This lecture will consider the roles of citizen scholars in the ongoing expansion of digital research in history, and how their contributions may serve to better inform social decision-making in health, education, environmental policy, democratic representation, conflict resolution, and in sustaining our cultures.

Patrick Manning is Andrew W. Mellon Professor of World History, Emeritus, at the University of Pittsburgh, where he served as founding director of the World History Center from 2008 to 2015. He is immediate past president of the American Historical Association, serving from 2016 to 2017, and served as Vice President of the AHA Teaching Division from 2004 to 2006. His current research includes directing the Collaborative for Historical Information and Analysis (CHIA), to create a world-historical data resource. He is also working on African populations 1650–1950, an interdisciplinary history of the human system, world history of science, and on an advanced placement (AP) course on the African diaspora.

This keynote lecture is part of the symposium “Creating Historical Knowledge Socially: New Approaches, Opportunities and Epistemological Implications of Undertaking Research with Citizen Scholars.”