30
Credit Degrees
12
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Degree

  • Master of Arts https://www.stmarytx.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/public-history-student.jpg

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Public History at St. Mary’s

Group photo of St. Mary's public history students
This team of public history students and their professor solved a decades-old mystery. Read the full story in the Gold & Blue Magazine.

Public History teaches students how to share historical knowledge with the public.

This program is designed for students interested in museum studies, heritage tourism, documentary filmmaking, digital history and archives.

St. Mary’s trains new generations of historians in the presentation of inclusive, ethical and responsible representations of the past.

The Public History graduate program engages students with history in real-world settings outside of the academic environment.

This program pairs traditional historical content and interpretation with tools and strategies that engage the public in the historical past and the world.

public History Projects

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  • Degree and Certificate Options

    We specialize in preparing public history professionals who use digital tools and media to curate public history experiences in a variety of tourist and cultural environments. Several study options are available:

    St. Mary’s University offers Combined Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree Programs that allow undergraduate students to begin graduate studies during their junior year. All interested and qualified students may apply during their junior year and, if accepted, begin their graduate studies as “conditionally accepted” graduate students during the second semester of the junior year.

    Eligible undergraduate majors to obtain a bachelor’s degree and Master of Arts in Public History include:

    • All majors within the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
    • All majors within the Greehey School of Business
    • Majors from the School of Science, Engineering and Technology may be considered

    More about Combined Degree Programs

    Combined Degrees

  • Public History Courses

    Students hone their skills through methods courses in public history, documentary filmmaking and digital history. They also sharpen their knowledge with academic context courses in U.S. history, history of the U.S. military and public memory, heritage tourism and regional history courses.

    Course highlights include:

    Students learn to use digital media and computational analysis to further historical practice, presentation, analysis and research primarily for online audiences.

    Students use technologies including blogs and social media, online publishing platforms and mapping tools to create and share historical content with public audiences.

    View Students’ ScoutSA StoryMap Projects: Digital Histories of San Antonio

    Public History in the Digital Age

    Students learn to promote community historical and cultural traditions in ways that aid and advance preservation as well as economic development. Applicable settings include local government and other public institutions and venues, private businesses, community centers and even religious institutions.

    Students learn methods of discovering and uncovering unique elements of a community’s history and culture and collaborating with political and business leaders and cultural workers to highlight and advance these for a community’s overall benefit.

    Heritage Tourism

    Browse all Public History courses in the catalog:

    Course Catalog

  • Institutional Partnerships

    St. Mary’s has established partnerships with local, state and national institutions including:

    • The Alamo
    • Bexar County Information Technology
    • Esperanza Peace and Justice Center
    • The Institute of Texan Cultures
    • San Antonio African American Community Archive & Museum
    • San Antonio Museum of Art
    • San Antonio Missions National Historical Park
    • The Smithsonian’s Museum of American History

Fellowships, Assistantships and Financial Aid

The Department of History offers assistantships to qualified and interested students studying Public History. Each assistantship or fellowship is accompanied by a stipend and a commitment to work at least 10 hours a week in addition to academic course work.  Students must be enrolled in at least six credit hours in the graduate Public History program in order to qualify. 

Most assistantships allow students to engage in Public History methodologies with a faculty member to further their understanding and appreciation of their course work. At least one assistantship may be reserved to provide administrative and project management assistance to the Public History program director. 

Successful candidates gain fluency in Public History methods, project management skills, volunteer management skills and data collection tactics.

Placements include any of the active Public History Projects currently ongoing within the Department of History or newly established projects to celebrate the San Antonio Tricentennial, San Antonio’s rich Hispanic heritage or a partnership within the special collections of the Louis J. Blume Library at St. Mary’s University.

Applying to pursue a Public History Assistantship is simple and easy. Students must simply:

  1. Complete and submit the Graduate Application for Admission as a Public History student and indicate their interested in pursuing a graduate assistantship on the application form.
  2. Be prepared to participate in a telephone, Skype, or in-person interview with the Public History program director and/or other faculty members.

If you have any questions about the assistantship options, please contact Lindsey Wieck at lwieck@stmarytx.edu.

Public History Assistantships

This program supports the ongoing efforts of the School of Law to collect, prepare and showcase the stories of the School of Law, law students and our alumni who have made an impact on our local communities.

Working alongside the faculty and staff of the School of Law students further develops students’ understanding of Public History, volunteer management, story collection and curation, and multi-media displays.

Interested students who wish to apply for a Public History Fellowship must:

  1. Complete and submit the Graduate Application for Admission as a Public History student and indicate their interested in pursuing a graduate assistantship on the application form.
  2. Be prepared to participate in a telephone, Skype, or in-person interview with the Public History program director and/or other faculty members.

If you have any questions about the assistantship options, please contact Lindsey Wieck at lwieck@stmarytx.edu.

School of Law Public History Fellows

St. Mary’s offers various scholarships, grants and assistantships to graduate students. Military, their dependents and Department of Defense employees may be eligible for a tuition discount.

Please contact the Office of Financial Assistance at 210-436-3141 or finaid@stmarytx.edu for additional information or visit www.stmarytx.edu/finaid.

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