History Project Research Articles

A Black Women’s Practice: Oral History from Fisk University’s Ex-slave Narratives and the Black Women Oral History Project

ABSTRACT Building on recent works that question a simplistic, White narrative of the history of academic oral history, this article focuses on the labors of Black women related to the field. It spans the fifty years during which the first oral history programs began and the Oral History Association came to prominence by highlighting two twentieth-century bookends: Ophelia Settle Egypt collecting ex-slave narratives at Fisk University in the 1920s and the Black Women Oral History Project at Radcliffe College’s Schlesinger Library in the 1970s. 1 Spotlighting Black women’s oral history work—from project design, advising, and funding, to interviewing, transcribing, project management, and archiving—demonstrates how they developed ethos and practices that reflected themselves and their communities as part of the larger field and best practices. Their approaches are precursors to many of today’s innovations in oral history methods and theories.

Archivage à enjeux élevés et relationnalité: conversations du Sex Work Activist Histories Project

The Sex Work Activist Histories Project (SWAHP) is an interdisciplinary research and recordkeeping initiative to record and disseminate the radical knowledges, activist expertise, and important social movement histories created by activists connected to the Canadian sex worker rights movement. This paper explores how stakeholders of SWAHP work together ethically, and maintain good relations with each other when engaging in what we call high-stakes recordkeeping. Our discussions consider both the divergences or differences between academic and non-academic project partners, our convergence or common ground, and the bridges we have built between academic and non-academic concerns and practices to establish and develop methodologies and practices that inform SWAHP’s ongoing collaborations and sex-work activist histories, archives, and related activisms. We consider how to be mutually accountable to our varied and complex analytical and affective positionalities in the specific context of working ethically and relationally in high-stakes recordkeeping. We conclude by considering the relevance of these lessons to other contexts of community-led archiving and research. This paper is a lightly edited transcript of the speaker notes from a 2021 CAIS/ACSI (Allard, Ferris, Lebovitch, Clamen, and Hughes, 2021) panel presentation. Project partners are identified individually in their article sections to share, highlight, and preserve what is unique about each project partners’ perspective and voice, and to make explicit how we work together.

Conceptualizing Records: Community Archives Describing Themselves

ABSTRACT The concept of records is foundational to archival studies, yet empirical research on how members and volunteers of community and grassroots archives conceptualize records remains limited. To understand how members and volunteers of community archives conceptualize records, this study asks how members and volunteers of the Black Bottom Archives (BBA), the Detroit Sound Conservancy (DSC), the Faulkner Morgan Archive (FMA), the Hula Preservation Society (HPS), and The History Project (THP) conceptualize records and how these conceptualizations inform their programs and practices. Based on ten semistructured interviews with five archives in the United States, this research reveals that members and volunteers view records as multifaceted and contingent on ongoing negotiation, borrowing, and intervention for larger goals rather than strictly being tied to abstract, institutional, or professional notions of records. Such a view also points to a recursive and generative relationship between records, programs, and practices and keeping track of power and legitimacy.

Systems Lessons from the Panama Canal

AbstractThis paper addresses the building of the Panama Canal (particularly from 1870‐1914) and looks at lessons that modern day Systems Engineers can apply from this significant infrastructure project. There were great successes and failures during the attempts to build a canal. The Systems issues include the importance of understanding the environment, recognizing the need to think beyond the physical object ‐ Panama Canal project had significant health issues, need for infrastructure / “realization systems”, and even the need for a political revolution in Panama to enable it to be built. The importance of the organization building the system, and its leadership was also important.It is always instructive to look back at significant historical projects and learn the lessons (positive and negative). There is much to learn from a project and a system as big and important as the Panama Canal.

