The Impact of Shared Authority on Historical Research.

Shared authority has significantly impacted historical research, scholarship, and exhibition because it involves a different angle from the past. That shared authority allows these areas to grow because it includes multiple voices, perspectives, and sources. With historical research, instead of the historians or experts declaring what history is essential to speak about, they include other people’s opinions and voices that have lived the experiences. With scholarships, shared authority allows experts and regular people to come together and make ideas and assumptions based on the project they might be working on. This enables community involvement and engagement. Initially, it helps the project grow and run smoothly. Lastly, exhibition and shared authority reshape how history might be preserved. With museums and galleries, letting communities help tell their stories and express themselves more makes it more meaningful, complete, and relatable.

The article “Public History as Reflective Practice” discusses how, in 2003, the president challenged public historians to explore projects that had remained untouched since 1979. On page 11, there is a discussion about shared authority and how it helps the project the historian has been working on for years. Without different experts coming together and sharing their different perspectives and views, the project would’ve been more challenging to accomplish.¹

1Rebecca Conrad, Public History as Reflective Practice (2002), 11.