On October 11 the public history classes took a field trip to the West Virginia Capitol in Charleston. Students in these classes had the opportunity to learn from professionals working in the public history field in various capacities. Our Public History classes this semester contain a mix of MA students with a concentration in Public History, MA students from other historical fields, and PhD graduate students from varied fields. Students visited the West Virginia State Archives and learned about their highway marker program. Students in HIST 750: Public History Methods have the option of writing a highway marker as a class project. Joe Geiger, Director....
This year Dr. Michele Stephens had the opportunity to travel with students in the
Andes region for two study abroad experiences. As a faculty sponsor for study
abroad trips in Bolvia and Peru, she visited both countries to support the
students and see their experiences for herself.
PhD student Nerissa
Aksamit has spent this summer at the Goethe-Institut in Hamburg studying the
German language. This experience was funded through a scholarship from Deutscher
Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD). Nerissa was granted a DAAD scholarship
last summer as well, but had to turn it down to participate in the Global
Humanitarian Research Academy at the University of Exeter and International
Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva.
This summer, Public
History M.A. Steven Semmel was hired as a seasonal park ranger at Harpers Ferry
through the Pathways program. Steven works in the living history department,
which conducts their programming wearing nineteenth century clothing.
Our students and former students have been busy this year!
Check out some of the exciting accomplishments of our current undergraduate and
graduate students and catch up on the news from our amazing alumni:
A team of emerging history professionals connected
to the WVU History Department recently collaborated to create an online tour of
West Virginia women. The interactive tour was designed for “IN.Exclusive,” a
new exhibit at Arts Monongahela designed to commemorate Women’s History Month
(celebrated during the month of March). The exhibit and interactive tour aim to
highlight contributions and accomplishments of women in West Virginia that may
have been overlooked in mainstream culture and historical interpretation
previously.
To Ph.D. student Marc Sanko, his historical research is not
just about the past. It involves working with living communities and enabling
them define their own heritage. This is why he is excited to join Latitude 36,
an audio-visual production company out of London, for work on a community
project looking at global Maltese migration. The fall, Marc was recruited to be
the lead historian for North American Maltese migration by Latitude 36 as they
prepare to run exhibits as part of Valletta 2018.
Justin Power, a fourth year Ph.D. candidate, spent this past
summer researching at the Pequot Museum, through a program known as the
Graduate Humanities Internship. This program not only provided him hands on
experience in archives, it also allowed him the perfect opportunity to conduct research
for his dissertation.