근현대 한시에 나타난 경주 관광 체험의 문학적 형상화 양상

Although various studies have been submitted on the response of new intellectuals to the special situation of Japanese colonial era and the representation of modern literature, this paper attempted to reveal the aspects of literary representation and the response of traditional scholars who have continued to live. In order to examine the special aspects of traditional scholars who have been pushed out of the mainstream since the introduction of new learning in modern times, the space called “Gyeongju,” which is called “the ancient city of a millennium” and is still a place for the creation of literary works today through Goryeo and Joseon, was used as one axis, and we compared the differences from the Chinese poems of pre-modern characters in a synchronic way and publicly compared the differences with the Japanese at the same time. First, it was confirmed that the representation of the space called Gyeongju in the Chinese poem changed considerably as it went through the Japanese historical tourism project. Cruise poems about Gyeongju have been steadily created since pre-modern times, and it can be seen that the historical sites that pay attention to each period and the representations of the region called Gyeongju were different. In the 20th century, Gyeongju can be said to have become a refined tourist destination stuffed as an ancient city in a medium or literary space that reminds people of Silla. The second most notable tourist destinations and labor camps followed those created by the modern Japanese imperialism, but it was confirmed that there was a big difference between the literary representation of it and the authenticity of the work. At that time, tourism had a fixed course, and information about Gyeongju encountered in advance would have also been described from a Japanese point of view. Nevertheless, the writers of Joseon did not accept it indiscriminately and resolved their feelings in their own way living in disadvantaged times. Through these poetry works, it was possible to examine the reality perception of Confucian scholars at the time and the special aspects of the poetry at that time. The poems on the Gyeongju tourism experience during the period were organized in earnest and the analysis of each work was conducted in detail to promise a more advanced study on the perception of reality and literary imagery of modern and contemporary Classical scholars, which have not been properly illuminated.

Might a Sense of Place Approach Help the Public Connect to Brayford Pool’s Medieval Heritage?

It is challenging for people to perceive a particular aspect of an area’s rich history when it is not obvious, prominent, or interpreted (Hunt, 2021). This article draws on and develops this assertion by establishing the importance of the Brayford Pool in the Medieval Period (1066–1540) and explores the challenges people face when perceiving the influence of this time period within the current landscape. The article uses the perception aspect of Sense of Place as a framework to suggest that these challenges may be overcome through shared authority and public curation. The article argues that this approach could help to re-establish the importance of the area during the medieval period. The article then considers how the principal of shared authority might be applied to create a public history project on the medieval history of the area, owned by the different communities who live, work, study, and engage in leisure activities on and around Brayford Pool. Finally, it considers the way in which this might impact positively on the other aspects of a Sense of Place: how people value a place, how people describe and interact with it, and the importance of its sustainability.

A Systematic Review of Oceanic-Atmospheric Variations and Coastal Erosion in Continental Latin America: Historical Trends, Future Projections, and Management Challenges

The intricate interplay of oceanic-atmospheric variations has intensified erosive processes on sandy beaches in recent decades, with climate change expected to exacerbate these impacts in the future. Projections for the southern Atlantic and Pacific regions of continental Latin America predict increased extreme events and heightened impacts on sandy beaches, highlighting disparities in studies addressing coastal erosion and its causes. To address these risks, a systematic review is proposed to analyze historical trends and projections, aiming to inform local-level studies and management strategies for at-risk coastal communities. Reviewing 130 research papers, insights reveal the influence of climatic events like El Niño and La Niña on coastal dynamics, as well as the effects of storm intensification and extreme events such as high-intensity waves and storm surges on Latin American coasts, resulting in ecosystem, economic, and infrastructure losses. Projections indicate a rise in the population inhabiting Low Elevation Coastal Zones (LECZ) by the century’s end, emphasizing the urgent need for effective management and planning. Community engagement in erosion monitoring and adaptation programs is crucial for addressing these challenges and developing robust, sustainable, long-term adaptation strategies. This study aims to enhance the understanding of coastal erosion in Latin American communities addressing future coastal risks.

Building bridges and preserving voices: key factors in community oral history stewardship

PurposeThe study aims to enhance our understanding of shared community oral history stewardship by exploring its practices and challenges from the perspectives of the stakeholders involved.Design/methodology/approachThis study employed in-depth semi-structured interviews with community oral history stewards. Each interview focused on their experiences and perspectives regarding community-based oral history projects. The interview data were transcribed and analyzed using a grounded theory approach.FindingsCommunity oral history stewards found oral history stewardship entails substantial effort, long-term commitment, and challenges. They concurred on the importance of partnerships between communities and archives in preserving community stories, with institutional archives providing valuable support, resources, and engagement beyond mere preservation platforms. Establishing trust between communities and archives emerged as a fundamental requirement for fruitful collaboration.Originality/valueCommunity oral history has stood out as the prevailing form within the theory and practice of oral history, but its shared stewardship practices have not been thoroughly explored from the stakeholders' viewpoints.

