precolumbian peoples', geographical peripheral historical studies are not THAT welcomed.  

 

Memory studies in History are on their way out, especially in South America. I changed directions 180 degrees.

Absolutely, however in MANY circles is being used as apologetic history which complete undermines the purpose of historical studies.

 

From my personal exchange with some professors across different departments, politics of gender and oral history are pretty hot in my subfield (Modern East Asia/ China). I have heard a lot of discussion on digital history (as in how to digitalize the conventional way of going about doing oral history for example) so I guess it is rising in terms of popularity. In Chinese history, transnational historiography has been quite the trend for the last few years for it shifts the orthodox historical paradigm of analyzing china as a lone entity separated from the world to be among the main players on the world's stage.

 

More and more historians are paying attention to the history of the borderland in Asia as opposed to frontier because the former points to an allegiance of fluid identity subject to changes while the latter holds a more restrictive connotation. I would say borderland history, cross-ethnic, cross-cultural history are also pretty hot right now especially in the context of what is going on now in the South China sea between East and South East Asia. The politics there is a total chaos.  

I love the idea of borderland, even in Spanish it sounds as a flexible uncertain territory that may fluctuate in time. The complexitiy of borderlands studies rests on the amount of elements that interact at the same time and modify the environment in different ways.

 

In U.S. history, I think Borderlands is pretty hot. I see a lot of postings on H-net about books, jobs, etc in that field. Suburban diversity, which is my field, is popular in urban history, which has its pluses and minuses. 

Yes, urban history is quite hot here as well as a means to explain nation-building. It's a little to servile but it's OK.

 

Thank you for sharing!!!! I am thrilled that my interests (borderlands studies, environmental history and interdisciplinarity (??)) are hot in the US!!!!! I had a terrible time defending them in my viva in my undergrad...  

 

Now, digitalisation in the humanities is by no means hot down here (Cagefree, what do you think?). If you go into the National Archives, you would believe there are people smoking right there were the archives are, they are very poorly kept and most are mistreated. On the other hand, I know a small archive in the Andes where there was one man devoted to the scanning in high resolution of old pictures of the town. This initiative, however, is ad honorem and unsupported by any state organism. I am glad to go to the US to learn more about this (my school has a special seminar on digital age and the humanities).

 

Mind my typos I am sooooooo happy!!!!!! :D

[CageFree]

I've been away from American academia for a long time, and my undergraduate was in English.

 

Could anyone recommend some primers on memory studies? I'm interested in learning more about the theory behind it.

 

A good edited volume is the Collective Memory reader.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Collective-Memory-Reader-Jeffrey-Olick/dp/0195337425/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363565576&sr=8-1&keywords=collective+memory+reader

[CageFree]

Now, digitalisation in the humanities is by no means hot down here (Cagefree, what do you think?). If you go into the National Archives, you would believe there are people smoking right there were the archives are, they are very poorly kept and most are mistreated. On the other hand, I know a small archive in the Andes where there was one man devoted to the scanning in high resolution of old pictures of the town. This initiative, however, is ad honorem and unsupported by any state organism. I am glad to go to the US to learn more about this (my school has a special seminar on digital age and the humanities).

 

Mind my typos I am sooooooo happy!!!!!! :D

 

I am going to be visiting those archives this summer for the first time. Joy! :/

[Andean Pat]

I am going to be visiting those archives this summer for the first time. Joy! :/

Well, maybe they've improved something, like the smoking. Great time of the year to come because it's winter so you won't suffocate!!  

 

There are other archives that are nice, like the Buenos Aires council's newspaper library, people there are very nice. The one in the Library of Congress (here) has better machines but less helpful staff and you can't take pictures. 

 

Hope you have a great time in the adventure of coming to these archives!!! And, if you want, we can grab a cup of coffee some time. 

[vtstevie]

Joyce Appleby's Inheriting the Revolution is really great and pretty influential on my work on memory

[CageFree]

Well, maybe they've improved something, like the smoking. Great time of the year to come because it's winter so you won't suffocate!!

