Public humanities projects focus on the “public good” and the belief that we are in it (humanity) together. Yet human society is neither equitable nor fair. It takes immense collective and collaborative work to engage broad perspectives and publics and build more equitable structures. The work begins with a central question and a focus on listening and dialogue. Completing the human project is impossible but we still strive towards a better understanding of ourselves and others. The humanities are public when they include everyone and no one, a cacophony of voices over individual claims to credit.
The use of public also denotes appealing to or at least being open to a broad audience, one from various places and perspectives. Public humanities projects are interdisciplinary, not just history, literature, media, anthropology, or art, they are the combination of methods and theories from all of these fields to seek a better understanding of the human project, what it means to be human (which is the most simplistic definition of the humanities). Public humanities projects are designed to present perspectives and questions for the public to grapple with rather than offer solutions or answers. The methods and ethics are bases in anti-racist and decolonial thinking.
For public humanities projects, as with most research, we work from central guiding questions. We may be seeking to understand a city, something we will never fully understand, and that is the project, the striving, which is like listening to a city, a thing too big to ever understand. In the humanities, you continue onward in spite of knowing you will not necessarily achieve your goals, because your goals are too big and unattainable because they are bigger than you, or the city, any city. They are the human project and the human project is the humanities and they are public because they include everyone and no one, a cacophony of voices.
Public humanities projects are based on a narrative approach to culture, a belief that it is the stories that we tell and interpret that make up our cultures and our humanity. These narratives should provide some payoff in the end, something helpful in looking towards the future. The narratives should center the tensions of our striving to understand that which is not us, and, in the process, realizing it is all of us. And that is where the work of public humanities begins.
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