August Meeting
7.30 pm Tuesday, 15 August, Palmerston North Central Library, George Street, Palmerston North
Lenses onto the Local:
Reflections of a Born Again Local Historian
Margaret Tennant
Palmerston North Heritage Trust
Why does history matter?
In our August talk, Emeritus Professor Margaret Tennant will talk about her own historical journey from
undertaking research for the Johns Hopkins Comparative Nonprofit
Sector Project to a blogpost on Radio 2ZA’s ‘Morrie the Mouse’.
Using Palmerston North examples, she will reflect on why, at a time
academic history departments are being decimated, local history is
flourishing in many forms, and in response to various dynamics. Her
talk will feature not only the city’s most famous rodent, but a 1925
death in the railway shunting yards, the significance of naming places,
and the multiple ways in which non-historians can contribute to our
understanding of place, using a historical lens.
Margaret Tennant is a Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi and
formerly Professor of History at Massey University. Her publications
mainly focus on the history of social policy, but in 2020 she co-edited
and wrote for City at the Centre: A History of Palmerston North.
All warmly welcome!