Will Tchakirides

Public Historian

Museum Researcher & Content Specialist


Helping people develop historical resources and community archives that increase access to the past, widening its interpretation in service of building collective power.

Dr. Will Tchakirides is a public humanities professional specializing in digital storytelling, collections research, and community archiving. Trained as a public historian, he is experienced in oral history project development, as well as online museum curation and archival records management.

Will has collaborated on national and local initiatives that have helped museums and organizations build more usable, complete interpretations of the past on their own terms. He is currently a researcher and content developer with the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum.

View public & oral history portfolio


Will is also a historian of U.S. policing, with research exploring how Midwestern cities and invested publics have made and re-made police power in the 20th century, and what that’s meant for policed people.

He is writing a book that examines how police establish and reinforce legitimacy through institutional memory work. The monograph focuses on Milwaukee’s influential brand of “reform era” policing and the role that narrative has played in making and sustaining police power.

The book aims to help readers understand how police agencies constitute and re-affirm their authority, and what targeted communities have done — and can do now — to challenge that process.

Learn about background & interests


My academic research explores the maintenance of police power and its relationship to movements for institutional accountability and freedom from violence.
More on “Accountable to No One”

Have a project idea? Contact
withistorical@gmail.com


Let’s connect

Follow on Twitter @willtchak and LinkedIn, or reach out by email: withistorical@gmail.com