University of Richmond launches new graduate certificate in public history
The University of Richmond’s School of Professional and Continuing Studies is launching a new graduate certificate in public history. In addition, the School is adding a public history concentration as an optional focus area to the existing Master of Liberal Arts (MLA) program.
Public history at the University of Richmond represents the collaborative study and practice of history made accessible and useful to the public. Its methods include digital scholarship, curating museum and historical exhibits, interpreting or enacting historical sites and events and more.
The graduate certificate in public history provides a credential for historians and history buffs to prepare for working in a museum, gallery, park, library, digital lab or other enterprise that strives to bring alive and make accessible the study of history to the public.
The MLA concentration in public history provides an interdisciplinary graduate degree that includes a public history focus. MLA graduates may find themselves qualified to manage or administer public history facilities and projects by combining a passion for history with the management and curation skills offered by the public history concentration.
Richmond and its central Virginia surroundings are an ideal location for a degree program in public history. Museums, state and national parks, battlefields, pre-colonial settlements and Native American history offer rich resources for practicing public history. The University also offers considerable resources for the public history program, including Boatwright Library’s Galvin Rare Book Room, the Virginia Baptist Historical Society and the Digital Scholarship Lab.
The new programs in public history will be directed by Dr. Dan Roberts, chair of the liberal arts program at the School and prominent local public historian as creator and host of the nationally-syndicated radio segment A Moment in Time. Roberts is a Richmond graduate, having earned a master of arts in history in 1990. Roberts has chaired the liberal arts program in the School since 1997, and has overseen the incorporation of the MLA program (formerly the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences master of humanities program) into the School.
The new graduate certificate and MLA concentration build on the history and success of the School’s undergraduate liberal arts program and the University’s graduate humanities program. As a means of making accessible historical scholarship, the public history program is a natural extension of the University’s engagement with the Richmond community.
Students are being admitted for spring 2015 to both programs of study. Classes will be offered starting in January 2015.
Note: The graduate certificate in public history is being offered pending approval of our accrediting agency, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC). The graduate certificate is not currently eligible for federal financial aid, pending SACSCOC approval and notification of the US Department of Education. As approval is received and notification occurs, the Public History program pages will be updated.