Case study on a scientific oral history project using information practice analysis

Introduction. This investigation explored 21st century stewardship of a late 20th century scientific oral history project through the lens of information practice. Oral history project stewardship and reuse are understudied. Literature review. Oral histories foreground human agency in the world. Often studied singly, many reflect an oral history project’s historiographic context. Stewardship documentation by multiple stakeholders accrues over time. The author developed an information practice analysis tool for systematic exploration of oral history stewardship documentation. Method. A case study approach and qualitative content analysis techniques guided investigation of documentation for an oral history project held at Science History Institute in Philadelphia. Textual data was collected for a purposive sample. Analysis and results. Multiple stakeholders’ documentation schema for the purposive sample were analysed in Excel and Word. Results coded five information work models for stakeholder information practices. Discussion. The information work models portrayed stakeholder information practices as mechanisms for stability in the stewardship of contextual assets, and mechanisms for transformation through staff knowledge, as situational assets. Conclusion. Information practice analysis of oral history stewardship in this case study systematised stakeholders’ and user perspectives on access. Implications for theory development lie in leveraging the stability and transformative agency of stewardship and reuse.

WMO Global Energy Resilience Atlas—Climate Risk Indices for Hydropower

The importance of energy transition was underlined at COP28 in Dubai, where governments committed to tripling renewables capacities and doubling the rate of energy efficiency by 2030. However, the power generated by climate-dependent energy sources exhibits greater vulnerability to potential climate changes in the long term. Therefore, climate models play a pivotal role in estimating the effects of climate change on renewables in the context of strategic planning for the development and operation of new renewable power plants. In this context, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) developed a Global Energy Resilience Atlas aimed at providing insights into the climate change risks for the hydropower sector, the largest renewable electricity source for most countries, generating over 4300 TWh globally. This study focuses on defining four Hydro Climate Risk indices (HCRIs) using historical and climate projection precipitation data for three climate scenarios. The final product is a freely available and interactive tool. The developed methodology and tool address how climate changes have historically affected hydropower generation and how they will impact the future at national scales. The final product also addresses the needs of policymakers at national, regional, and global levels in crafting long-term planning for a more secure energy sector, accelerating the energy transition to more sustainable and reliable energies.

Efficient project management of historical building groups: a BIM-based approach with critical chain method and 5D simulation

This article introduces a project management method for historical building groups using BIM technology. Historical building group projects encompass the entire lifecycle, from design, repair and reconstruction to construction and maintenance. To efficiently manage these complex endeavors, the Critical Chain Method is employed to control project progress, enabling effective coordination between various project aspects and reducing project duration. By leveraging the BIM 5D platform, the article incorporates schedules, site layouts and bidding quotations to simulate the construction processes involved in historical building projects. This comprehensive approach facilitates real-time project management, supported by video documentation and virtual walkthroughs. The utilization of BIM technology in this context allows for the successful realization of project management objectives for historical building groups. The article’s methodology aims to address the specific challenges associated with historical building group projects, enhancing their overall efficiency, cost-effectiveness and coordination among various stakeholders.

New Local History projects in the unofficial history of the city: The case of St. Petersburg

The problem of interpreting local history is relevant to St. Petersburg, as to many other major historical cities. This article examines phenomena united by the concepts of local (spatial) myth and urban narrative, which go beyond official discourse. Alternative images of the city, based on its concealed places of interest contrast with one of the most widespread representations of St. Petersburg – its association with the heritage of imperial culture. The selection of memorable places and stories shifts from recognizable city landmarks to other objects that reveal the history and image of particular St. Petersburg sites, people’s daily lives and peripheral issues of urban life. This approach to the exploration of urban space, a phenomenon called New Local History, is presented and explained in the article as the rediscovery of the historical potential of the city. The examples given in the article also show the possible role of New Local History in encouraging residents to develop an interest in their own history, in the problems of modernity and in participating in socially significant projects. Trends in interaction with urban space and memory practices that offer alternative interpretations of the past have been identified in various socio-cultural initiatives. In the context of Russian memory politics, this approach often becomes oppositional.

