Below are the personal statements for the members of the Best Practices for Establishing a Public History Program working group.
Kevin Murphy
Daniel Vivian
In 2009, the University of Louisville established a graduate certificate program in public history. At present we have twelve students working toward the graduate certificate and six others who are doing major or minor fields in public history. Our story, like that of many fledgling programs, is a record of modest success and cautionary tales. The growth of the program demonstrates strong demand for public history training and enthusiasm among students. We face challenges, however, in providing the training and educational experiences needed to ensure success in the field. Limited course offerings are a concern, and student demand for internship and part-time employment opportunities has been strong, sometimes exceeding the available options. Modest institutional support has limited our ability to supplement classroom instruction with practical training. These challenges speak directly to the need for a best practices document of the kind envisioned by the group. I look forward to participating in its discussions and learning from them. In particular, I look forward to concentrating on (1) measures intended to insure the quality of graduate education and (2) realistic expectations for faculty workloads.
Carolyn Barske
As the director of a newly formed public history Masters-level program at the University of North Alabama (UNA), I feel many of the questions raised by this working group will benefit my program and the state university system of Alabama. Other institutions in the state of Alabama are considering developing public history programs; however, we would benefit from a more careful analysis of the field, the resources necessary for a program to be successful and how to aid their students as they move from a graduate program to the workforce. The Alabama Council on Higher Education (ACHE) solicits the opinions of other state universities when new programs are created and the questioned posed by this working group will assist me in offering suggestions for ACHE as these new programs come up for review. One of these newly-imagined programs would be an online program. I would like to raise the issues of an entirely on-line public history M.A. Degree, in addition to offering suggestions/raising issues about programs that are hybrid in nature. As the director of one of only two M.A. programs in public history in Alabama, I feel there is a responsibility to make sure that new programs at other universities in Alabama will provide students with the best possible experience and give them the skills they need to develop as valuable additions to the field of public history. In addition, this working group will aid me as I establish and grow the program at UNA and provide concrete suggestions that I can bring to the department and administration at UNA, including suggestions related to workload, community partnerships, and developments in the field that can aid new programs like mine in becoming successful additions to the public history field.
Kelly Enright
As a fortunate recipient of one of the new academic jobs in public history, I have entered a program on the ground floor at a college with an established minor and interest in a major (or concentration within the history major). The town of St. Augustine, Florida (the oldest continuously-occupied U.S. city) overflows with opportunities for student engagement. In addition to internships, I’m interested in integrating service learning projects into courses in Museum Studies and Heritage Tourism. Of particular interest to me on your list of questions are the issues of institutional support and mechanisms for facilitating and nurturing partnerships with local institutions. I’m also struggling with the balance in the curriculum (in individual courses as well as degree requirements) between historical content and workplace skills. Is public history an appropriate undergraduate major? Or should it be a minor or concentration within history? What should we train students to do, and at what level? How could BAs find jobs and contribute to the public history community without going to graduate school? If they plan on an advanced degree, what skills and knowledge should they possess?
Jay Price
Public history seems to be in the midst of a “sea change” as technology and media is broadening the scope of public history education beyond the traditional “museums/archives/historic preservation” trilogy. As career paths become ever more specialized, with greater demands that graduates bring specialized skills, the ability of “generalist” public history programs to function, especially for programs that are not located in or near the resources of state capitals or major cities, will demand new approaches. Graduates are finding themselves having to maintain a good background in history, be prepared for a wide range of activities, and yet complete their education within the parameters of a traditional MA, certificate, or Ph.D. framework. Moreover, constraints on public funding for museums, humanities, and various other programs raise both disturbing and intriguing prospects for those contemplating careers in public history. These dynamics are challenging the now 30-year old template of public history programs being primarily in the career training business. This suggests that other models, perhaps more akin to extension programs or local history centers, may be worth exploring.
