Public History Minor

Gettysburg College’s historic location, well-established partnerships with a wide range of museums and historical organizations, and commitment to experiential education provide a solid foundation for the minor in Public History.

What Is Public History?

As a discipline, public history revolves around the politics and practice of preservation and interpretation, in public settings and in conversation with public audiences. A wide variety of subfields cluster under the umbrella of public history, ranging from curation, museum education, and historic preservation to interpretation, documentary film, and archival management.

The coursework for the minor will enhance students’ skills in historical research, cultural analysis, presentation, public engagement, collaboration with community partners, and digital technology. The interdisciplinary curriculum will provide students rich perspectives on the complex relationship between cultural practices, historical narratives, and material objects, and include substantial emphasis on field education and hands-on work. As future professionals, minors will be well-positioned to continue their education on a graduate level, while as citizens, they will be better equipped to advocate for more democratic, intellectually rigorous representations of history in the public sphere.

Students with a focus on Public History can pursue graduate study in history, public history, museum studies, art history, anthropology, library science, film studies, public policy, education, ethnic studies, public humanities, geography, sociology, or American Studies. They can also seek employment in fields ranging from museums, libraries and historic preservation to education, consulting, and government.

Contact Information

For more information about the Public History minor, please contact Prof. Jill Ogline Titus (jtitus@gettysburg.edu).

Requirements for the Minor

• Introductory Course (HIST 201)
• 1 Material Culture Course
• 1 Skill-Based Course
• 1 Elective Course
• 1 Additional Course in any of the above three categories
• For-Credit Internship (IDS 470)

Please see below for a list of courses approved by the Advisory Committee to meet these requirements.

Introductory Course

• HIST 201: Introduction to Public History

Material Culture Requirement

• ARTH 201: Arts of Ancient Greece and Rome
• ARTH 202: Medieval Art
• ANTH 212: Archaeology of Pennsylvania
• ANTH/AS 252: Household Archaeology of Tokyo & Gettysburg
• ANTH/ARTH 270: The Lives of Objects: Understanding Material Culture
• ANTH 275: Public Archaeology
• CWES 285/IDS 285: Interpreting & Preserving Civil War Artifacts
• ENG 297: Intro to Book History
• SYS 212: Everyday Life in Gettysburg and Tokyo
• SYS 217: Housing in American History
• SYS 231: Repatriation and the Museum World

Skill-Based Requirement

• ARTH 214: Methods in Art History
• ARTH 284: Wonders of Nature & Artifice
• ARTS 160: Intro to Digital Media
• CIMS 220: Video Production
• COMM 221: Social Media Strategy
• EDUC 201: Educational Psychology
• ENG 309: Topics – Writing with Sound
• ES 230: Intro to GIS
• MGT 155: Accounting for Management Decisions (Prerequisite: ECON 103)
• MGT 361: Marketing Management (Prerequisite: MATH 107)

Elective Requirement

• AFS 240/CWES 240: Race and Slavery in the American South
• AFS 262/HIST 273: Africa in Fiction, History & Memory
• ANTH/AS 229: Tourism & Culture in China
• ARTH 215: Intro to Museum Studies
• ARTH 225: History & Theory of Photography
• ARTH 245: Art of the Global Renaissance
• ARTH 267: Art & Public Policy
• CIMS/GER 235: The Holocaust Through Film
• CWES/ARTH 226: Visual Culture of the Civil War
• CWES 246/HIST 246: Life and Times of Abraham Lincoln
• CWES 250: Topics – Civil War Photography
• CWES 320: Aftermath
• EDUC 306: Teaching Social Studies (Prerequisite: EDUC 201)
• EDUC 309: Teaching History
• ENG 200: Topics – Writing Across Media
• ENG 370: Space and Place
• FYS 105-3: Who Owns the Past?: Cultural Heritage and Contest
• FYS 122-1: Behind the Scenes at the Museum
• FYS-W 184: Civil War Memory
• HIST 247/347: Gettysburg in History and Memory
• SOC 242/MGT 242: Sociology of Tourism (Prerequisite: SOC 101)
• SYS 218: From Shangri-La to Sacred Grounds

Internship

• IDS 470: Individualized Study – Internship

Students who would like to substitute other related courses (taken either on or off-campus) for the approved courses or make a case for an alternative path to meeting a minor requirement may formally petition the advisory committee. No more than two courses may be transferred in from off-campus study. Students majoring in Art History Museum Studies, which has significant curricular overlap with the Public History minor, may use a maximum of three courses towards both the major and the minor.

Learning Outcomes

• Students will articulate a critical understanding of key issues in contemporary public history practice.
• Students will demonstrate the ways in which hands-on work experience has shaped their comprehension of a specific aspect of public history practice; i.e., archives, preservation, interpretation, education, etc.
• Students will demonstrate the ability to communicate clearly with a range of different audiences, both orally and in writing.
• Students will demonstrate the ability to engage in critical analysis of public history products & programming.

Advisory Committee

• Jill Ogline Titus, Associate Director, Civil War Institute
• Kirby Farah, Assistant Professor, Anthropology
• Jing Li, Associate Professor of East Asian Studies
• Benjamin Luley, Assistant Professor, Classics
• Ashley Whitehead Luskey, Assistant Director, Civil War Institute
• David Powell, Associate Professor of Education
• Timothy Shannon, Professor of History
• Yan Sun, Professor of Art and Art History