Writing History is a seminar for faculty, graduate students, and exceptional undergraduate students, focused on the pleasures and challenges of writing history for a wider public. We put aside a history essay’s content, context, or historiography in order to hone our approach to the writing process—from style, pacing, and word choices to questions of audience, publishers, and of the changes wrought by digital media.

We will meet six Fridays, from noon to 2 p.m,
at
New York University
53 Washington Square South
(follow signs to the exact room).

Let us know that you are interested in coming and receiving the pre-circulated readings on this form. We will write to confirm about a week before the session.

2017-2018 Schedule

Sept. 15 – Guy Ortolano, New York University – “Thatcher’s Progress: Narrating Late Twentieth-Century British Urban History through a Single Morning’s Drive” – Portrait Room, ground floor of 53 Washington Square South

Oct. 13 – Ada Ferrer, New York University – “Cuba: An American History” – Portrait Room, ground floor of 53 Washington Square South

Nov. 10 – Beryl Satter, Rutgers University-Newark – “Are Banks People? The Challenges of Writing Intellectual History and Financial History” – Portrait Room, ground floor of 53 Washington Square South

Feb. 2 – Lana Dee Povitz, New York University – “Instruments of Illumination: Vivian Gornick and the Writing of Social Movement Time”

RESCHEDULED FOR FALL 2018 – James Goodman, Rutgers University-Newark – “A Sense of Where You Are: Beginnings, Middles, and Ends in History and Life”

Apr. 20 – Wendy Warren, Princeton University – “Writing about Interpersonal Violence: A Historian’s Dilemma”

The Writing History Seminar acknowledges the support of the New York University History Department, the Columbia University History Department, the Digital Humanities Initiative at The New School, the Rutgers University-Newark History Department, and the Urban Studies Program at Manhattan College 

Any more questions? Contact Adam Arenson