Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage

Brief Definition of the Topic

Public humanists – public historians, oral historians, folklorists, curators and museum educators, public art administrators, cultural media producers, and cultural policy planners, as well as cultural heritage workers – encourage the public’s participation in the creation of meaning about history, art, and culture. They do this in many ways: sometimes as mediators between the academy and the public, interpreting the work of scholars for the public, sometimes as facilitators of public engagement with culture, and sometimes producing cultural work on behalf of communities. Public humanists work with academic humanists, communities, community cultural organizations, and individuals to explore, preserve, understand, and make use of cultural heritage, values, beliefs, knowledge, and traditions, promoting a shared examination of culture, art, and history to encourage civic engagement.

Public humanists, like workers in the cognate fields of public anthropology...