Summer public history program in D.C.

Terrific new opportunity puts UGA students within walking distance of the nation's greatest historical resources:

A new University of Georgia program in public history is offering students the opportunity to learn about the professional side of their discipline—through archiving artifacts, giving tours of historic sites or curating a historical collection of films—while living in Washington, D.C.

The program, offered by the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences' department of history, will consist of a Maymester introduction to public history class followed by a summerlong internship at one of the many institutions, museums, libraries and other cultural institutions based in the nation's capital.

The program is the first of its kind for Franklin College through the UGA in Washington program.

Public history, sometimes referred to as applied history, lends itself to a variety of employment opportunities with museums, institutions and a wide variety of other cultural entities and gives students a first-hand look at history, said Akela Reason, an associate professor of history who is leading the program.

"This program will introduce history majors to what they can do with their degree outside of academia," she said.

The depth of an academic experience with history is one of the university paths that lead to a thousand others. History graduates may teach and write, but they can also become filmmakers and CEOs, curators, attorneys and civil servants. If anything, we don't promote this connection strongly enough and so this program in public history boasts multiple benefits at once. Great work from Dr. Reason and the thoughtful UGA staffers in Washington who are working to bring this new opportunity to students campus wide.