Public History at NC State
The M.A. in Public History
At some graduate programs, you will find that public history is just another track to study, like Southern history, Gender & Women's history, or Medieval history. At NC State, we understand public history differently--as an approach not only to scholarship but to the practice of history and engagement with the world. We believe public history is the way in which we make history relevant to our communities, states, and nation. We promote the collaborative nature of public history, the importance of relevance over objectivity, and the civic role of the public historian. We are a faculty that acts upon our philosophy of public history, and we encourage the same in our students.
Our program ranks among the premier programs in the nation, preparing students to work in a variety of public and applied history settings. Even in economically difficult times, we continue to sustain a 80 percent employment rate among our graduates. Our alumni represent our program well
History for the Public
Annual Public History Newsletter: 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012
Public History Conferences:
2011: Public History of the Civil War (podcast)
2012: The History of History at NCSU
"The State of History" digital project
History of the NC Farm Bureau
through employment at 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, and the National Storytelling Association, among hundreds of other institutions.
We offer training in three fields:
Archival Studies (only as a dual-degree with UNC SILS)
