HIST 205

HIST 205
Introduction to Public History

1. Catalog Entry

HIST 205
Introduction to Public History

Credit hours (3)

An introduction to the methods and theory of public history as practiced by historians including historic site interpretation and management, historical societies, governmental historical organizations, and museums.

 

Detailed Description of Course

Topics covered by this course will include some of the following: 

1. Theory of Public History
2. Exhibit Curation
3. Historic Preservation
4. Museums: Management
5. Museums: Interpretation
6. Historical Societies
7. Historic Sites: Management
8. Historic Sites: Curation and Interpretation
9. Government Historical Organizations
10. Monuments and Historical Memory
11. Community Engagement
12. Digital Public History
13. Archives

 

Detailed Description of Conduct of Course

Students can expect to acquire exposure to both historical content and applicable skills in public history. To this purpose, this class will include a variety of content delivery methods, including lecture, discussion, and video presentations. Other options will include public history site visits (virtual or in-person), and projects designed to help students practice skills in communicating history to public audiences.

 

Student Learning Outcomes

1. Students will practice thinking critically and analytically about historical issues, acquire a broader knowledge and deeper understanding of pertinent historical events and processes, and cultivate a familiarity with the concepts of historical argument and interpretation.
2. Students will develop disciplinary research skills by designing strategies to locate and analyze primary and secondary source evidence, processing and organizing the resultant data, and composing proper citation and bibliographical entries.
3. Students will acquire a broader knowledge and deeper understanding of key issues, themes, personalities, and events in the history of the United States.

 

Assessment Measures

Knowledge and understanding of the material covered in this course will be measured using an array of assessment tools that may include, among other things, class attendance and participation, written examinations, formal writing assignments of various types, and informal writing assignments. All exercises are designed to expand the student's ability to evaluate historical events and to develop his or her ability to compose persuasive arguments.

 

Other Course Information

How do academics and the public understand history and memory? 
Rosenzweig and Thelen. The Presence of the Past: Popular Uses of History in American Life, 2000.

Tyrell, Ian. Historians in Public: The Practice of American History, 1890-1970, 2005.

Tony Horwitz, Confederates in the Attic (1998)

Sturken, Marita. Tourists of History: Memory, Kitsch, and Consumerism from Oklahoma City to Ground Zero, 2007

“Excursions into the Remembered Past: What People Want from Visits to Historical Sites” by Catherine M. Cameron and John B. Gatewood, The Public Historian, Vol. 22, No. 3, (Summer 2000)

“Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Memoire” by Pierre Nora, Representation 26, (Spring 1989), 7-24.

Mike Wallace, Mickey Mouse History and Other Essays on American Memory (1996)

Blight, Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory (2002)

Race and Public History
Horton & Horton. Slavery and Public History: The Tough Stuff of American Memory, 2008. 

Lonnie Bunch, “Embracing Ambiguity: The Challenge of Interpreting African American History in Museums,” Museums & Social Issues 2 (2007) 45-56. https://doi.org/10.1179/msi.2007.2.1.45

Paige Raibmon, “Theatres of Contact: The Kwakwaka’wakw Meet Colonialism in British Columbia and at the Chicago World’s Fair” Canadian Historical Review 81(2) (June 2000)

Robert Rydell, All the World’s a Fair

Amy Lonetree, Decolonizing Museums: Representing Native America (2012)

Cox, Karen. Dixie’s Daughters: The United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Preservation of Confederate Culture (2003)

Military History
Blackburn, Marc K. Interpreting American Military History at Museums and Historic Sites, 2016.

Museums
Gardullo, Paul and Bunch, Lonnie G., III. 2017. "Making a Way Out of No Way: the National Museum of African American History and Culture." History Workshop Journal, 84, (1) 248–256. https://doi.org/10.1093/hwj/dbx047

Sleeper-Smith, Susan, ed. Contesting Knowledge: Museums and Indigenous Perspectives (2009)

Steven Conn, Museums and American Intellectual Life, 1876-1926 (1998)

 

Review and Approval

June 17, 2025