The Encyclopedia editors had the opportunity to lead a roundtable discussion about the project at the annual meeting of the Pennsylvania Historical Association conference, held October 14-16, 2010, at Susquehanna University. We were pleased to see scholars from so many universities taking interest in the project and contributing their ideas and thoughtful questions. Thanks to the historians from Penn State, Temple University, Villanova University, Philadelphia University, Millersville University, Lehigh University, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and elsewhere for your participation. (That was quite a lineup of past presidents of the PHA in the back row!) Specific topics recommendations received have been added to our nominations list on the home page of this site, and we look forward to receiving more.
Blog Category: News, page 8
Spotlight on Children’s Television
This week our Children’s Television essay is featured by Rutgers Media Relations in a news release by Ed Moorehouse. The article calls attention to the Rutgers-Camden connections of the two authors, Vibiana Bowman Cvetkovic of the Robeson Library and the Ph.D. program in Childhood Studies, and Brandi Scardilli, who earned her M.A. from the Rutgers-Camden Department of History. In the interview, the essay authors also comment on children’s television programming today. Update: Listen to Vibiana Bowman Cvetkovic discuss her research on WHYY-FM, broadcast May 9, 2012.
Summer 2022 Call for Authors
During Summer 2022, The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia seeks authors to write essays to finish important subject categories linking the Philadelphia region with the nation and the world. For the list of available topics and further information, link here.
Publication in The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia is an opportunity to share expertise with a wide general audience. Our scope of coverage encompasses Philadelphia and the nearby region, including southeastern Pennsylvania, South Jersey, and northern Delaware. Prospective authors should have publications or other demonstrated expertise in their subjects, and all submissions will be peer-reviewed. Accepted essays will be published online and considered for inclusion in prospective print volumes, and modest compensation is available.
Author guidelines: link here.
Support from Rutgers-Camden Digital Studies Center
We’re pleased to share the news of new support for The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia project from the Digital Studies Center at Rutgers-Camden. This grant will allow us to improve and expand our bibliographic survey by migrating it to Zotero, a platform that will make the citations more user-friendly and accessible to the public. Watch our Sources page for this transformation by the end of the summer.
Support from the Pennsylvania Humanities Council
A newly-awarded grant from the Pennsylvania Humanities Council will allow us to launch the Greater Philadelphia Roundtable, a series of public forums for dialogue that will help shape the contents of the Encyclopedia. The first sessions of the roundtable, beginning in March, will respond to suggestions received on this web site and at our Civic Partnership and Planning Workshop last year. See our Events calendar for details of the first three roundtables, and watch for an additional session that is being planned on African American history. Each session will feature new research, lively discussion, and the opportunity to contribute ideas for Encyclopedia topics.
Thank you for supporting our “Backgrounder” proposal in the Knight News Challenge
When we asked our friends and partners to support us in the Knight News Challenge, you responded – thank you! Our online “likes” doubled in just two days, and we concluded the competition period with 194 “likes” and 92 comments on our proposal. While the competition urged us to focus on the quantity of participation, we are especially pleased by the quality of the online discussion, which demonstrated support while also posing good questions and offering additional ideas. The winners of this funding from the Knight Foundation will be announced in June.
Thank You for Supporting us in the News Challenge
We were so grateful and impressed by your expressions of support for our application in the Knight News Challenge. We have learned that our proposal will not be advancing to the next round of the competition — in all, more than 1,100 applications were submitted and all but 51 were eliminated in the first round of screening. Although we are disappointed, we are glad for the positive developments that emerged from our collective effort. We have attracted new, enthusiastic potential partners for the future, and we have more than 200 followers for the @Backgrounders Twitter feed that we started for connecting history with the news. We will continue to use this to serve the public and add value to the Encyclopedia project. To follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/Backgrounders. To see the projects advancing to further consideration in the Knight News Challenge, and comments about the selection process, follow this link: http://newschallenge.tumblr.com/post/20962258701/knight-news-challenge-on-networks-moving-to-the-next.
The Greater Philadelphia Roundtable
Our spring series of the Greater Philadelphia Roundtable concluded May 11 with a capacity audience at the African American Museum in Philadelphia for “Philadelphia’s Black Attorneys: Not Just Lawyers but ‘Social Engineers.'” We extend to thanks to everyone who contributed their time and efforts to these community dialogues, which collectively drew more than 300 participants to four different venues and generated lively exchanges of information and views. These programs have demonstrated the strong interest of a variety of individuals and groups in being represented in The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia. We also have heard of the importance of understanding the past in order to plan for the future, especially the need to reach out to today’s youth. The extraordinary collaboration among so many groups and individuals forged by these programs will guide the planning of future programs and help to shape the future content of The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia. Please continue to join the dialogue as we post summaries of the spring discussions and watch for announcements of future events.
The Greater Philadelphia Roundtable: LGBT Activism
Our new initiative for civic dialogue, the Greater Philadelphia Roundtable, began this week with a gathering at the William Way Community Center for a panel, “Striving for Equality: LGBT Activism in Greater Philadelphia.” The discussion highlighted the generations of activism necessary to achieve goals such as the Philadelphia civil rights bill and the Pennsylvania hate crimes bill. By understanding the connections that advocates for LGBT rights have forged between Philadelphia, Harrisburg, and Washington, we gained insight into Philadelphia’s impact in the state and nation. We discussed the importance of visibility for LGBT people in Philadelphia’s history and the prospects for continuing conversation and future collaborations with the Encyclopedia project. We thank the participants and many cosponsors of this event, especially facilitator Kathy Padilla for organizing the panel. Thanks also to Professor William Hewitt of West Chester University for stepping in as speaker to discuss the life and legacy of Bayard Rustin. Topics submitted on comment cards have been posted on our nominations page , and a more detailed summary of the event will be posted soon to allow the conversation to continue.
The Greater Philadelphia Roundtable is supported in part by the Pennsylvania Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities We the People initiative for American history.
The Scribe of Camden
Howard Gillette — whose dedication to the Encyclopedia project shaped our vision of a regional information gateway, based in civic engagement — is featured prominently in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer. The column by Kevin Riordan focuses on Gillette’s research on the postindustrial history of the City of Camden in addition to his work to promote inclusive public history projects such as the President’s House site in Philadelphia. Read the article.