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When I was an undergrad at York I began as only a Fine Arts Cultural Studies major. In my first two years of studies I enjoyed taking all of the “artsy” classes, particularly when it came to photography. But when in my third year I could not get into many of the art classes I wanted to, I ended up taking the year to meet all the requirements needed outside of the fine arts. I started with a few Ukrainian culture courses and one history course. I still remember sitting in the classroom the first day of Eastern Europe, Since 1918; the history course I had decided to take. The professor laid out his expectations and I remember being quite worried that I would not be able to do well, as I had not taken a history course since grade nine. However, I stuck it out and it ended up being one my favourite classes, not to mention it motivated me to add history as a minor. Basically, from that day on I was hooked…
What I find fascinating and what keeps me inspired all the time, is how passionate history professors are about their work. The amount of knowledge they possess on any given topic is what keeps me coming back, so to speak. In many of my history classes it never felt like I was in school. Rather it felt like I was sitting in on story time, not in a lecture. I also enjoyed the debates that would develop as a result. You think you have a good take on a historical subject, then someone throws out a different viewpoint and you cannot help but stop consider it, which I think teaches you to be more objective. Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code is a good example of that. In this novel, the author put forth a very controversial alternative to a history that has been otherwise considered fairly concrete. It prompted scholars to revisit this history and generated a craze of documentaries and books that either considered this new alternative or refused it. If nothing else, debating the various perspectives definitely keeps things interesting and it opens your mind up to new possibilities.
The challenge is in transferring your passion for history over to the general public, who might otherwise find it somewhat uninteresting. However, I think that one of the students in my class got it right when she said, you have to draw people in with emotion first not facts. This is why I think Dan Brown's novel was such a success. I too believe that in order to draw in the general public to experience the wonderful world of history, we need to reel them in with emotion and then we can teach them about the facts. And I am continuously learning about the problems and issues surrounding the work of public historians.
What I find fascinating and what keeps me inspired all the time, is how passionate history professors are about their work. The amount of knowledge they possess on any given topic is what keeps me coming back, so to speak. In many of my history classes it never felt like I was in school. Rather it felt like I was sitting in on story time, not in a lecture. I also enjoyed the debates that would develop as a result. You think you have a good take on a historical subject, then someone throws out a different viewpoint and you cannot help but stop consider it, which I think teaches you to be more objective. Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code is a good example of that. In this novel, the author put forth a very controversial alternative to a history that has been otherwise considered fairly concrete. It prompted scholars to revisit this history and generated a craze of documentaries and books that either considered this new alternative or refused it. If nothing else, debating the various perspectives definitely keeps things interesting and it opens your mind up to new possibilities.
The challenge is in transferring your passion for history over to the general public, who might otherwise find it somewhat uninteresting. However, I think that one of the students in my class got it right when she said, you have to draw people in with emotion first not facts. This is why I think Dan Brown's novel was such a success. I too believe that in order to draw in the general public to experience the wonderful world of history, we need to reel them in with emotion and then we can teach them about the facts. And I am continuously learning about the problems and issues surrounding the work of public historians.
My hope is that one day I will inspire others with the historical subjects I am passionate about, in the same way that I have been inspired by the work of my professors and students alike. Do not forget, I was a fine arts major who never imagined would be taking history. But here I am, and I could not be happier.
Photograph:
The Haunted Land: Facing Europe's Ghosts After Communism By Tina Rosenberg (one of the books I had to read in the course, Eastern Europe, Since 1918).
