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Public History in Practice

Overview

  • Credit value: 30 credits at Level 7
  • Convenor: Professor Julia Laite
  • Assessment: a 10-15-minute presentation of work-in-progress (20%) and 5000-word portfolio project or detailed project proposal (80%)

Module description

In this module we introduce you to key aspects and issues of the practice of public history, by providing support and guidance for you to create or propose your own small public history project. You will gain the necessary theoretical and practical skills to undertake critical assessments of public history projects and interventions, as well as to create your own. Through one-to-one tutorials with the module tutor, work-in-progress seminars and independent study, you will develop an idea for a project and propose it in full or execute it in portfolio form. The topic will be your own choice, subject to discussion with, and approval from, a member of academic staff.

Examples of projects include:

  • a micro-museum exhibit
  • a policy paper
  • a blog series or website
  • a guided walking tour
  • a community heritage project
  • a piece of fiction or popular non-fiction
  • a documentary script
  • a video or board game.

You would normally choose between this and the work placement module. If you are in full-time employment or have other limits on your time, then this may be the better option for you. If you already work or volunteer in the galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAM)/public history sector you are permitted to choose a topic related to your employment or to that institution.

Learning objectives

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

  • research and contextualise an aspect of public history practice in terms of current academic debates
  • critically appraise the conjunction of public history theory and practice
  • design and propose or execute an original public history project
  • explore the constraints and opportunities involved in public history work
  • fuse original research with critical, creative and practice-based work
  • reflect critically on the successes and challenges of the project undertaken.