Public History

Program Concentrations 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

History Coursework

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.

Public History Coursework

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.

Public History Practica

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.

Professional Track or Thesis

Students can opt for either Professional Track or Thesis Track within the Public History concentration. The Professional Track requires, in the final year (usually spring semester) of the Master's program, the completion a practicum project imbedded with a community partner. The goal of the practica is to complete a project in collaboration with a community organization that will have a predetermined public outcome (e.g., exhibit, tour, collection deaccessioning, digital StoryMap). 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.