tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25418166465814525322024-03-18T20:42:47.405-04:00Margo Sheahistory, memory and public lifeMargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16960664956090437926noreply@blogger.comBlogger92125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2541816646581452532.post-22081076504114848752023-08-07T14:10:00.009-04:002023-08-07T14:47:18.736-04:00Teaching "Derry Girls" I am teaching a first year seminar on the sitcom Derry Girls. It turns out that this is a very popular topic! I am collecting some resources to use and to share with students. The articles may be of interest to others:A note to students: read the greats of Northern Irish literature. Then watch Derry Girls by Caroline Magennis What The TroublesMargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16960664956090437926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2541816646581452532.post-2835655313136400972022-08-18T10:36:00.007-04:002022-08-22T10:22:07.639-04:00Drought Poetry I don't write a lot of poetry but sometimes it feels right.Margohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16960664956090437926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2541816646581452532.post-7712850358245895992021-09-28T11:06:00.002-04:002021-09-28T11:09:56.581-04:00ECHO Greenfield Talk on Oral History I am so pleased to have connected with the LAVA Arts Center/ECHO Greenfield history makers. I met with them over the summer and then had a "redo" of that talk on Zoom last week. Here is the talk!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7SvehK1LgwMargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16960664956090437926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2541816646581452532.post-50568438035340550462021-08-08T09:48:00.003-04:002021-08-08T09:48:43.798-04:00 Book Review of Derry CityMy book was reviewed and that is always good news!You may read the review, published in the Public Historiani and written by postgraduate researcher Naomi Petropoulos here.Margohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16960664956090437926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2541816646581452532.post-66672088171951511452021-07-28T09:16:00.012-04:002022-01-17T08:53:54.328-05:00New Books Network Interview It was such a pleasure to talk with Ryan Shelton of New Books Network about my book, Derry City. I've linked to the interview here. Enjoy!For a 40% off coupon and free shipping, enter (type, don't copy and paste) the promo code 14AHA22. This offer is good for both print and ebooks, but it is only available through January 31st, 2022.
Margohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16960664956090437926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2541816646581452532.post-49626533354124539592021-03-08T11:13:00.027-05:002021-03-10T11:00:22.227-05:00On Alzheimers, Irish singalongs and History My mom loved St. Patrick's Day. The retinue of "deedle-lee-dee" gave her great joy. At some point in the week leading up to the holiday, there would be singing in person or over the phone, depending on where I lived. Her favorite song was "McNamara's Band" and she would giggle every time "Henessee Tennessee tootles the flute" was sung in the chorus. She also loved that classic Margohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16960664956090437926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2541816646581452532.post-40655489173210369612020-11-09T14:22:00.006-05:002020-11-09T14:22:48.242-05:00PEM Event, "Witch Trials and Salem Then and Now" Last month, I had the pleasure of joining a panel hosted by Dan Lipcan of the Phillips Library and moderated by public historian Kristin Harris about the legacies of the Salem Witch Trials. There are many events in Salem around Halloween that invoke, in one way or another, the witch hysteria that tore Salem apart in 1692 and led to the execution of 29 people. This one, however, Margohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16960664956090437926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2541816646581452532.post-5573437270077495172020-09-29T15:37:00.011-04:002022-01-17T08:54:08.715-05:00Book Talk at Wistariahurst Museum on Derry City The lovely people at Wistariahurst invited me to talk about Derry City and people got to jump in and ask questions, which was really fun. The talk is a little different, though obvs the themes are the same! Let me know what you think!To learn more about my book, Derry City, click
here.
For a 40% off coupon and free shipping, enter (type, don't copy and paste) the promo code Margohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16960664956090437926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2541816646581452532.post-56581270036458405212020-08-25T16:11:00.007-04:002022-01-17T08:54:17.619-05:00Book Talk at the Malden Public Library on Zoom September 3, 2020 Want to hear more about my book? You can watch an author talk here.For a 40% off coupon and free shipping, enter (type, don't copy and paste) the promo code 14AHA22. This offer is good for both print and ebooks, but it is only available through January 31st, 2022.
Margohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16960664956090437926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2541816646581452532.post-38443497960004238022020-08-09T10:34:00.001-04:002020-08-17T13:55:30.069-04:00Two Civil Rights Leaders at the Pearly GatesIt is rare that I speculate about the after life and rarer still that I anthropomorphize it, but I suppose childhood visions of heaven get stuck in our heads. I amused myself while trying to fall asleep last night with this vision.
The line-up was longer than usual at check-in, due to COVID-19 and the sheer psychic exhaustion of 2020. C.T. Vivian and John Lewis stood in the line and Margohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16960664956090437926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2541816646581452532.post-20009687883447120532020-07-05T09:37:00.004-04:002021-01-09T12:35:39.917-05:00Strawberry QueenIn case you missed it on Historians Cooking the Past, I am posting my essay about my mom, Janice Weigand Shea, here.
June 30, 2020
If he had a tail, my father's would have been wagging. He would dash from wherever he was when the car approached the driveway and stand at the screen door, waiting. "Here she comes! All hail the Strawberry Margohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16960664956090437926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2541816646581452532.post-86527256477398914982020-03-14T10:23:00.003-04:002021-03-10T11:06:14.229-05:00My Coronavirus Cooking
Photo credit: Phillipa Stanton
I love to cook. It will come as no surprise to most readers that my response to the suspension of ordinary life in the face of a public health emergency is to retreat to the kitchen and to experience and process this moment through and with food. Over the next few weeks (or months,) I will be posting images of what I am cooking along with a short Margohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16960664956090437926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2541816646581452532.post-33714697888021044862020-02-26T10:02:00.001-05:002020-02-26T10:04:12.968-05:00Nancy MacLean to come to Salem State March 5, 2020
I am so excited for this event!
Margohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16960664956090437926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2541816646581452532.post-31393724882751587372019-11-21T09:30:00.000-05:002020-01-17T09:58:54.104-05:00Affective Practices and the Trauma of Ordinary and Extraordinary Life
I've been doing some more reading in this great book in which I had the chance to include a chapter.
It's made me want to generalize a little about emotion and affect in heritage -- to take some lessons away from the work I did for the book and try to apply it more generally.
I see it this way:
Affective
practices simply refuse to be contained within binary frameworks like before/Margohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16960664956090437926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2541816646581452532.post-44732918199882674102019-11-21T07:52:00.018-05:002022-03-22T10:45:52.599-04:00Derry City Book news!
Very excited to share the catalogue info for Derry City!
(Note: If you want to buy the book, check here regularly, because I post discount promo codes from the press as they become available. The paperback won't be out for awhile, and the hardcover is pricey. ( Enter promo code 14AWP22 in the shopping cart to redeem 40% off your purchase and free shipping in the domestic U.S. until Margohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16960664956090437926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2541816646581452532.post-87957675225920870862019-10-02T13:55:00.001-04:002019-11-05T08:36:06.708-05:00Come Talk To Me About Public History!
Add caption
I'll be hanging out on Saturday ready to talk public history with you! Come see me.........
Margohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16960664956090437926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2541816646581452532.post-9999473993767548792019-03-26T10:14:00.001-04:002019-03-27T09:09:44.776-04:00Discussing Interpreting LGBT History at Museums and Historic SitesI really like teaching Susan Ferentinos' book Interpreting LGBT History at Museums and Historic Sites. I like the "primer" nature on the history of sexuality and and how historiography meets interpretative practice.
Here is a class discussion guide I've created for my students, followed by the essay questions I've assigned. Feel free to use them if they help you.
