Starting in Public History, or Life as a Professional Historian Outside of the Ivory Tower

Starting in Public History, or Life as a Professional Historian Outside of the Ivory Tower

Life for a historian working outside of academia can be strange new world.  M.A. and Ph.D. programs by their very nature do not prepare historians for the challenges they will face working with the "public." The primary objective of my presentation will be to expose some of the intrinsic distinctions between academic and public historians.  I plan defining the different categories in public history and then discuss how an academically-trained professional can work in those fields.  I will likely spend quite of bit of timing talking about how historians can get the qualifications needed to land in job in public history.