 

There are other archives that are nice, like the Buenos Aires council's newspaper library, people there are very nice. The one in the Library of Congress (here) has better machines but less helpful staff and you can't take pictures. 

 

Hope you have a great time in the adventure of coming to these archives!!! And, if you want, we can grab a cup of coffee some time. 

 

That would be great! I will be there in July and part of August.

 

I'll PM you when I get closer to finalizing my travel plans. I definitely need to pick your brain!

[Rogue856]

Just curious, how about GIS? I had never even heard of it until I picked up an edited collection on GIS and History at a Used bookstore a few weeks ago. I've found it fascinating so far. Seems to be a lot of geographers but I really liked the stuff by Geoff Cunfer.

 

Edit: Just realized folks were discussing digital humanities at the beginning of the thread

Edited March 20, 2013 by Rogue856

[Wicked_Problem]

I am curious what New England Nat's take on Rogue856's question might be... ^

Edited March 20, 2013 by Wicked_Problem

[ReallyNiceGuy]

has anyone on here ever changed their topic (not altogether, just maybe a tweak) only for the purposes of being "up to date" even if it wasn't necessarily your "passion?" I mean, on the one hand PhD applications in the humanities are clearly informed by the love of the topic you're exploring; on the other hand, it's a job application, and one should exhibit the traits/skills your future employer demands.

 

right?

[Bactrian]

has anyone on here ever changed their topic (not altogether, just maybe a tweak) only for the purposes of being "up to date" even if it wasn't necessarily your "passion?" I mean, on the one hand PhD applications in the humanities are clearly informed by the love of the topic you're exploring; on the other hand, it's a job application, and one should exhibit the traits/skills your future employer demands.

 

right?

I would say, and this is purely my own subjective opinion, if all it would really, truly take is a tweak then go ahead and do it. But I wouldn't overhaul my project to make it trendy. If it wasn't my true interest I'm not sure I could do a convincing job of it anyway.

[lafayette]

has anyone on here ever changed their topic (not altogether, just maybe a tweak) only for the purposes of being "up to date" even if it wasn't necessarily your "passion?" I mean, on the one hand PhD applications in the humanities are clearly informed by the love of the topic you're exploring; on the other hand, it's a job application, and one should exhibit the traits/skills your future employer demands.

 

right?

I don't know, but things are 'hot' for a reason, I think. As in, it hasn't been done too much before, and now there's a whole new route of possibilities. I think someone who is up-to-date on scholarship will to some extent be naturally interested in at least one 'hot' topic. It might be a new route to explore their pet project, or a new set of ideas give way a new project to look at within a particularly beloved period / region. I think it's a matter of, as it always, not doing what has been done before. I don't think you're reasonably going to be able to cover all the 'hot' topics, and some topics might be a little more fleeting, so you might not want to throw all your eggs into that basket. But for instance, environmental history has really inspired my work, because I think it's a refreshing new(-ish) way of looking at the environment, urban environments included. But am I going to write strictly an 'environmental history' 4 years from now when I'm working on my dissertation? Probably not. But it still helps me think in different ways, and yeah, maybe I could teach a course on this area.

But I am an Americanist -- this might be different for say, a Medievalist, who might feel their whole broad era is not particularly popular (as in, not hiring). My leaps to new inquiries are not so big.

By the way, this is where academic job seekers go to worry: http://academicjobs.wikia.com/wiki/History_2012-13 . It's a good place to see what sort of jobs are being posted and in what fields.

Edited March 20, 2013 by lafayette

[golfinggurl815]

GIS is very much digital history.  Its such an awesome tool to know--and the findings can really change traditional historiography.  I highly suggest learning it if you can--just have patience!

[New England Nat]

You can do some amazing stuff with GIS.  Anyone who hasn't explored the Stanford Spatial History project website should.  It's not something you can pick up without training but I've seen some very cool stuff using it.

[kdavid]

What is GIS?

[New England Nat]

Geographic Information Systems.  It's a classification of computer programs that arranges data with maps and helps see patterns that you might have otherwise missed.