Sarah Doherty
This past summer I completed my doctoral studies in public and American history at Loyola University Chicago. While on the job market applying for public history positions last year, I realized that there was a very loose notion of what public history is, what a new public history program at an institution should look like, and the role of a new public history faculty member in a history department. I went through two very different public history programs during my master’s and Ph.D. and it made me wonder. Should there be some core courses that all public history students must take as part of their course of study? Is it better to have a program that introduces students to all areas of public history or should students specialize in one area of public history after taking a few introductory courses? What should a mission statement for a new public history program include? What existing programs are good examples to emulate in developing new programs? What are the benefits and disadvantages of developing close partnerships with a few cultural institutions in the community a school is located? What training should public history students have before they are sent out into the community and area cultural institutions to complete internships?
Lara Leigh Kelland
In a recent post co-authored by myself and Anne Parsons, we raised questions about the recent boom in academic public history teaching jobs. I would like to continue these conversations in the Best Practices for Establishing a Public History Program working group. Particularly, I am interested in engaging in conversations about ways that we can broaden our approach to this work, re-imagining our role as producing the next generation of digitally-literate cultural workers. Beyond this, I am interested to build connections between public history and public humanities, as both fields have much to offer one another in terms of theory and method, as well providing as an opportunity to expand the scope of public history placement opportunities for our students.
Rebecca Shrum
From 2007-2011, I worked at the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater, where I directed an undergraduate public history program. I am now the Assistant Director of the graduate public history program at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis. Here, I am also working to add more public history at the undergraduate level. I am interested in very practical questions related to what schools need to start and maintain public history programs and how a Best Practices document can guide that process, but I am also interested in a much “bigger picture” question about the role of public history in a history department (and the role of digital history as well). Is it possible to separate the question of integrating public (and digital) history into history departments at either the undergraduate or graduate level (or both) as part of what it means to teach and do history from the question of overproduction of history graduates competing on the history job market?
Lori Weintrob
Last year the History Department at Wagner College, Staten Island, N.Y., established a concentration in Public History and Museum Studies. Our primary reasons for doing so included: student demand, faculty interest, deepening relations with local museums (Manhattan and Staten Island), and our national reputation for service-learning. I would like to share experiences of working with local public historians (including as adjuncts) and participate in crafting guidelines for a public history program. Although Wagner’s Arts Administration major is very popular, those students are not drawn to our public history and museum studies concentration. I’d like to hear from others how they strengthened and publicized their undergraduate concentration in public history and then how they developed it into a certificate or Master’s program.
Margo Shea
There are two areas I want to examine and explore: First: How can I balance my own teaching –at a 4/4 load– research and outreach goals and priorities with the need to educate my colleagues and institution about public history and work strategically and effectively to get what I need to build a program. Second, and more broadly: why? We all know the facts — increasing programs, increasing students, dwindling jobs. I need to be part of a conversation that acknowledges the political economy of public history education but doesn’t get stuck and stalemated in scarcity thinking. Instead, I propose a discussion about how our work, and our students’ work can help engage and strengthen a public culture that values the stewardship of cultural resources and demands meaningful, deliberative engagements with the past for the sake of the present and the future.
Anne Lindsay
I am a recent PhD in public history and have an MA in public history. I am also one of the new scholar-practitioner public historians benefitting from a tenure-track job in public history. I am an Assistant Professor at the University of Central Florida, a school working to define their academic public history program and its goals but with an impressive history of success with regard to community partnership. I would like to raise additional questions within the group such as “Are our public history graduate programs adequately preparing students for the role of academic public historian?” Additionally I would like to raise the issue of definitions. As a theoretical and practical public historian I think it is important to address the theory and method aspects of the field within any department’s program, either new or existing. Finally, “Are there indicators that a department should not pursue public history?” There are those departments that are not a good fit for a formalized course of study in public history. Should they be judged as “behind” or “less progressive” if they have identified that this is not a good fit based on their resources?
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