Greetings From The Director

Thank you for following our links to the NKU Public History website.

Some students looking for a graduate program may already know what public history is, while others may be thinking, "What is public history and why are there classes in it?" The web pages listed on the left are designed to provide information for both groups.

Twenty-two years ago, I was waiting for a summer school class to begin and I spied a poster with tear-away mail-in cards that read: "Want a career in history, but don’t want to teach? Come to West Virginia University and study public history."

With my bachelor’s degree almost finished, no job prospects, and a keen desire to not follow in my mother's footsteps as a high school history teacher, public history -- whatever it was -- sounded awfully good to me.

What I discovered changed the course of my life. Public history, depending on the program, trains students to be literally "public" versus academic historians or traditional history educators. Public historians work in museums, historical societies, archives, libraries, local, state and national governments, state and national parks, historic preservation, consulting firms and more.

Because of the popularity and rapid growth of public history, some master’s programs now focus on preparing students for additional graduate study, while others remain focused on preparing students for non-academic careers.

The NKU Public History program focuses on preparing students for non-academic careers. Since the best career opportunities remain primarily for holders of master’s degrees (versus only undergraduate degrees), the majority of the NKU public history skills acquisition courses are for master’s students. And since there are so many public history fields, we have chosen to offer training in two areas we feel are most needed in this region -- Museum Studies and Contract History.

So check out our web pages to discover what courses we offer, recent class and student projects and advertisements for internships.

Although I’m often out and about with community partners, my office on campus can be found in Landrum 407. If my door’s open, stop in and see me. You can also email me and we’ll plan a time to chat and discuss whether NKU Public History is for you.

Rebecca Bailey
Director, Public History Program
407 Landrum Center
(859) 572-5176
http://publichistory.nku.edu