Jon Berndt Olsen

This course, for practicality’s sake, by and large emphasizes “theory” apart from “practice.” In reality, however, the concepts and ideas that we call theory should never be divorced from practice, and vice versa. To give you an opportunity to consider how theory and practice operate together in the world, you will complete a semester-long field service project that serves the local public history community, reflecting all the while – and, more formally, in a short paper at the course’s conclusion – on how the readings we consider during the semester inform and are informed by everyday experiences in the field of Public History

There are a variety of projects to be completed over the course of the semester: you will be assigned to one of these, and will complete the project as a member of a team.

The work is structured this way because a) in most professions, you do not (as in academia) get to follow your own curiosities, but rather must cultivate your curiosity about projects your institution has deemed desirable, and b) in most professions—much unlike academia—people work collaboratively (and for the most part do not self-select the projects they complete, also unlike academia). While this project will give you practical experience and tangible skills in a project that serves a local institution, it will also help you practice the specific skills necessary to work as one member of a well-functioning group. 

Early on, I will ask each of you to rank your preferences, but I will make the ultimate assignments. Your responsibility will be to complete the project to the best of your abilities, producing those products required by the respective initiative. You will also be required to turn in, at the project’s conclusion, a 8-10 page essay reflecting on the project itself, and how the insights and lessons you learned completing it relate to those issues that we’ve discussed in the classroom. Toward that end, I strongly encourage you to keep some sort of journal or log, reflecting on the readings as you tackle them. Though I won’t require these to be submitted at the semester’s conclusion, such a journal would also help prepare you for our weekly discussion.