I was absolutely thrilled to get to share my work with the National Park Service on February 2nd! The audience was a great mix of NPS employees and NPS postdoctoral fellows. I shared some of my projects, as well as my advice on digital humanities and community engagement.
My main tips:
- Communities know what they need, so we shouldn’t try to tell them
- Expertise is everywhere, not just among academics
- Together, we can change the story (from the popular ones everyone knows to the unheard ones we can bring to light)
- Sometimes it’s the process, not the product
- Our work is really about connections and relationships
After the talk, I got to spend another hour in a seminar with the postdoctoral fellows, where we talked about ways into digital humanities, different kinds of careers, professional challenges, and the ethics of community engagement. I absolutely love talking with early career professionals about the pros and cons of academic careers and the paths beyond higher education.
Speaking of connections and relationships, I also got to reconnect with Eleanor Mahoney, who runs the postdoctoral fellows program after 25 years! We went to high school together, where we were on the Model UN team and our school’s team for the It’s Academic high school TV quiz show. (Once a nerd, always a nerd.)