History Should Make You Uncomfortable

Symposium Date:  Saturday, March 4, 2023 at 11am ET (Via Zoom) 

On behalf of the Coalition of Master’s Scholars on Material Culture (CMSMC), the Symposium Committee is circulating a call for papers for our fifth symposium; we have brought back the theme from our inaugural event, History Should Make You Uncomfortable! You can read more about our first symposium here.

History Should Make You Uncomfortable is a phrase that we believe calls into question what it is we think we know. Too often, “history” in the grade school classroom is taught as a factual recounting of events in the past. While more specialized iterations of “history” class teach  increasingly nuanced and even critically analyzed material, what we are taught at a very basic level does in some way stay with us and influences the way we think. By asserting that History Should Make You Uncomfortable, we are insisting that there is more to the story you think you know.

History Should Make You Uncomfortable also asks scholars, and the public alike, not just to approach the subject with a critical eye, but to think about why these uncomfortable histories that we know to exist have not breached mainstream understandings of the world. It calls into question authority and visibility in the historical record and asks learners to question why it is we learn the things we do? By re-centering these marginalized, and often uncomfortable histories, our capacity to learn grows exponentially not just as individuals but societally.