Jayne Bernhard having a send-off dinner with the board of directors of the Cherokee County Historical Society at the end of her summer 2005 internship.

Public History Program

Master of Arts Degree Requirements
Concentration in Public History
UMass/Five College Graduate Program in History

The M.A. Degree with a Concentration in Public History: The combined strength of the University's history faculty and professional staff at nearby historical institutions offers graduate students an excellent environment for public history training. Available to regular M.A. candidates, this concentration develops skills in museum studies, historic preservation, archival management, and other fields within the larger scope of public history. The requirements for a Master's degree in History with a concentration in public history consists of five history courses in a research field, such as U.S. history, and four courses in a public history field (an introductory public history seminar with two outside courses plus an intership in an area of specialization such as archives, museum studies, or historic preservation). A certificate in public history is granted to students who complete a track in Museum Studies, Archives, and Historic Preservation, or a track of the student's own creation (see below). In addition, students may specialize in public history fields currently without tracks, such as public policy, multi media, or documentary editing by completing the public history seminar, two relevant outside courses, and an internship. Whatever track a student chooses, he or she must support it by completing four workshops, seminars or other professional development activities with a regional or national organization (see below).

The mission of the UMass Public History Program is:

• To train graduate students to work on historical projects with a broad range of audiences and institutions, as well as to prepare them for entry level positions in museums, archives, historic preservation agencies and many other places that engage the insights and methods of historians.
• To provide historical services for area institutions and for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
• To advance, through research and demonstration projects, the theory of public history and how best to serve audiences for history outside the University.

Course Work

The requirements for an M.A. with a concentration in Public History consist of students taking five History courses in a research field, such as U.S. history (two linked historiography courses, a research seminar, and two others). M.A. candidates seeking the certificate in Public History are required to take History 659, Introduction to Public History. Students then complete one of a number of tracks, or concentrations, in some area within public history. A track consists of two linked courses, which can include courses in other departments and disciplines, in some area within the field; for example, students pursuing the Museums track often take American Material Culture (History 661) and Museum and Historic Site Interpretation (History 662). The course sequence, as these syllabi show, require students to read deeply and widely in the literatures of Public History; at the same time, they put those readings to the test in field experiences that allow them to try their hands at projects for local clients. For a sampling of the kinds of projects presently undertaken by our students, see our gallery of student profiles. For a checklist of program requirements, please refer to this document.

I. Museum Studies

The principal track of the public history, designed to prepare students for positions in museums, historic sites, and historical societies. It consists of the following required courses.

1. History 659 (Public History): Common core of the Public History program. Half of the course explores the nature of historical consciousness, the other half introduces students to history in various settings through guest speakers and field trips to area archives, museums, and historic sites. Course requires substantial group field project.

2. At least one course in material culture. Several courses presently taught on campus introduce students to the study of objects. Among them are: History 661 (American Material Culture), Anthropology 597 (Historical Archeology), Art History 527 (Decorative Arts in America ), as well as the UMass Summer Field School in Historical Archeology. Kevin Sweeney of Amherst College and Joshua Lane of Historic Deerfield also teach courses on various aspects of material culture open to UMass graduate students by arrangement.

3. History 662 (Museum/Historic Site Interpretation Seminar): An advanced level course concerning the practice of museums and historic sites. Course requires field project with local museum or historic site. Usually offered in semester following Public History Course.

4. Museum/Historic Site Internship: Approximately 300 hours working at a museum or historic site, completion of a substantial project. Prerequisite: two courses in Public History/Museum Studies sequence. Click here for a sample internship contract.

