In August 2016, a group of historians, science communicators and media scholars assembled in Washington, D.C. to create a History Communication curriculum and an Introduction to History Communication course.
The outcome of that meeting is below, being shared publicly for the first time. The course is meant to be inspirational, as opposed to prescriptive–the hope is that professors and instructors will take this as a leaping-off point and adapt it to tap institutional strengths and reflect campus constraints. Several professors and departments have already expressed interest in integrating some or all of this into their programs.
We’d be thrilled to have your feedback on this syllabus. Please add to it and make it stronger! A broad list of primary and secondary sources has been started, but is by no means complete. We hope that crowd-sourcing will build a stronger, more well-rounded reading list, and will help assign specific readings to specific weeks.
All readings are pending, and there is a brief list at the bottom of this document. Please share any suggested readings below. We also welcome any assignments that you have incorporated into previous class or examples of history communication that are particularly valuable.
It is an exciting time as we begin to codify the principles of this emerging discipline. Please help us make histcomm a part of undergraduate and graduate training!