[CageFree]

has anyone on here ever changed their topic (not altogether, just maybe a tweak) only for the purposes of being "up to date" even if it wasn't necessarily your "passion?" I mean, on the one hand PhD applications in the humanities are clearly informed by the love of the topic you're exploring; on the other hand, it's a job application, and one should exhibit the traits/skills your future employer demands.

 

right?

 

I did. My dissertation topic is completely different from what I thought I'd be doing. I really love my new topic and it's absolutely fascinating, but I switched because by the time I'm out there won't be much of a future in what I was doing before. My adviser agreed that I should switch when I brought it up.

[ReallyNiceGuy]

Geographic Information Systems.  It's a classification of computer programs that arranges data with maps and helps see patterns that you might have otherwise missed.

 

Did you study Geography as an undergrad?

[New England Nat]

I took a bunch of geography classes but not officially as a major or minor.

[dr. t]

You can do some amazing stuff with GIS.  Anyone who hasn't explored the Stanford Spatial History project website should.  It's not something you can pick up without training but I've seen some very cool stuff using it.

 

The medieval and early modern departments at Harvard are also doing quite a lot with GIS. The medieval field is also beginning to incorporate in a serious way environmental and archaeological data into what used to be a purely textual field.

[History Time]

I'm not sure if it's incredibly popular now, but I think we're about to see a boom in 1980's/1990's U.S. political history. 

[virmundi]

The medieval and early modern departments at Harvard are also doing quite a lot with GIS. The medieval field is also beginning to incorporate in a serious way environmental and archaeological data into what used to be a purely textual field.

 

Do you mean, rather, that everyone is rushing to try and catch up with Michael McCormick? (tongue in cheek, of course! :-) ) His work is amazing and the new GIS stuff that he's spearheading is extraordinary!

[spinach]

Good points to consider.

 

What are some of the key texts which introduce transnationalism as a methodology?

These works certainly follow transnational methodology, though the idea of key texts in this field of history is much more difficulty to define since it is so interdisciplinary. Many key texts on transnationalism are actually in the social sciences, especially sociology and geography.

Immigrant America Alejandro Portes, Ruben Rumbaut (soc. sci but it's the work on transnationalism)

The Many-headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners, and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic Peter Linebaugh, Marcus Rediker

"Two Revolutions: The Ghadar Movement and India's Radical Diaspora" Maya Ramnath (article)

"Print, Newspapers, and Audiences in Colonial Kenya: African and Indian Improvement, Protest, and Connections." Bodil Frederiksen (article)

Seeking Refuge: Central American Immigration to Mexico, the United States, and Canada Maria Cristina Garcia

Those are a few interesting ones, anyways.

[msmith1990]

As for the digital humanities, this one I think mostly has purchase only in the teaching side of the equation. And for that reason alone we should all pay attention to it. But in terms of scholarship, I have seen very few projects where "digital" brings anything new to what we know and how we know it. Most digital humanities discussions are about presentation, the benefits and pitfalls of visualizations, and the changing world of publishing. But unless you're working with databases and doing some interesting statistical analyses or algorithmic data mining, I haven't seen much to indicate that "digital" will bring anything new to scholarship. Blogs don't count. And online and digitized archives are probably going to degrade the quality of scholarship in the long run, though I think it's an inevitable long run.

 

I disagree with you on this one, although I think you've got some valuable stuff in your other points. Digital history actually facilitates interdisciplinary work in a lot of ways. One of my first independent research projects was a digital reconstruction of a ruined Irish cathedral as it might have looked 800 years ago, and then using that model to track how it changed, and what those architectural changes reflected about shifting perceptions of ethnicity. So there you've got history, art history, graphic design, anthropology, and maybe a few more social sciences to boot.

 

I have to admit, I'm not a big fan of the digital revolution. I'm mostly a paper person, myself. But the tools these developments give us are actually extremely valuable in breaking in some new ground, not just teaching the old, worn-out stuff.