Identifying and predicting climate change impact on vector-borne disease using machine learning: Case study of Plasmodium falciparum from Africa

Abstract. Vector-borne diseases pose a significant threat to human health, particularly in regions vulnerable to climate change. Among these diseases, malaria, caused by the parasite Plasmodium falciparum and transmitted through the Anopheles mosquito, remains a major global health concern, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. This study explores the use of machine learning techniques to identify and predict the impact of climate change on the transmission dynamics of P. falciparum malaria in Africa.The research utilizes a combination of climate data, epidemiological records, and machine learning algorithms to analyze historical patterns and project future trends in malaria transmission. Key climate variables such as temperature, precipitation, humidity, and vegetation cover are integrated into predictive models to assess their influence on the abundance and distribution of mosquito vectors and the parasite's lifecycle. Through the application of machine learning models such as Maximum Entropy, this study aims to uncover complex relationships between climatic factors and malaria transmission dynamics. By training these models on historical data, they can accurately predict future scenarios under various climate change scenarios. The findings of this research will provide valuable insights into the potential impact of climate change on the spatial and temporal distribution of P. falciparum malaria in Africa. Such insights are crucial for designing targeted interventions and adaptation strategies to mitigate the anticipated rise in malaria cases and associated morbidity and mortality in the region. Moreover, the methodology developed in this study can serve as a framework for assessing and addressing the impact of climate change on other vector-borne diseases globally.

Cost prediction of building projects using the novel hybrid RA-ANN model

PurposeAccurate and timely cost prediction is critical to the success of construction projects which is still facing challenges especially at the early stage. In the context of rapid development of machine learning technology and the massive cost data from historical projects, this paper aims to propose a novel cost prediction model based on historical data with improved performance when only limited information about the new project is available.Design/methodology/approachThe proposed approach combines regression analysis (RA) and artificial neural network (ANN) to build a novel hybrid cost prediction model with the former as front-end prediction and the latter as back-end correction. Firstly, the main factors influencing the cost of building projects are identified through literature research and subsequently screened by principal component analysis (PCA). Secondly the optimal RA model is determined through multi-model comparison and used for front-end prediction. Finally, ANN is applied to construct the error correction model. The hybrid RA-ANN model was trained and tested with cost data from 128 completed construction projects in China.FindingsThe results show that the hybrid cost prediction model has the advantages of both RA and ANN whose prediction accuracy is higher than that of RA and ANN only with the information such as total floor area, height and number of floors.Originality/value(1) The most critical influencing factors of the buildings’ cost are found out by means of PCA on the historical data. (2) A novel hybrid RA-ANN model is proposed which proved to have the advantages of both RA and ANN with higher accuracy. (3) The comparison among different models has been carried out which is helpful to future model selection.

Comparative assessment of dry- and humid-heat extremes in a warming climate: Frequency, intensity, and seasonal timing

Dry and humid-heat extremes are two types of heat extremes, each exhibiting unique climatological characteristics and impacts on different sectors of society. Using historical simulations and projections produced under two Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSP2-4.5 and SSP5-8.5) by models from the sixth phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6), we show a comparative assessment of the future changes in dry- and humid-heat extremes over global land. Relative to 1995–2014, projections for the mid-term future (2041–2060) and long-term future (2081–2100) periods suggest that most global regions will experience an increase in frequency and intensity of both dry- and humid-heat extremes, especially the tropical regions. In these future periods, the peak occurrences of dry- and humid-heat extremes in mid-to high-latitude regions often occur within the same month. However, there will be a one-to two-month gap between the peak occurrences of dry- and humid-heat extremes in tropical regions, primarily due to monsoonal circulations that introduce variability by causing dry-heat extremes before the onset of monsoons and humid-heat extremes as the monsoons commence. This suggests the need for sector-specific adaptation strategies during different periods of the year for tropical regions. Under both future scenarios, whether considering individual exposure or land area, the average level of exposure to extreme humid-heat days is projected to increase more significantly compared to dry-heat days. The above results highlight the risks associated with the intensification of humid heat in future climate scenarios and warrant the development of effective strategies to mitigate the adverse effects.

Heat index historical trends and projections due to climate change in the Mediterranean basin based on CMIP6

Air temperature and relative humidity can be considered as two essential meteorological parameters in the determination of heat stress. The heat index (HI) includes both of them and it is appropriate for determining the thermal conditions of different climates. We investigated potential changes in the HI for the Mediterranean basin using simulations from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) climate models under two future scenarios (Shared Socio-economic Pathways: SSP2-4.5 and SSP5-8.5) over the period 2020–2099. Results reveal an important increase of HI at the end of the 21st century for both scenarios, with greater changes for the SSP5-8.5 scenario all over the basin. Strong significant upwards trends (around 1 °C per decade; significance level computed at 5%) are expected in the entire area and for all months at the end of the century, with greatest values during the summer months (close to 1.5 °C per decade) along the coastal areas of the basin. Many areas of the Southern Mediterranean basin (Africa and Arabian Peninsula) will be strongly affected with dangerously high heat index values (higher than 41 °C) during summer months by the end of the 21st century. A northward extension of these dangerous conditions is also expected including several areas of southern Europe.

