Hamilton and the Public Performances of the Past on the Digital Stage: "What comes next?"
Event details
Join us for research seminars hosted by the Department of History with a selection of visiting academics, alongside University of York researchers. All students and staff are very welcome.
A zoom link will be made available for distance learning PhD students on request. Please contact Dr Jasper Heinzen or Dr Stephanie Mawson if you have any questions. View the full schedule for the semester.
Speaker: Dr Esther Wilson (University of York)
Abstract: Completed in summer 2026, Esther Wilson's doctoral thesis used Hamilton: An American Musical as a case study for contemporary public history analysis. Her research saw the cultural, political, and technological conditions surrounding the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic as crucial turning points for re-evaluating Hamilton’s position as a cultural product of the Obama era. Drawing broadly across the show's diverse digital presence yet rooted within the show's Broadway context, the thesis sat at an intersection between History, Theatre, and Digital Media, offering the lenses of transmediality and performativity as methodological interventions for undertaking public history work in periods of ostensibly rapid change. This paper will not only offer its own interdisciplinary perspective on recent uses (and abuses?) of the past, but seek advice from colleagues on how such ideas might be developed further.
Image: Unsplash - Hamilton Richard Rodgers signage