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Public History

Program Concentrations

What Do Public Historians Do?

  • We work with community members to create clear, exciting histories.
  • We help explain the past to a public audience.
  • We foster a broader engagement with history.
  • We offer insight into current and future issues and problems.
  • We incorporate activism and community engagement into public history practice.
  • We preserve and interpret historical sources.
  • We connect institutions with individuals and groups in the surrounding communities.

Where Do We Find Public History?

  • Museum exhibits
  • Historic sites
  • Digital exhibits
  • Oral history projects
  • Classrooms
  • Archives
  • Local history tours

Students in UNCW's public history program receive a Master in Arts in history, with a concentration in public history. We offer opportunities to explore and learn about public history practice by doing it with our many community partners. We offer the chance to work with collections care and management, museum education, historic site interpretation, exhibit design, historic preservation, museum administration, archives management, oral history and/or digital history.

The UNCW public history program is also dedicated to training our students in scholarly research and interpretation, which is central to the work of effective public historians. 

Through a careful balancing of classroom learning and field experience, our graduates are uniquely positioned to enter the profession as skilled, knowledgeable and creative historians dedicated to using the past to improve the future.

If you'd like more information about the UNCW Public History Program, or would like to visit our campus, please contact Dr. Jennifer Le Zotte, the program's director.

Faculty

Jennifer Le Zotte: Program Director, Material Culture, Gender and Sexuality History

Kenneth Shefsiek: Historic Preservation, Historic House Museums, Museum Administration, Memory and Commemoration

Tara White: Exhibits and Museum Management, Oral History, Women's History, African-America History, Civil Rights History

Julius Jones: Collections and Curation, Digital History, African-American History

Liz Timbs: African History, Gender History, Digital History 

Robert Hart: Environmental and Southern History

Jarrod Tanny: Jewish History

Curriculum

Students begin their program with a course in historiography, in which students are introduced to the theories, methodologies and perspectives of scholarly history and begin to learn the professional historian’s craft.  Students also select from a variety of readings colloquia and research seminars, in which they develop historical knowledge and research and communication skills.
In the first year of the program, students enroll in a series of courses designed to expose students to the role of history in society, culture and politics in both the past and present.  Students begin this exploration in the first semester through a course in historical memory and commemoration.  The curriculum also includes public history research seminars in the fall and spring, which include a public component, such as oral history or public presentations. 
In the second year of the program, graduate students in the Public History program enroll in three, two-credit practica dedicated to the development of practical skills, which they complete directly in our many local institutions under the joint supervision of UNCW Public History faculty members and history professionals.  Each practicum is dedicated to the work within one public history sub-discipline, such as collections care and management, museum education, historic house museum interpretation, exhibit design, historic preservation, museum administration, and archives management.  In each practicum, students complete a minimum of 180 hours of work over the course of 10-12 weeks, according to defined syllabi crafted collaboratively by the faculty and professional mentors.  All students completing practica also meet regularly as a group with their faculty mentors to discuss their experiences and to provide each other with guidance and support.
In the final semester of study, public history students choose to complete either of two research-based projects, a capstone or thesis.  A capstone is an individual project completed in conjunction with a community partner that includes both historical research and writing, and the presentation of that research in another form, such as an educational module, an exhibit, or a public program.  A thesis is an extended research paper that focuses on a topic, issue or question relevant to the theory and practice of public history.

Public HIstory Laboratory

To meet its teaching and outreach missions, the UNCW Public History Program also operates the Public History Laboratory. This 1,500-square foot facility allows students to practice skills in exhibit design and fabrication, oral history, collections care and management, web publication and film making.

It includes a computer and graphics room equipped with the Adobe Create Suite, wide format printers, and custom mat-making equipment. The lab's mount making room allows for practice in custom artifact mounts, while its collections room houses over 300 objects in its teaching collection, managed with Past Perfect software.

Community Partners

  • The Cape Fear Museum of History and Science
  • Historic Wilmington Foundation
  • The Bellamy Mansion Museum of History and Design Arts
  • New Hanover County Library, Archives and North Carolina Room
  • The Burgwin-Wright House
  • National Society of Colonial Dames in North Carolina
  • Wrightsville Beach Museum
  • Fort Fisher State Historic Site
  • U.S.S. North Carolina Battleship
  • Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson State Historic Site
  • Moore's Creek National Battlefield
  •  Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History
  • and more!

Support Public History

Donate online to support Public History at UNCW.
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Director of the Public History Program

Ken Shefsiek

Phone: (910) 962-3861

shefsiekk@uncw.edu

601 S. College Road
Morton Hall 235
Wilmington, NC 28403

Andrea Massey
Administrative Associate
910.962.2865
masseya@uncw.edu

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