This course was designed to offer students the chance to delve into the field of public history, as it exists in the public and university sector. Students will consider ethical and professional standards in the field, using their experiences and course materials to analyze and assess various public history activities.

This course takes up historical and cultural theory to examine how museums co-create history and public memory with communities. Through readings, research, discussion, and use of on-line resources, students explore institutional histories and current trends in the thinking and practices of academic and museum professionals, with a focus on identity, authority, and representation. They trace shifts in correspondent communities' and public expectations, with comparative views of venues and performance that represent history outside established institutions, including cross-cultural examples. They also consider how technology has changed certain museum practices and functions, in particular through the appraisal and comparison of on-line virtual museums and live visits to museums. This course is required for the Public History advanced certificate and the Heritage Preservation advanced certificate. This course was previously LIB 640628.

Exhibitions serve as vehicles for the interpretation and presentation of historic objects and images. Whether it is hosted by a traditional museum, an online collection, or a governmental office, an exhibition offers a material version of history that is often far more accessible than a scholarly article or monograph. That accessibility makes exhibitions especially valuable to public historians. Building on the theory and practice learned in Museums and Public History, this class will ask students to work within a history museum (or equivalent collection) to produce an exhibition. This course is required for the Public History advanced certificate program. This course was previously LIB 640635.

Oral history is the process of interviewing people to record their memories of events that occurred in the past and to analyze the meaning and value of those memories. In one sense, an oral history interview is a primary document much like newspapers, photographs, or diaries. As with all documents, the oral historian must take care to critique the interview and put it in context with other data and documents. In another sense, the oral history is very different in that the oral historian and the interviewee are creating an historical document that did not exist before. This course is required for the Public History advanced certificate program. This course was previously LIB 640625.

This course asks students to learn about preservation policies and laws. Questions of intellectual and cultural property, as understood within the United States and throughout the world, will be considered through study of the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (including Section 106), the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM), the US National Trust for Historic Preservation, the National Register of Historic Places, the Native American Graves and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), and the National Park Service. Students will also learn about the history of the preservation movement and the process of nominating properties for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places. This is a required course of the Heritage Preservation advanced certificate. This course was previously LIB 640674.

This course allows students to become acquainted with perspectives on heritage preservation and a theoretical and methodological repertoire to realize new learning through investigation of particular subjects and issues. The study focuses on the intersections between heritage preservation and material culture (including art and architecture). Questions related to museum studies, consumption theories and patterns, the concept of cultural property, or a closer focus on a specialty topic, such as a particular type of material or artifact and its history, use, and interpretation will be considered. This is a required course of the Heritage Preservation advanced certificate. This course was previously LIB 640673.

This course will introduce students to the history of archives and the basic theories and practices of administering archives and manuscript collections (appraisal, acquisition, arrangement and description, reference, and preservation). As well, the course will address the public dimension of archives and their use in research, outreach programs, and historic editing and publishing. Finally, the course will cover ethical and legal issues and the ways new information technologies affect archival administration and use. This course is required for the Advanced Certificate in Public History. This course was previously LIB 640634.

In this course, students find a public history and/or heritage preservation site at which they may put their theoretical and methodological knowledge to work. The internship site must be approved by the Coordinator of the program and by the college’s Career Services Office. All students registering for an internship or field/clinical experience must complete form PFC-001 and submit it to the Office of Career Services (https://careerhub.sunyempire.edu/channels/search-for-an-internship/) before activities begin. The Public History Internship is the final course in both the Advanced Certificates in Public History and Heritage Preservation and a required course of the MA in Public History degree.

As the concluding study in the Master of Arts in Public History program, the student will prepare a capstone project in close consultation with their advisor and instructor. The student will work with his/her instructor in this final capstone study to complete the proposed project and a short written or oral self evaluation of their work.