Corporate Memory, Curated

Stephen Chambers of the historical consulting firm The Winthrop Group earned his BA, MA, and PhD in history. Throughout graduate school, he pursued interests in applied history—often doing the opposite (his words!) of what he was supposed to be doing as a future academic. He also wrote historical fiction and science fiction as a way to reflect on the past. Today, he is a Managing Director at Winthrop, where he works on projects ranging from curating archival collections to writing corporate histories. Stephen and I discussed his path to his current role, the evolving meanings of “applied history,” who understands its value, and why. We talked about how applied history differs from academic history and PR, and how Stephen’s passion for history inspired him to write, in the early 2000s, a pair of technodystopian fantasy novels that challenged the era’s optimistic faith in globalization and technology.

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