Graduate Alumni

Our graduate alumni continue to be valuable members of our community. Many of our M.A. graduates have gone on to excellent Ph.D. programs across the country including those at Yale University, UC Los Angeles, Carnegie-Mellon University, Duke University, University of Georgia, University of Minnesota, Vanderbilt University and Stanford University. Others have transitioned to a broad range of fields, such as education, law, banking, nonprofit organizations and a variety of private sector jobs.

Graduates of our M.A. and Ph.D. in Public History program have gone on to successful careers at a number of institutions across North Carolina and the United States such as the North Carolina Museum of History, the New York Public Library, the Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Death Valley National Monument, the Kentucky Derby Museum, the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site, the Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library, the Scheile Museum of Natural History, the Jewish Historical Society, Yale University Manuscripts and Archives, the Virginia Air and Space Museum, the North Carolina Historical Review, the Maryland Historical Society, the Museum of African American History of Boston, the Woodstock (N.Y.) Historical Society, the National Storytelling Association and hundreds of other institutions.

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Public History Alumna, Anna Killian,’18, Works with Native Peoples and the NPS

At the site of one of the bloodiest battles in the 19th-century West, Anna Killian is part of ongoing efforts to include perspectives from indigenous people to form multi-vocal narratives.

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Public History Alum, Claire Du Laney, '18, named Outreach Archivist and Assistant Professor at UNO

Public History MA Alumna, Claire Du Laney is now doing what she loves in the Archives and Special Collections Department at the University of Nebraska, Omaha.

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HI Alum, Derrick Kay, '18, Named UNC McNair Scholars Assistant Director

Graduate History Alumnus, Derrick Kay, ’18, has recently been named the Assistant Director for the Ronald E. McNair Scholars Program within the Carolina Higher Education Opportunity Programs (CHEOP) Office at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 


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What our alumni have recently achieved

Our alumni are defined by so much more than their jobs. Congratulations to Gabriel Lee ('08) who received the Cassius Marcellus Clay Postdoctoral Fellowship in United States Environmental History at Yale in 2019 https://history.news.chass.ncsu.edu/2019/05/14/gabriel-lee-o8-receives-yale-postdoctoral-fellowship/; C.J. Rice (’16) who won the Southern Conference of Graduate Schools Outstanding MA Thesis Award in Humanities and Fine Arts 2017, and went on to a Yale doctoral program https://grad.ncsu.edu/news/2017/03/thesis-award-winner/; and Karen Hawkins (‘07) who published a groundbreaking new study Everybody’s Problem: The War on Poverty in Eastern North Carolina also in 2017 https://history.news.chass.ncsu.edu/2017/12/11/alumna-karen-m-hawkins-writes-history-of-the-war-on-poverty-in-eastern-north-carolina/. Congratulations are in order as well for Joshua D. Hager ('11) who received the 2014 Theodore Calvin Pease Award given by the Society of American Archivists for his essay titled "To Like or Not to Like: Understanding and Maximizing the Utility of Archival Outreach on Facebook." Amanda Smith ('11) who has authored her first book, a collection of oral histories titled The Williamston Freedom Movement: A North Carolina Town's Struggle for Civil Rights, 1957-1970 (2014). And Caroline Muglia ('11), archivist at the Library of Congress, recently published "iCommunity: Digital Media, Family Heirlooms and a Global Audience in the Lebanese in North Carolina Project," in Melissa Morrone, ed., Informed Agitation: Library and Information Skills in Social Justice Movements and Beyond.

FOLLOWING IS A LIST OF WHERE OUR ALUMNI HAVE WORKED OR ARE CURRENTLY WORKING.

National Institutions and Organizations

  • George Washington's Mt. Vernon, collections management assistant
  • Library of Congress, analyst
  • Marine Corps University, director of research archives
  • National Archives, supervisory archives specialist
  • National Park Service, Death Valley, ranger
  • National Park Service, Guilford Court House, curator
  • National Park Service, Hawai'i Volcanoes, ranger
  • National Park Service, Martin L. King Jr. Birthplace, chief of interpretation, education, and CRM
  • Plimouth Plantation, colonial programs associate
  • United States House of Representatives, historian

State Institutions and Organizations

  • Alabama Department of Archives and History, archivist
  • Georgia Historical Society, archivist
  • Indiana Historical Society, curator of manuscripts
  • Library of Virginia, archives research services director
  • Maryland Historical Society, archivist
  • North Carolina Museum of History, assistant registrar
  • North Carolina Museum of History, curator of military history
  • North Carolina Museum of History, distance learning coordinator
  • North Carolina Museum of History, historical publications editor
  • North Carolina Museum of History, professional development coordinator
  • North Carolina Museum of History, traveling exhibits coordinator
  • Ohio Historical Society, assistant state archivist
  • Redcliffe Plantation State Historic Site, park manager
  • Southern Oregon Historical Society, archivist
  • Stagville Plantation State Historic Site, site manager
  • State Archives of North Carolina, correspondence archivist
  • State Archives of North Carolina, electronic records management analyst
  • State Archives of North Carolina, information management archivist
  • State Archives of North Carolina, local records management analyst
  • State Archives of North Carolina, processing assistant
  • State Archives of North Carolina, processing assistant
  • State Archives of North Carolina, supervisor of special collections
  • State Library of North Carolina, genealogy and reference librarian

