As I approach my second year of doctoral studies in history, I find myself thinking often about dissertation topics. These ruminations may be premature. General exams have not even clouded my horizon yet. Still, I feel a special burden to choose topics wisely because I hope to secure an academic job teaching in a public history program. Read More
1997 was the hardest year of my adult life. During that year my marriage of 15 years ended in divorce; during that same year, my employer, a nationally prominent museum of American cultural history, began to transform itself into a children’s museum, and eliminated the position of “senior historian” that I had held for the previous seven years. Read More
Looking from across the pond, the maturity and scale of public history as a discipline and a sector in the US is a striking phenomenon. The narrative is well-established: the crisis in the academic job market; the emergence of new contexts for historical employment, in preservation, education and regeneration; the entrepreneurship of universities in structuring the supply of skilled professionals through new programmes emphasising workplace skills and experience. Read More
On June 20, 2012 the Northwest History Network, a non-profit organization in Portland, Oregon, hosted a professional development program entitled A Future in Historical Consulting: Is It for You? Four consulting historians sat on a panel and answered a series of questions. Read More
In 2004, I completed my MA graduate program in History with a sure sense of what was going to happen next: teach for a year, and then start a Ph.D. program. By 2007, I wasn’t sure if a Ph.D. was in my future and started exploring other options. Read More
As a historical consultant working primarily in litigation support, my work usually takes me deep inside the archives. But sometimes, the only way to truly understand the land you’re studying is to see it up close and in person. Last summer, in order to get a better grasp of the vast landscape I’d been researching for two years, I took to Idaho’s backcountry in an area bordering the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. Read More
When I graduated in 2009 from Texas State University with my Master’s degree in public history, I could not wait to go out into the world to apply the knowledge that I had gained while in school. Last year, I was invited back to my alma mater to speak to an Introduction to Public History class about my work and how my degree has helped. Read More
During the 2012 Annual Meeting of the NCPH in Milwaukee, I had the opportunity to talk with fellow public history educators about issues related to labor. It became clear to me that there are widely divergent expectations placed on public history faculty by their home institutions. Read More
It was another great Consultants’ Reception at the annual NCPH Annual Meeting. Dozens of consulting historians and those interested in consulting gathered to network, discuss projects, and recap the conference.
Consultants’ Committee chair Hugh Davidson addressed the crowd and updated everyone on the work of the committee in the last year. Read More
Beloved community activist Bob Moses once asked a family living in the Mississippi Delta, “How do you build and organize a community?” He was answered, “By throwing a ball into your neighbor’s yard; that way you have to cross the fence and engage in a dialogue with them. Read More
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As I approach my second year of doctoral studies in history, I find myself thinking often about dissertation topics. These ruminations may be premature. General exams have not even clouded my horizon yet. Still, I feel a special burden to choose topics wisely because I hope to secure an academic job teaching in a public history program. Read More 
