Introduction

Kim Pearson

Many of our most fractious public debates are over which version of past events should inform our understanding of the United States’ identity, values and direction. Scholars of memory studies have observed that as journalism and other cultural gatekeepers lose their power, competing narratives emerge within virtual and contingent communities, complicating efforts to create a shared public sphere. Facilitating conversations between these discourse communities is emerging as a journalistic specialty, particularly within the podcasting space.

The aim of the American Storyworlds project is to create space for exploration and conversation about how our stories about history shape our notions of personal identity, community, and capacity for cooperation and problem-solving. The vehicle for organizing these conversations will be a podcast series that brings together professional and lay scholars, artists, and community members to consider the stories of the history of a particular place both as reality and destiny-shaping myth. The podcast will be augmented by immersive digital resources for further exploration, and tools for constructive community conversations.

What follows are prototypes-in progress of the podcast content and possible digital resources related to the first season's episodes. These resources will not only include traditional content such as maps, timelines and a webliography, but also immersive Extended Reality content.

Further background on the personal genealogical and academic research that informs this project is in this blog post, "Leveraging a usable past: family history and the epistemology of civic life."