Public History, MA

Central to Bringing the Past to Life.

Use your CCSU MA in Public History to share your love of history beyond the traditional classroom. Build upon traditional graduate-level academic coursework, job-specific skills, and field-based experience with collaborative inquiry, community outreach, and a commitment to environmental sustainability. Prepare for a career in museums, government agencies, non-profits, heritage sites, historical societies, and even corporations.

Program Features

  • Starts every January and August
  • 33-credit program
  • Attend full- or part-time
  • Classes offered evenings on campus
  • Nontraditional learning environment includes study in the classroom, field, and specialized seminars
  • Financial aid is available
  • No GMAT/GRE required
 

Program Options

Work with local and state history museums. Learn about exhibit curatorship, interpretation, programming, and administration.

Learn how and why to document, designate, and steward historic resources across a diverse landscape as part of place-based development.

Master a variety of digital media tools to communicate content and market to the public on social and other media.

Develop the skills cultural institutions need to catalogue, care for, and archive historical documents and artifacts.

Admissions Contact

Graduate Recruitment & Admissions
Leah Glaser
Professor
History
Ebenezer D. Bassett Hall
2160700

Academic Contact

Mark Jones
Professor, Department Chair
History
Ebenezer D. Bassett Hall
2161700

Academic Department

Since my time at CCSU's Public History Program I have involved myself in all aspects of a Public History career. Currently I am an 8th Grade US History teacher in Connecticut, and what I learned at CCSU has been vital to my classroom. I incorporate public history, museums, non-profits, and historic preservation into the coursework that my students are working on.

Danielle Johnson
MA '12

Learning Outcomes

To produce a paper, project, or presentation that meets the professional standards of the public history field.

Core Expectations:

  1. Students identify a public historical problem to explore in their paper or project that reflects a solid understanding of the relevant historiography.
  2. Students develop a final bibliography that demonstrates knowledge of relevant secondary sources.
  3. Students write clearly.
  4. Students apply public history skills of shared inquiry and reflective practice to engage with the public or a community partner to address community-defined needs and interests.