Admit it. Regardless of your particular major at UMBC-Shady Grove, there’s a part of you, big or small, that enjoys history. Maybe it was that teacher who made everyone in your class dress up like medieval peasants, or that movie about Apollo 13, or your grandmother’s stories about working as a riveter during the war. “Ok, you got me,” you say. “Sure, I enjoy the occasional discussion about the bubonic plague – but what can I do with this interest?”
That’s where UMBC comes in. Let us introduce you to the launch of UMBC’s new public history minor at The Universities at Shady Grove, an exciting opportunity open to students in any major at UMBC-Shady Grove.
UMBC’s Public History minor provides st
udents the ability to explore opportunities that allow history, understanding, and the human experience "to come to life" through meaningful community engagement and relevant “hands on” experience. Public history is a field which brings historians together with partners and audiences to engage in productive conversations about the value and usefulness of the past. Students will take classes and complete an internship that exposes them to a wide breadth of practices, including historic sites documentation, cultural resources management, historic preservation planning, oral history, museum studies, and digital history. Expanded learning opportunities and applied experience outside of the classroom provide a strong foundation, framework, and set of employable skills in the surrounding Baltimore/Washington, D.C. area and other communities.
Melissa Blair, public history lecturer at UMBC states, “At UMBC, undergraduate students in public history apply their learning in the real world -- through field-based course work, involvement in projects that engage the surrounding community, and internships with the area's public history institutions.”
Interested in learning how a minor in public history at UMBC at USG may support your current major as well as your educational and career objectives? Contact Dr. Melissa Blair at mfblair@umbc.edu.
We also invite you to learn more about public history at UMBC and opportunities that current UMBC alumni are pursuing in the field here.