Magazine to "Explore" Connecticut for 20 Innovators Poised to Advance History
/Connecticut Explored, the nonprofit magazine of Connecticut history, has received support from Connecticut Humanities to plan a year-long celebration of the magazine’s 20th anniversary, beginning in fall 2022, to be called “20 for 20: Innovation in Connecticut History.”
“Connecticut Explored is excited to mark this important milestone by looking forward,” founding Publisher Elizabeth Normen said. “We’re taking this opportunity to explore the question ‘What is the future of Connecticut history?,’ and in honor of our 20 years, we’re seeking to highlight 20 game changers who are on the cutting edge of interpretation and dissemination of Connecticut history today. We are particularly honored to, with CTHumanities funding, appoint a team of distinguished public historians and educators to advise this effort.”
Connecticut Humanities’ Project Planning Grant has enabled Connecticut Explored to assemble an Advisory Team of innovative and influential scholars, historians, and community members chaired by UConn Associate Professor of History and Africana Studies Fiona Vernal.
Team members include:
artist and producer Jasmin Agosto, also of Hartford Public Library’s Hartford History Center,
Christopher Newell, co-founder of Akomawt Educational Initiative,
Margaret Anne Tockarshewsky, executive director of New Haven Museum and Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
2021 National History Teacher of the Year Nataliya Braginsky of Metropolitan High School in New Haven
Dr. Clarissa Ceglio, Assistant Professor of Digital Humanities in the Digital Media & Design Department at UConn and CTExplored board member, serving as board liaison.
Working with the Advisory Team, Connecticut Explored will identify 20 “game changers”: people and projects that have changed or are changing the direction and trajectory of the interpretation of Connecticut history.
These game changers will be featured in a variety of ways between fall 2022 and summer 2023, including public programs and exhibitions at partner organizations held around the state, stories published in Connecticut Explored, Grating the Nutmeg podcasts, and more, with the goal of engaging audiences and exploring new ways to tell the Connecticut story.
Dr. Vernal, who will serve as the “20 for 20” Scholar Advisor, is the director of Engaged, Public, Oral, and Community Histories at UConn, and has extensive teaching and research interests in African, Caribbean, and Diaspora history. Her interdisciplinary work explores a wide range of themes, from slavery, gender, and the law to the history of housing and segregation.
She holds a BA from Princeton and an MA and PhD from Yale University, and consults on and curates a number of public-facing projects, including the production of a series of radio plays exploring the lives of the people and cultures in the Greater Hartford region, in partnership with Hartford Stage and Connecticut Public Broadcasting. Her current book project, Hartford Bound, explores African American, Puerto Rican, and West Indian migration to the Greater Hartford region through the lens of housing and mobility. Hartford Bound integrates oral histories, archival research, and GIS methodologies to reframe the history of Hartford and offers counter-narratives to hardened scripts of slum clearance, white suburban flight, redlining, urban renewal, and gentrification.
As part of the anniversary celebration, Connecticut Explored will also appoint an Honorary Committee composed of established and impactful leaders in the Connecticut history community. Members of the Honorary Committee will be invited to join the project in February 2022 and will be announced to the public the following month.
Information on how to nominate a person or project to be considered as one of the 20 game changers will be announced by Connecticut Explored in the coming weeks.
Connecticut Explored partners with Connecticut’s premier history, arts, and education organizations to bring audiences relevant and engaging online and print resources about Connecticut history. Through compelling stories and intriguing images, Connecticut Explored explores the state’s cultural heritage with the aim of revealing connections between our past, present, and future.