Peer-Led Class Margohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16960664956090437926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2541816646581452532.post-13721256954858606972018-10-09T11:25:00.001-04:002018-11-03T10:25:32.697-04:00Kavanaugh: This Was No Witch Hunt
I recently wrote this piece in response to the comparisons of Kavanaugh's hearings to the witch trials in Salem in 1692 on behalf of Voices Against Injustice, a Salem-based nonprofit organization:
The winds of Salem are rising. From Canada’s Calgary Herald to Fox News, in blogs and tweets,
reporters, columnists and pundits have compared recent Senate hearings on the confirmation ofMargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16960664956090437926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2541816646581452532.post-85220441790329371002018-08-04T14:34:00.000-04:002018-08-05T08:32:23.920-04:00A Poem about HomeJust a few nights after my mother died, my sister Ellen and I were driving to a hotel near the small cottage at a senior community where my parents have lived since 2013.
"What are we going to do? Mom was home." she said.
"I feel homeless," I said.
It is true. Our mother's heart was our port in the storm, an open welcome, a space of rest and respite. The bricks and mortar Margohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16960664956090437926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2541816646581452532.post-79136632983269243852018-06-20T10:54:00.001-04:002019-11-06T07:11:49.616-05:00When Someone You Love Dies: Notes for the Living
I never gave a lot of thought to death until my mother died unexpectedly two months ago. Now, I think about it all the time.
Until confronted by it ourselves, we tend to ignore death and grief. For something that is all around us, all the time, it seems invisible --- right up until we become the ones blindsided by the news of the death of someone in our intimate circle -- Margohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16960664956090437926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2541816646581452532.post-10462715091498480682018-06-09T08:01:00.000-04:002020-06-09T08:27:59.189-04:00June 9 - the Feast of Saint Columba
Credit: Museum of Free Derry
The celebrations of Saint Columba in Derry City represent one of my favorite examples of what Eric Hobsawm and Terence Ranger named "an invented tradition." In 1897, the Catholic residents of Derry began a tradition of honoring their patron saint publicly in the streets of the city, as well as in its Catholic chapels.
Here is an excerpt from my Margohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16960664956090437926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2541816646581452532.post-82580341528809512962018-03-27T15:40:00.001-04:002018-03-27T17:00:20.037-04:00Public History Summer CourseTake a class with me this summer! Online conversations, field trips, occassional class meetings. You will love it. Registration Information: click here.
Margohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16960664956090437926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2541816646581452532.post-18608856102962453402018-03-06T16:10:00.001-05:002018-03-07T08:30:23.789-05:00Piracy or Exchange? The Fate of Ideas in the Avaricious AcademyRecently, a friend and fellow historian read a section of my manuscript for me. She made an acute observation about the ways my protagonists consistently dug deep into the past whenever faced with a new conflict or challenge. "Interesting how they always take the long view," she noted in a comment.
The long view. I love the phrase. So much so, in fact, that I am determined to use it.Margohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16960664956090437926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2541816646581452532.post-35259432463632014082017-11-10T06:20:00.002-05:002017-11-10T11:55:53.943-05:00Listen to Veterans: the Student, Citizen, Soldier Oral History ProjectVeterans of the armed services aren't visible in our public and political culture because they aren't statistically significant. That's what Tom Landers, an Army veteran and a graduate student in History at Salem State University, reminds us in an oral history with historian Andrew Darien for an important oral history project that launches for Veterans Day.
Support for veterans' benefits Margohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16960664956090437926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2541816646581452532.post-62550122666928734462017-09-01T08:34:00.001-04:002017-11-02T04:20:13.406-04:00Places Project Summary
I copied over this article from the UMass History Dept blog.
In
2015, I set off for south-central Tennessee’s South Cumberland plateau
to take up a two-year Mellon fellowship with the Collaborative for
Southern Appalachian Studies at Sewanee: the University of the South.
The Collaborative, a partnership with Yale, envisioned starting and
sustaining Margohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16960664956090437926noreply@blogger.com0