M.A. Concentration in Public History
In the Department of History, Geography, and Philosophy, we offer public history as a concentration within our graduate program. Students typically focus on archival practices, digital media, film/video, historic preservation, local/community history, museum studies, and oral history.
All students admitted to the program are eligible to receive funds to cover internship expenses, workshops, conferences, research expenses, study-travel, and more. In addition, students can access the department’s Guilbeau Center for Public History, which provides collaborative meeting space and resources for exhibit construction, software and digital tools, and podcast and video production equipment to foster community engagement and innovative instruction.
Public history courses are designed to provide hands-on training and problem solving abilities while cultivating the special research and professional skills required by public historians. Students are challenged to combine solid historical training with skill development and a cross-disciplinary approach to history.
Our public history graduate students have a range of on-campus and community resources for research and projects, including:
- Guilbeau Center for Public History
- Center for Louisiana Studies
- University Special Collections
- Louisiana Historical Association
Our public history students complete their required internships across the country. Recent interns have worked at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the National World War II Museum, the Louisiana Division of Historic Preservation, the Tabasco Corporate Archives, the Levine Museum of the New South, The Historic New Orleans Collection, the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana, the Louisiana Military Museum, the LBJ National Historical Park, the Smithsonian Archives of American Art, Hearst San Simeon State Park, The Parthenon, the New Orleans Jazz Museum, and the Stonewall National Museum, Archives, & Library.
Many of our public history alumni end up working locally. Acadiana is rich in history and filled with exciting public history opportunities. Some of them have ventured much further in achieving their employment dreams, however. Recent graduates in public history have found employment at the Louisiana Division of Historic Preservation, the Center for Louisiana Studies, Vermilionville Living History Museum and Folklife Park, the Bayou Teche Museum, the Hilliard Art Museum, the Acadian Cultural Center of Jean Lafitte National Park, Longfellow-Evangeline State Historic Park, the Tabasco Corporate Archives, Fort Nisqually Historical Park, the Southern Forest Heritage Museum & Research Center, Berry College Memorial Library, the Arkansas State Archives, the Iberville Museum, the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana Archives, the Louisiana Division of Archaeology, the Bodleian Libraries (Oxford University), the LSU Center for Analytics & Research in Transportation Safety, the Archdiocese of New Orleans, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the National Records Center—USCIS, the Central Arkansas Library System, the Ernest J. Gaines Center, the Capitol Park Museum, Louisiana’s Old State Capitol, The Shadows, a National Trust Historic Site, Ware, Jackson, Lee, O'Neill, Smith, & Barrow, LLP, the LSU Museum of Art, History Associates, Incorporated, the Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation, Maine Energy Marketers Association, the Jackson County, Georgia, School System, Georgia Public Library Service, St. Martin Parish Library, Cohen & Co., and Belle Heritage.