The right time: women, medicine and maternal age in 1980s Aotearoa New Zealand

In the late twentieth century, increasing numbers of women in wealthy nations waited until they were aged in their 30s to give birth and become parents. This article examines responses...

Can It Be a Gamechanger? Interrogating the Prospects of Decolonization Through Public History in Japan

Abstract As a historical settler and colonizer in Asia, yet a state not colonized by European countries, Japan and its colonial history seem to have been left out from the debates on public history as a decolonizing process, due to the field having arguably been Eurocentric. This article interrogates the extent to which public history could serve as a vehicle to decolonize the history-making process in Japan and demonstrates the challenges of decolonizing through public history within Japan’s national framework due to nationalistic or patriotic silencing and censorship. Such nationalistic public history is rooted in Japan’s narratives of victimhood fostered in its course of history, including the ‘inferior’ position against the West or the experience of the atomic bombs. Moreover, Japan’s historical division between the internal and external colonies as well as its nationalistic, defensive attitude towards the history of external colonialism have played significant roles in burying its settler colonial past. To include narratives about the internal and external colonial victims, I argue that both Eurocentric decolonization and academia-centered public history in Japan need to be, in themselves, decolonized so that they provide more nuanced approaches to Japan’s colonial past. Furthermore, given that narratives of the colonial past in national history projects can be silenced under nationalistic victimhood, this article suggests that transnational collaborative public history could disconnect historical narratives from nationalistic discourses of victimhood, gathering more sympathy beyond Japan and supporting efforts towards decolonization. The overall article eventually contributes to decolonizing the Eurocentric debates on ‘decolonization through public history.’

Elevation dependent precipitation changes in historical and future times in the Himalayan Upper Ganga Basin, India

This study examines long-term (1991–2092) precipitation trends in the Upper Ganga Basin (UGB) across multiple elevations, using historical data (1991–2022) and future Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) climate model datasets (2022–2092). By identifying the top five best-fit models from 29 climate model datasets, this study assesses historical patterns and project future changes in the Near-Future-Term (NFT) (2023–2056) and Far-Future-Term (FFT) (2061–2092) under moderate and extreme scenarios. Based on the evaluation of 29 CMIP6 climate models precipitation products, five models namely: BCC-CSM2-MR, CMCC-CM2-SR5, INM-CM5–0, KIOST-ESM, and NESM3 were selected as the best models describing precipitation over UGB and future precipitation of these models were bias corrected using linear scaling bias correction approach. Also it was observed that in the UGB region usually the climate models are much more reliable in capturing the precipitation pattern in lower and mid elevation regions as compared to higher-elevation regions. Further analysis of best five climate models' future precipitation indicates a substantial increase in wet spell occurrences in the south-western part of UGB, while the north-western and central regions are expected to see a rise in dry spell counts, although dry spell increase is insignificant. The mid-elevation range from 2200 to 4050 m which historically receives the most precipitation and is expected to continue experiencing the highest volume of precipitation in the future. The lower elevation range (287–1500 m) has anticipated the most substantial increase in future precipitation. Analysis suggests a future rise in low precipitation events (2.5 mm/day to 10 mm/day) at high elevations (4050 m to 7399 m) and an increase in events exceeding 10 mm/day in mid to low elevations (287 m to 4050 m). Although an increase in low precipitation events is expected across the entire UGB, it is particularly noteworthy that the region between 287 m to 4050 m is likely to experience a greater prevalence of these events. Historically, high elevations witnessed most of the years with over 20 days of annual snowfall. However, future scenarios indicate a prominent shift, predominantly anticipating <20 days per year of snowfall, signifying a significant change in snowfall patterns within the UGB. An analysis of snowfall patterns within the UGB indicates that historically, in the elevation range of 1500 m to 2200 m, some years have experienced 3–7 days of snowfall per year, however, under the SSP245 (NFT) scenario, this is projected to decrease to 2–5 days per year. Conversely, in scenarios SSP245 (FFT), SSP585 (NFT), and SSP585 (FFT), it is anticipated that there will be no snowfall in this elevation range in the future.

О результатах проведения Всероссийского конкурса проектов «История студенческого спорта»

The article presents a report on the All-Russian contest of projects “History of Student Sports” within the framework of the All-Russian historical and patriotic student project “History of Student Sports”.