Questions, answers, and zoom link for June 16 and June 22 Left Historian Discussion

Over the past half-century, historians writing from the Left have crafted a scholarship that is openly public, political, and popular.  We have shifted the direction of our discipline sharply so that it is now commonplace for many historians to cast a more critical eye at established systems of oppression and, at the same time, foreground the struggles of people to transform these systems and structures.  We have brought our historical understanding to various mass movements. These are two reasons why the legitimacy of historical scholarship and the scholarship of historians itself are under attack by self-proclaimed patriots.  At the same time, we find that it is unclear what it means to be a Left historian today. That is why we would like to discuss with you the question:  What is the role of Left historians today?

 To engage and focus the discussion, we have developed the following questions:

·      What does it mean to you to be a Left historian?

·      What are some of the ways you have expressed this?

·      What are some of the challenges you have faced/face?

·      What role has H-PAD played (or could play) in supporting radical activism among historians?