Making History Months Count: Embedding Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month in the Public History Calendar

Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month (GRTHM), first celebrated in Brent in 2001, went national in 2008. Yet, in contrast to similar celebrations - notably Black History and LGBT+ History Months - it remains marginal and often unacknowledged in the public history calendar. This raises important questions: practical, intellectual and cultural. What does the 'history of history months' tell us of the relationship between public history and 'diversity'? Why are some public history celebrations more popular than others? What educational, cultural or political preparations underpin successful History Months? What have activists, public history practitioners or other stakeholders hoped to achieve from such events, and have their hopes been realised? Is it possible to identify resources, practices or mechanisms by which effective History Month celebrations can be secured? Our project seeks to answer these questions, and in doing so to achieve three goals. First, construct the 'history of history months', locating GRTHM within this wider context. Second, our team, working with GRT and public history personnel, will explore the extent, strengths and limitations of existing GRTHM strategies and resources. Building on these insights, and supported by skills training, third we will develop physical, in-person and digital resources for GRTHM, hosted by Travellers' Times. To achieve these aims the project will be organised in three strands: Historical research: combining a literature review, comparative archival research and key informant interviews, we shall construct a critical history of the 'Gypsy Power' and activist movements that drove the emergence of GRT histories; and second a history of public history months, beginning with the emergence of Black History Month in the 1980s. This will result in two articles and a book, A History of History Months, illuminating the role such months have played in the struggle to raise the profile of the minoritised and to diversify public history. Strand 1 findings will feed into the other project strands. Action research: centring and prioritising GRT voices and using participatory methods in two areas (Norfolk and York), we shall work with GRT participant-collaborators and educators/public history practitioners, to assess existing resources and potential needs, and develop fresh ideas and additional resources to highlight and celebrate GRTHM. In the process we will deliver skills training, identify barriers to GRTHM's success and explore how GRTHM might challenge or overcome predominant narratives and stereotypes of these populations. Findings will feed into Strand 3, generate practitioner-focussed resources and at least four peer-reviewed articles. Public-facing resources: working with GRT-experts Rural Media/Traveller Times, team members and GRT creatives and collaborators will synthesise findings from Strands 1&2 to develop open access and durable resources for GRTHM. These will be supported by guidance-packs and social media strategies, facilitating output delivery across multiple platforms. Across its lifetime, alongside publishing a monograph and six peer-reviewed articles, our project will build real-world skills for the GRT community, share knowledge of best practice within the public history sector, and create a legacy of freely-available resources intended to break down barriers and significantly diversify the current range of public history events.