II. Historic Preservation

This track is designed to prepare students to work in local, state, federal government, or in preservation agencies. Students interested in this track might consider pursuing a joint M.A. in History/M.R.P. in Regional Planning so that they would be fully qualified as planners as well as have a specialty in historic preservation. The track consists of the following courses:

1. Public History (see description under Museum Studies, above).

2. At least one course in Architectural or Environmental History: Several courses presently meet this requirement, including those in architectural history offered by the Art History Department (see especially courses offered by Professors Max Page and Tim Rohan). Also recommended is Landscape Architecture 544 (History and Theory II, Landscape History since the Renaissance), 597B (Cultural Landscapes: Theory, Management, Design). (Please click here to open a word document of the syllabus.), Landscape 691E (People and the Environment: Applications of Environmental Psychology Research to Planning and Design), and Building Materials and Wood Technology 597T (North American Building Traditions).

3. Historic Preservation Seminar/Studio: Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning 609 Studio.

4. Historic Preservation Internship: Approximately 300 hours working at an historic preservation agency, completion of a substantial project. Prerequisite: two courses in Public History/Preservation sequence.

Additional courses: Students would benefit from taking additional courses, such as Regional Planning 651 (Planning History and Theory), and Anthropology 525 (Archeology and Law).

III. Writing History for the Public

This track is designed for students who want to concentrate during their training on writing history for audiences beyond the academy, in the form of newspaper editorials, narrative nonfiction, magazine articles and other formats. The track consists of the following courses:

1. Public History (see description under Museum Studies, above).

2. History 691W: Writing History, an experimental course that combines a passion for history and a dedication to writing. It explores ways in which historians and others with a reverence for the past write well, in diverse manners, for their particular, chosen audiences. The course features visits by writers who have had success in bringing history to “publics” outside the academy. Permission of the instructor is required.

3. A related course from the departments of English, Journalism or Communication, selected with approval of the Public History Program director.

4. Internship: Approximately 300 hours working at university or trade press, with a literary agent, magazine, or some other venue for history publishing. Students to date have crafted internships at the University of Massachusetts Press and the University of Florida Press.

IV. Archives

This track is designed to prepare students for an entry-level archival position. It is available in collaboration with Simmons College, which is one of the region's premiere institutions specializing in this area and teaches its archival management courses at Mount Holyoke College. The track consists of the following courses:

1. Public History (see description under Museum Studies, above).

2. Archival Management: TBA.

3. Archives Seminar: TBA.

4. Archival Internship: Approximately 300 hours working at an archive, completion of a substantial project.

Prerequisite: two courses in Public History/Archives sequence.

Additional Courses and Fields in Public History

In addition to the three tracks leading to a Certificate in Public History, students, in consultation with the program director, may develop concentrations in public history in areas presently without formal tracks, such as community and local history, public policy, media studies, and documentary editing by completing the Public History course, two relevant outside courses, and an internship. Students in any of these tracks would also benefit from taking a management course, either in the School of Management or even an Arts Extension Service Workshop offered through Continuing Education. They would also benefit from courses offered elsewhere in registration methods, or an Archives course (see below). Once in the field, students qualify for workshops on these topics offered by the Museum Management Institute of the American Association of Museums, the Seminar in Historical Administration at Colonial Williamsburg, or the Smithsonian Institution Office of Museum Programs.

Comprehensive Exams: It is expected that students pursuing the certificate in Public History will dedicate one of their three comprehensive exam fields to this subject. Each year, a core reading list, below, to be completed by all Public History students is made available to students planning to take their exams. The core list is then supplemented by additional readings in each student's individual areas of interest, in consultation with their examiner.


Public History Core Reading List for M.A. exams, 2007-08

The list below constitutes the core reading list for Public History field exams at the M.A. level. It is expected that students will incorporate all of the titles below into the exam list. Each student may also, in consultation with their advisor for the exam (usually Marla Miller, David Glassberg or Max Page) develop the remainder of their reading list to suit their individual interests and objectives, adding an additional 10-15 books and/or articles in, for example, historic preservation, community history, interpreting ethnicity, or some other area of concentration within Public History that has been approved by your examiner.

