Tag Archive

employment

Still grinding? How the pandemic is accelerating job precarity in public history

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Job precarity has become a defining feature of the public history field in recent years as workers grind through extractive cycles of unstable, part-time, and temporary work. A 2017 survey on Public History Education and Employment compiled by NCPH, AASLH, AHA, and OAH reported that “respondents noted that contract work has become more common, permanent positions less numerous, and part-time and term employment ubiquitous.” Read More

A Public Historian in Publishing: Lessons from Working Outside the Field

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As we grapple with the short-term (and potentially long-term) impacts of the COVID-19 health crisis on museums and cultural institutions, public historians across the field are dealing with layoffs, staff reductions, and decreased funding. And when non-history job prospects arise, offering higher salaries, healthcare benefits, and the ability to work from home, many face a difficult choice: to hold out for a position in public history or pursue opportunities in a different field. Read More

Perspectives on a Changing Field: Part I

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Editors’ Note: This is the third of five posts summarizing the findings of the Joint Task Force on Public History Education and Employment, an initiative launched in 2014 to study trends in public history education and employment.

As the Joint Task Force on Public History Education and Employment brings its work to a close, it is only natural to ask how effectively it has addressed the questions that inspired its creation. Read More

Surveying public history careers

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Editors’ Note: This is the second of five posts summarizing the findings of the Joint Task Force on Public History Education and Employment, an initiative launched in 2014 to study trends in public history education and employment.

The second major project undertaken by the task force, a survey of alumni of master’s-level programs in public history and closely related fields, sought to understand the career paths of public historians. Read More