Tag: Public History

books, digital media, posts about public history

Department Alum & WHHA President Stewart McLaurin to Speak March 1

February 7, 2023

Stewart McLaurin, a 1981 graduate of The University of Alabama Department of History and current president of the White House Historical Association (WHHA), will return to campus on March 1 to speak as part of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute‘s (OLLI) lifelong learning lecture series. McLaurin will be in town to discuss the WHHA’s history, current projects, and role in preserving the presidential mansion for future generations. His presentation is entitled, “The White House Historical Association and Five Chapters of […]

Sewanee’s Tiffany Momon Addresses Power & Struggle Conference

May 6, 2022

In February, as part of the annual UA Graduate Conference on Power & Struggle, graduate students and faculty welcomed invited keynote speaker Dr. Tiffany Momon, Assistant Professor of History at Sewanee: The University of the South, to address the growth and significance of Public History in our discipline. Momon has conducted architectural surveys on eight of Alabama’s nine historically black colleges and universities for the National Park Service and she has worked with graduate students to complete numerous National Register […]

Public History Roundtable to be Held April 7

March 31, 2021

Join us on Wednesday, April 7, 2021, at 1:30 CDT, for a roundtable discussion on the field of Public History and jobs and experiences outside traditional academia. The event is free, but registration is required. Julia Brock received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2012. She practices, studies, and teaches public history with special interest in museums, digital history, oral history, and community partnerships. Her research focus is the post-Civil War U.S. South, but her public […]

Graduate Students Help Catalog Materials at the Lillian E. Smith Center

March 9, 2020

During the past weekend, History M.A. students Emma Pepperman and Margaret Schultz joined Dr. Julia Brock at the Lillian E. Smith Center in Clayton, Georgia, to create a catalog of the material culture that is housed within the Center. The site was the former Laurel Falls Girls Camp, begun by the family of writer and activist Lillian Smith in 1920 and directed by Smith herself until 1949, when the camp closed. Smith penned her novel Strange Fruit (1944) and memoir Killers of […]

History and Reconciliation: Conversations on Slavery, Historic Preservation, and Community in the South

October 2, 2019

Please join the White House Historical Association, Department of History, and the Blackburn Institute on Thursday, October 17 for a panel, “History and Reconciliation: Conversations on Slavery, Historic Preservation, and Community in the South.” The conversation features Dr. Matthew Costello, interim director of the David M. Rubenstein Center for History at the WHHA, Dr. Hilary Green of Gender and Race Studies, and UA alumnus Malcolm Cammeron of the University of Virginia. The panel will take place in the Ferguson Student […]

Dan Vivian Talks Public History with Students

May 9, 2019

Dr. Dan Vivian, Director of Historic Preservation at the University of Kentucky, visited campus this spring to deliver a talk, “The Future of Public History,” and host a lunch-and-learn event. In these talks, he discussed the results of a multi-year study on public history employment from the Joint Task Force on Public History Education and Employment. Vivian also spoke with our students about the growing world of Public History, a field that seeks to create historical narratives that are accessible […]

Department Hosts Documentary Crew to Discuss Public History and the Media

May 9, 2019

Earlier this semester, Drs. John Giggie and Julia Brock hosted the documentary crew Phil Bertelsen and Rachel Dretzin for a free lunch and discussion on their recent film, Hope and Fury: MLK, the Movement and the Media. Students discussed the project and Bertelsen’s and Dretzin’s respective career paths, as well as how they too could join the film and media world as historians. Documentary film work is another facet of the growing world of public history, a field which we in […]

UA Historian Reports on Federal Shutdown’s Impact for NPS Historians

January 24, 2019

Government Shutdown Means History Is on Hold at National Parks Explaining the historical import of National Park Service sites is more calling than career for most of the people who do it, but the shutdown has played hell with that dream. Glenn David Brasher (via the Daily Beast) Much media coverage has focused on the negative impacts of the longest government shutdown in history, from airport security, to the GDP, to FDA food inspections. We have also seen damage to our National […]

Department Welcomes Dr. Julia Brock

September 13, 2018

The Department is pleased to welcome Professor Julia Brock to our faculty. Dr. Brock did her undergraduate work at the University of Georgia, earned her Master’s from Florida State University, and received her Doctorate from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2012. Her specialty is in public history and post-Civil War American and Southern History. Her dissertation looked at hunting and game laws in the New South, when areas such as southern Georgia and northern Florida were host to […]

Dr. Edwin C. Bridges, Former Director of the ADAH, to Speak on the Importance of Alabama History, February 27

February 9, 2017

Dr. Edwin C. Bridges, who recently retired as director of the Alabama Department of Archives and History after more than thirty years at its helm, will speak in room 205, Amelia Gayle Gorgas Library at 6 pm, Monday, February 27. Bridges’s topic – “Alabama History: It’s Worth Another Look” – explores the important role that state histories play in telling our national story. “State history is often regarded as lite – parochial, shallow, and the province of buffs and amateurs,” […]

Summersell Initiative in Public History Students Explore Options for History Majors

November 30, 2016

Archives, genealogy projects, museums, libraries — all of these are potential career paths for history majors, combining historical knowledge with technical skills and a love of the public. Drs. John Giggie, James Mixson, and Dan Riches , along with the Summersell Center for the Study of the South, have teamed up to create a track for both undergraduate and graduate students interested in public history. The Summersell Initiative in Public History is a year-long program: over the Fall 2016 semester, […]