Archives and Public History Courses
Advanced Archival Description (HIST-GA 2031)
Instructor: Martha Tenney
Advanced Archival Description explores the purposes of archival description and the place of description in the continuum of archival practice, especially its relationship to arrangement, discovery, and reference. The course exposes students to the application of archival description and introduces the tools used to create description: content and encoding standards, controlled vocabularies, and content management systems. The course also emphasizes the importance of understanding users and applying this knowledge to influence descriptive practice, local practice and implementation, and online discovery environments.
Advanced Archival Description is offered every year and is a required course for students pursuing the Archives concentration; Introduction to Archives is a prerequisite for this course.
Approaches to Public History (HIST-GA 1757)
Instructor: Ellen Noonan
Public historians build bridges between the work of academic historians and the interests of diverse public audiences. Through readings, media analysis, visits by working public historians, and project work, students explore intellectual, political, and pragmatic issues in public history. A semester-long project requires students to work collaboratively to conceptualize a public history project and write a complete funding proposal for it.
Approaches to Public History is offered every year and is a required course for students pursuing the Public History concentration.
Community Archives (HIST-GA 2018)
Instructor: Maggie Schreiner
All communities create historical records, and recent decades have brought a growing critical awareness of how existing social hierarchies influence the creation and maintenance of historical archives. Community archive projects locate the power to preserve and shape history, heritage, and memory in communities themselves. Through readings, discussion, and analysis, this course will introduce students to a range of issues relating to grassroots community archives, archives of community organizations, and what happens when larger institutions partner with communities and community organizations to create and maintain archives. Students will also work with a local non-profit organization to undertake an archivally-based public project.
Community Archives is offered every other year.
Creating Digital History (HIST-GA 2033)
Instructor: Leah Potter
A hands-on introduction to “doing history” in the digital age, Creating Digital History focuses on the evolving methodologies and tools used by public historians to collect, preserve, and present digital sources. Students will become familiar with a range of web-based tools and learn best practices for digitizing, adding metadata, tagging, and clearing permissions. By evaluating existing digital history projects and discussing perspectives from leading practitioners, students will also consider the role of the general public as both audiences for, and co-creators of, digital history. The core requirement is a collaborative digital history project that will be developed throughout the semester on a selected historical theme.
Creating Digital History is offered every year and fulfills the “Digital Credit“ requirement.
Digital Archives (HIST-GA 1011)
Instructor: Mary Kidd
The Digital Archives course addresses the role of archivists across the life-cycle of digital archives and articulates challenges, best practices, and standards associated with the creation, appraisal, acquisition, storage, and provision of access to digital archives. Students design basic workflows for digitization of analog material and maintenance of digital objects, and identify risks and threats to the successful preservation of digital archives in various file formats. The course also enumerates important considerations in institutional policies and plans related to collection development, intellectual property rights, preservation, access, and overall sustainability.
Digital Archives is offered every year and fulfills the “Digital Credit“ requirement.
Internship Seminar (HIST-GA 2011)
Instructor: Ellen Noonan
The Internship Seminar is designed to accompany a 120-hour internship work experience at a selected archival repository or public history site. Students will have opportunities to report on and discuss their internship experiences with each other and the instructor. The course will also address various aspects of the professional practice of public history and archives, including organizational structures, leadership, professional societies, and funding sources, with presentations by professionals in the field.
The Internship Seminar is offered every year and is required for all students; either Introduction to Public History or Introduction to Archives is a prerequisite for this course.
Introduction to Archives (HIST-GA 1010)
Instructor: Cristina Fontánez Rodríguez
Introduction to Archives provides an introductory overview of the archival profession. Students develop an understanding of the historical development of the field of archives and engage with current issues, trends, and theories that are shaping the profession. Students also consider the role of the archivist and the use of archives and historical collections by a range of users and become familiar with the theoretical considerations that underlie the core functions of archival administration. The course explores the legal and ethical responsibilities of archivists, as well as the codes of conduct that have been developed and debated within the profession. Students gain an understanding of how new technologies and digital records are shaping the way that archivists do their work and the skills they must develop to perform core archival functions with digital records.
Introduction to Archives is offered every year and is a required course for students pursuing the Archives concentration.
Introduction to Preservation for Archives (HIST-GA 2013)
Instructor: Michael Lorenzini
Introduction to Preservation for Archives introduces students to the preservation of archival collections and cultural heritage materials. Beginning with an overview of the history of and the context for the preservation of cultural heritage, the course includes an examination of the composition of a variety of common archival materials, including paper, inks, photographs, magnetic media, and digital objects. The course is designed to introduce the student to preservation issues, such as conservation, holdings maintenance programs, rehousing techniques, reformatting, digital migration and conversion methods, selection for preservation, condition and needs assessment, proper use, handling and storage methods, environmental control and disaster planning and salvage methods. Students will also discuss preservation management strategies and prioritizing preservation and conservation activities.
Introduction to Preservation for Archives is offered every other year.
Introduction to Public History (HIST-GA 1750)
Instructor: Ellen Noonan
Introduction to Public History provides an overview of the public history field in its diverse venues and manifestations. Through intensive reading, discussion, and writing, students consider how the field of public history came into being and how it has evolved; where and how history is made and consumed; and the intersections and collisions of academic history with commemoration and popular history-making.
Introduction to Public History is offered every year and is a required course for students pursuing the Public History concentration.
Local and Community History (HIST-GA 1752)
Instructor: Molly Rosner
Local and Community History explores the scholarly literature and practices of local history and of community history with a focus on New York City (with some arm-chair traveling to other locations). By reading some of the formative histories of different communities, we will examine the changing nature of “local” and of “community” given the evolving historical interpretations of ethnicity, race, gender, and sexuality. We will relate the scholarly literature to the practice of public history by evaluating the interpretation at various historical sites. Together, we will investigate how and why local and community history remain compelling and relevant today.
Local and Community History is offered every other year.
Independent Readings in Public History and Archives (HIST-GA 3023)
Instructor: Ellen Noonan
Independent Readings in Public History and Archives consists of directed individual or small-group readings concerning a selected topic involving public history or archival theory and practice, developed in conjunction with the course instructor. In order to take this course, please contact the instructor for approval.
Independent Readings in Public History and Archives is available as an option any semester.
Research in Public History and Archives (capstone seminar) (HIST-GA 3013)
Instructor: Ellen Noonan
In this capstone seminar course, students are expected to undertake an original research project that relates to either the archives or public history field. The final product may take several forms: 1) a 30-50 page, article-length, research paper that might be submitted for publication in an academic journal; 2) a public history or archives project, which has been worked out with a cooperating institution, that might result in such products as a consulting report, finding aid with recommendations for handling or treating particular types of material, or collections survey; 3) an online project that contextualizes a body of historical source material and brings it to broader public attention.
Research in Archives and Public History is offered every year and is required of all Archives and Public History MA students. Introduction to Archives or Introduction to Public History and the Internship Seminar are all required before taking this course.