H-PAD Steering Committee Newsletter #7

H-PAD Update
Occasional Newsletter #7, February 20, 2021
(also available as a pdf for downloading and/or printing)

Announcing the Historians for Peace and Democracy
VIRTUAL SPEAKERS PROGRAM!

Finally, after much experimentation, many email requests, and quite a number of virtual meetings, we are launching a new project that we hope to be a long-term part of our activities: the H–PAD Virtual Speakers Program. Here are the essentials:

Seventeen years of Joshua Brown’s LIFE DURING WARTIME cartoons are archived here

1. The Virtual Speakers Program will provide, without charge, forums and speakers delivered by Zoom or Skype to local groupings on campus and in the community, organized by local H-PAD members and supporters.

2. The Program has a large Virtual Speakers List of leading historians, radical intellectuals, and activists, who will be available to deliver, without honoraria, virtual forums in a number of topic areas that are politically, historically, and intellectually important in the current context.

3. The Program will provide suggestions to local H-PAD activists on how the virtual speakers might be used in, for example, regular class meetings in your courses or during regular meeting slots of community groupings, or for specially arranged events.

The key to the Virtual Speakers Program is that Zoom-style technology allows us to effectively program speakers in a wide variety of venues, over great distances, for little cost, travel, and logistical work compared to in-person forums and speaking engagements. Virtual forums with H-PAD involvement have in the past been held successful at Hofstra University, Franklin and Marshall College, and elsewhere. In these cases, speakers presented via Zoom to groups numbering in the teens to several dozens, often with Q&As following the presentations. These virtual presentations were all very well received.

The initial Virtual Speakers Bureau is currently composed of over thirty-five leading presenters–with more constantly being added—who are willing and able to speak on a variety of historical, social, and political topics in the international and domestic spheres. For a current list of speakers and topic areas, please go to https://new.historiansforpeace.org/speakers/. If you are interested in any of speakers listed, please let us know and contact them directly at the email addresses on the list to arrange an event.

As the Program develops, we hope it will contribute to your educational and political work! For more information, or to discuss this program, please write speakers@historiansforpeace.org.

Executive Committee of Historians for Peace and Democracy