Wendy Wickwire’s 2019 book At the Bridge: James Teit and an Anthropology of Belonging is described as “beautifully crafted” and has been a runaway success in Canada, garnering more than ten awards and award nominations to date. With a view to thinking about the ways we create history, the BCHF invited Wendy to prepare a keynote speech for our first virtual AGM and Kitchen Party in September of 2020. We asked her to reflect on the idea and practice of public history from her vantage point as an academic historian who tailors her work to live beyond the academy, to appeal to a wide audience of readers from many disciplines. This article is an edited version of those remarks.
I was intrigued to learn that public history as a “movement” arose in the USA in the 1980s as a way of improving a dwindling job market for PhDs in history. I couldn’t help but notice a parallel in Canada: a host of new public history programs at UVic, Western University, York University, and Concordia were aimed at creating new employment niches for the country’s history graduates.
Despite the nod of many universities to this ideal
