But first, let me introduce myself.

I am Erika Prins Simonds, a Master’s student in the Public History program and a Graduate Student Assistant (GSA). This year, I will be working on turning some of the Digital Archives’ oral histories into podcasts. I earned a B.A. in International Studies and Spanish at Whitworth University in 2008 and have since moonlighted as a journalist while working first as a restaurant manager, then in marketing communications. 

I adopted my daughter Nat earlier this year. Just a few weeks after the pandemic lockdown began, we welcomed to her little brother, Ari, into our home. We live in a renovated tenement building across the bridge from downtown Spokane with three cats and two well-loved and occasionally-chewed (by cats, mind you) plants. I own a little creative marketing business for organizations and businesses working for change. I am originally from South Africa, grew up in central California, and have lived in Spokane since 2004 when I began attending Whitworth. 

Why I Study History

Two things that light a fire for me to do this work:

1) In a democracy, people need to engage critically with history to understand their own role as citizens — to be aware of their power, understand the roots and mechanism of injustice, and to give them tools to fight those who would erode democratic protections. None of that should be locked behind paywalls.

2) Just like in my former field of journalism, the notion that people can research and write objectively is utter poppycock. A piece of historical writing involves a thousand tiny choices about where to look for information, what questions to ask, what information and which voices to include, and what conclusions to draw from all that. Many historiographies need fresh eyes upon them to examine biases and incorporate voices previously excluded or considered unimportant. 

I chose public history because I want to expand my work into personal creative projects that make history — particularly political history — accessible to people who might not otherwise study it. I would also like to explore careers in which I can use my creative and research skills for public education.

You can follow my journey through Explorations in Digital Humanities here and on my Twitter account.