BOOKS:
Michael Frisch, A Shared Authority (1990)
David Glassberg, Sense of History: The Place of the Past in American Life (2001)
Jim Green, Taking History to Heart: The Power of the Past in Building Social Movements (2000)
Dolores Hayden, The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public History (1995)
David Lowenthal, The Past is a Foreign Country (1985)
Gary Nash, History on Trial: Culture Wars and the Teaching of the Past (1997)
Martha Norkunas, Monuments and Memories: History and Representation in Lowell, Massachusetts (2002)
Max Page & Randy Mason, eds., Giving Preservation a History (2004)
Roy Rozenzweig and David Thelen, Presence of the Past: Popular Uses of History in American Life (1998)
Alessandro Portelli, The Death of Luigi Trastulli and Other Stories (1991)
Cathy Stanton, The Lowell Experiment: Public History in a Post-Industrial City (2006)
Patricia West, Domesticating History: The Political Origins of America's House Museums (1999)
Richard White, Remembering Ahanagran: Storytelling in a Family's Past (1998)
Sam Wineburg, Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts (2001)
James Young, The Texture of Memory (1993)

ARTICLES:
Cameron and Gatewood, “Excursions into the Unremembered Past: What People Want from Visits to Historic Sites,” The Public Historian 22 (Summer 2000), 107-127.
Katherine T. Corbett and Howard S. Miller, “A Shared Inquiry into Shared Inquiry,” Public Historian,
Vol. 28 (Winter 2006): 15-38.
Marla Miller and Anne Digan Lanning, "Common Parlors: Women and the Recreation of Community Identity in Deerfield, Massachusetts, 1870-1920," Gender and History (November 1994); 435-455
Harold Skramsted, "An Agenda for American Museums in the Twenty-First Century" Daedalus (Summer 1999); 109-12
Stephen E. Weil, "From Being about Something to being for Somebody: The Ongoing Transformation of the American Museum," Daedalus (Summer 1999).

Internships: Internships, the final requirement for Public History students, serve all aspects of our mission, enabling students to draw connections between theory and practice while contributing to communities of public historians. Internships, both paid and unpaid, are available at a variety of area historical institutions such as Old Sturbridge Village, Historic Deerfield, the Springfield Armory National Historic Site, Lowell National Historical Park, Museums of Old York, the Connecticut Valley Historical Museum, Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, Monadnock Media, and the American Radio Works. Please see the Public History Internship page for internship details and a sample internship contract.

Professional Development: Students who are accepted into the Public History Program must supplement their academic training by completing a series of 4 skills-based workshops, seminars or institutes over the course of their graduate work, selected with the consent of the director of the Public History program. You may complete one each semester, or any other arrangement convenient to your course of study. An on-line workshop is acceptable, but since "virtual" workshops do not lend themselves to networking, no more than 1 of the 4 can be completed on-line. In order to complete this requirement, degree candidates are strongly urged to join the New England Museum Association, and/or the Massachusetts Historical Society and take advantage of their program offerings. Other appropriate organizations include the American Association of Museums, the National Council on Public History, the American Association for State and Local History, The Society of American Archivists, the Oral History Association or other professional associations related to your career goals.

Financial Aid: The history department also offers a number of teaching and research assistantships to qualified applicants as well as graduate assistantships with historical organizations, from local institutions like the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association to National Park Service sites like Lindenwald, the home of Martin Van Buren and Theodore Roosevelt's home at Sagamore Hill. The University's Financial Aid Services office provides educational financial planning information.

Externships: These are a form of financial aid that are occasionally available to graduate students, when a number of specific conditions are met. The earnings requirements for externships are the same as for TA's and RA's in terms of meeting thresholds for waivers; that is, the position must be compensated at the same rate as TAships and RAships, over the same number of hours. Like Internships, the Externship position can NOT be regular staff employment; the externship MUST be created for the student, and involve substantial supervision and training. In addition, the externship MUST be professional and DIRECTLY RELATED to the student's academics, in the judgment of the Director of the Public History Program in consultation with the Graduate Program Director. Students who think they have identified a potential Externship should send a proposal describing the position to the Public History program director, who will forward it to the Graduate School for review. The graduate school will then determine whether the position is eligible.