Engaging People in Making History: Impact, Public Engagement and the World Beyond the Campus

By examining the longer history of engagement between academics and those outside the academy and reflecting on recent experiences of collaboration, this paper provides a critical perspective on understandings of engagement and the ‘impact’ of historical research today. Considering in particular the UK higher education landscape and the recent Research Excellence Framework measurement exercise, we argue that the current approach of universities, and understandings of the relationship between them and those outside higher education, promotes a model of one-way dissemination, entails a potentially paternalistic approach to an apparently passive public, and favours easily measurable change. We suggest that by revisiting the intellectual origins of the public-history movement we can better understand where the value in the relationship between academics and the public lies. Our conclusion is that refocusing on the process of engagement – rather than specific and easily evaluated outcomes – better reflects and values the most successful, productive and democratic collaborations between researchers and non-academic partners.