I come to this class having been teaching at the college level for almost 20 years now. I have about 20 more to go before I, maybe, can retire. This program is a bit of a mid-career shake up as I hope to develop a public history concentration to the history department at Le Moyne College where I work. I think this will be of service to our students, and I am also hoping that it will put a little life back into my own research, writing, and teaching.

I am not necessarily new to Public History. I have a M.A. in Public History or Cultural Resources Management or Historic Preservation (there was a bit of a debate going on at my institution as to what to call the program when I was there.) I then worked as a “Historic Preservation Specialist” for a few years in the Cultural Resources section of a major engineering firm in Pittsburgh. I did a lot of field work and report writing for cultural resource segments of environmental impact statements for road projects. So it was not necessarily even the public history that those who have heard of public history think about. Our main client was the West Virginia Dept. of Transportation. Now that I have an idea about writing a persona, I’m wondering what exactly that would look like in this context.

I did decide to move on from that work and get a Ph.D. in “traditional” history. Now 20+ years later, I look to return a bit to the Public History realm, and realize I have missed a lot in that time period. If I am going to teach this to students who were not even born when I left my CRM work in the 1990s, I better catch up. The most challenging part, and hence my enrollment at George Mason, is the digital development in the field. I know it as a consumer of content, but making that content? That’s another story. I hope to learn as much as I can about how to create historical content for the public and online. I know I am interested in creating web sites, working with mapping tools, and possibly trying my hand at podcasts. Our work in the introductory class last semester has given me a good idea of possible projects and programs, along with their particular benefits and challenges. It was an eye-opening experience. Likewise, I am looking forward to learning about opportunities and possibilities specifically in digital public history that I haven’t even thought about yet.