In Our Keeping
Historians and Archivists Conference Provokes
New Thinking about Dominican History
![](../DLC/McGreal/images/IOK_groupaudience.jpg) |
![Barbara Beaumont](../DLC/McGreal/images/BarbaraBeaumont_200px.jpg)
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Sr. Barbara Beaumont, OP |
River Forest, IL - June 15, 2008- Over 35 archivists,
historians and congregational personnel gathered at Dominican University,
June 12-15, 2008, to explore new thinking and insight into how
Dominican history is not only recorded, but also how we think about
our past.
Participants came from as far away as Norway and the Phillippines.
The In Our Keeping Conference, conducted
by the McGreal Center for Dominican Historical Studies, explored
questions of how we come to tell the stories and convey the values
of congregational Dominican history, separating mythology from
facts and bringing a scientific discipline to the task of telling
the Dominican story.
The conference was last held eight years ago and since then, the
ways scholars share information and understand the
connections of Dominican history have grown exponentially.
Barbara Beaumont, OP director of the S.H.O.P
project at Fanjeaux, (Sister Historians
of the Order of Preachers),
offered a keynote address on The Study of History in
the Transmission of Dominican Values. In her talk
she explored the distinctions that need to be made between the
urgencies of the time of a particular foundation and
the founding charism of the Order. The founding charism and mission
have been followed by new layers of meaning and we must see history
as dynamic and evolving. She said, "The study of the past
is preparation for the future journey. The point of departure is
as important as the destination."
![Sue Thompson](../DLC/McGreal/images/SueThompson.jpg) |
Margaret Susan Thompson |
In
describing some of the catastrophic events of the Order, such as
the suppression of the Dominicans during the French Revolution
and the deportation of Czechoslovakian Dominicans to labor camps
in the 1950s, Barbara noted that these events would never
be studied if we looked upon history as something to be locked
up and held in a drawer for safe keeping, with no one to interprete
their meaning or expose the lives that were led. (Barbara's talk
with be posted when it becomes available).
Margaret Susan Thompson,
Associate Professor of History, Syracuse University offered an
engaging and eye-opening look at some of the history of religious
life from the perspective of someone not in religious life. "Insiders
and Outsiders: Complementary Lenses into the History of Religious
Orders," encouraged participants to view the
darker side of the history of religious life as illuminative of
the human condition. She noted that some of the most enduring values
of a community are born out of the frailties and hardships
of the founders. (Susan's
talk is available here). Her workshop: How to “Make
History:
Recounting the Religious Past" is available
here.
![Liesl Orenic](../DLC/McGreal/images/LisleOrenic100px.jpg) |
Liesl Orenic |
In a third major talk, Liesl Orenic,
Director of the American Studies Program, Dominican University
offered stimulating insight and practical considerations of Preserving
Today’s Story for Tomorrow – a Case for the Art
of Oral History. Other presentations included material
from Cecilia Murray, OP and Nicole
Wilson, a converstion about
the McGreal Center, the future of congregational archives within
the Dominican Family with Mary Ellen O'Grady,
OP and archival preservation decisions and practices with Steven
Szegdi from
Dominican University.
Janet Welsh, OP (Sinsinawa) Interim Director of the
McGreal Center for Dominican Historical Studies, along with her
staff, coordinated and planned the program. the program included
a visit to the Chicago History Museum to visit an exhibit on Catholic
Chicago, a concert in Millenium Park and festive banquet.
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