Steven Lubar at Temple University

Temple University Libraries invited guest Steven Lubar, hailing from Brown University, to a public conversation about public humanities. Our very own Museums in American Culture professor, Seth Bruggeman, hosted. Steven Lubar currently is head of a graduate program in public humanities at Brown University’s. Among other things, Lubar was also a curator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.

The event was constructed as a conversation between Seth Bruggeman and Steven Lubar. Each discussed ideas and questions, then gradually opened up the conversation to questions and comments from the audience. As Lubar pointed out, it is a great way to engage the public about public history and humanities. Lubar stressed that public humanities and public history should incorporate various studies, like anthropology, folk art, sociology, and of course history. An important concept within theses fields is the “public” association with projects and studies. Both agreed that it is important to engage the communities and include them in conversations. After all, it is public studies.

The conversation shifted gears to the inner workings of museums. Both are convinced that in the future museums will take on a new look as the design breaks down to address new audiences and spaces. Not only will the spaces become different, the professionals and their positions within museums will change. The increase of technology could replace the current object and knowledge designs, though as studies show and Lubar has noticed, some youth resist technology. This is an interesting idea that our class first discussed after reading an article in The Connecticut Cultural Consumer. The study showed that in general youth did not prefer technology in museums. After studying the evolution of museums it is evident museums change as societies change, so there us no doubt that there is change ahead.