Local Institutions and Organizations

  • Alliance for Historic Hillsborough, program coordinator
  • Amon Carter Museum, distance learning coordinator
  • Athens Historical Society and Museum, curator and education coordinator
  • Bok Foundation Gallery, curator
  • Buffalo Gap Historic Village, program and site manager
  • Cape Fear Museum, education manager
  • Charlotte Museum of History, education coordinator
  • Children's Museum of Boston, senior development officer
  • City of Raleigh Museum, assistant director
  • City of Raleigh Museum, digital outreach specialist
  • City of Raleigh Museum, director
  • City of Raleigh Museum, image collections librarian
  • City of Raleigh Museums, director
  • City of Raleigh, assistant manager of historic sites
  • City of Raleigh, Historic Resources and Museums administrator
  • City of Raleigh, manager of historic sites
  • Country Doctor Museum, director
  • Dallas Heritage Village, curator of education
  • Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library, archivist
  • Duke Homestead State Historic Site, assistant site manager
  • Gaston County Museum of Art & History, registrar
  • High Point Museum, curator of collections
  • Hight Museum of Art, assistant registrar
  • Historic Halifax, site interpreter
  • Historic Oak View County Park, park manager
  • Historic Yates Mill Park, collections and education coordinator
  • Kelowna Art Gallery, exhibition coordinator
  • Kentucky Derby Museum, assistant curator
  • Lancaster County Probate Court, estate clerk and archivist
  • Liberty Hall Historic Site, education and volunteer coordinator
  • Mariner's Museum of Newport News, curator
  • Middleton Place Plantation, blacksmith and re-enactor
  • Mordecai Historic Park, site manager
  • Mote Marine Library, archivist
  • Museum of the Cape Fear Historical Complex, education coordinator
  • New York Public Library, processing specialist
  • Old City Park of Dallas, program manager
  • Old Salem Museums and Gardens, coordinator of historic interpreters
  • Orange County Historical Museum, executive director
  • Pearson Air Museum, curator and manager
  • Port O'Plymouth Museum, curator
  • Reynolda House Museum of American Art, assistant archivist
  • St. Augustine Lighthouse and Museum, collections, interpretations, and programs coordinator
  • Sumter County Museum, director
  • Thomas Balch Library of Virginia, director
  • Woodstock Historical Society, assistant director
  • Ybor City Museum Society, assistant director

Corporate and Private Institutions and Organizations

  • American Airlines Flight Attendants Union, archivist
  • American Jewish Historical Society, archivist
  • Cedar in the Pines: The Lebanese in North Carolina project, museum exhibition associate
  • Farm Bureau of North Carolina, archivist
  • Glaxo Wellcome, museum specialist
  • Historic Hillsborough Commission, executive director
  • Learning Together, development assistant
  • National Storytelling Association, archivist
  • North Carolina Mutual Insurance Company, historian and archivist
  • Presbyterian Church USA, deputy director of history
  • Rouviere Media, founder and independent consultant

Academic Settings

  • Appalachian State University, professor of history
  • Arizona State University Center for Biology and Society, research project coordinator
  • Beaufort County Early College High School, social studies teacher
  • Campbell University, study abroad coordinator
  • Clemson University Libraries, records manager
  • Columbia University Library, archivist
  • Duke University Libraries, digital production assistant
  • Duke University Medical School Library, assistant archivist
  • Duke University Rare Book and Manuscript Library, archivist
  • Duke University Rare Book and Manuscript Library, research services coordinator
  • Duke University School of Law Library, technical services
  • Duke University, university archivist
  • Fayetteville State University, university archivist
  • Johnson C. Smith University, instructor of public history
  • Michigan State University Libraries, archivist
  • Millbrook High School, social studies teacher
  • NC State University Special Collections, digital project librarian
  • NC State University Special Collections, technician
  • NC State University Special Collections, technician
  • Rowan-Cabarras Community College, instructor of history
  • Southeast Louisiana State University, librarian
  • Texas A&M University architecture library, slide curator
  • University of California at Santa Barbara, ABD in Public History
  • University of Kansas Libraries, head of public services
  • University of Mississippi Museums, education director
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Assistant Director, McNair Scholars Program
  • Vance-Granville Community College, instructor of history
  • Vanderbilt University, ABD in History
  • Wake Tech Community College, instructor in history
  • Wayne State University, archivist
  • Winston-Salem State University Library, project archivist for digital services
  • Yale University Law School, archivist

Publishing Venues

  • Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, assistant managing editor
  •  American Tobacconist, assistant editor
  •  NC Historical Review, editor
  • Oxford University Press, marketing associate
  • Papers of Thomas Jefferson, digital technician/electronic editor