Academic Bulletin 2024-2025 
    
    Jun 26, 2024  
Academic Bulletin 2024-2025

Public Humanities Major


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Faculty: Burleigh (Program Director), B. Miller (Program Director), Byrnes, Keysor, Luman, Ribeiro, Shaw, Sinha Roy

The Public Humanities major is a program in the Interdisciplinary Studies Area of Study. Public Humanities majors may complete any minor to satisfy the college requirement that the major and minor be in different areas of study.

Public Humanities Major Learning Outcomes

Learning Outcomes for students who graduate with a Public Humanities MAJOR:

  • Content: Recognize the foundations of the Public Humanities as an interdisciplinary scholarly practice and the diverse theoretical perspectives that characterize this field of study.
  • Collaboration: work collaboratively and effectively with constituencies outside of the college, especially community-based program partners. 
  • Critical and Ethical Assessment: Critically assess the purpose of humanities-based inquiry in public contexts. Evaluate the ethics of social engagement and investigate the complexities of the idea of the public.
  • Methods: Successfully use a variety of tools for public engagement which could include museum and archival curation and categorization, best practices in working with oral histories and Institutional Review Board, and specific advanced training in Digital Humanities tools. 
  • Public-Facing Communication: Effectively convey complex ideas to non-specialist publics. 

The Public Humanities Major

The Public Humanities major, consisting of 44 credits, leads to the Bachelor of Arts degree. At graduation, Public Humanities majors must have a GPA of at least 2.0 in the major. The calculation is based on the grades of all courses taken at Allegheny for the major. Only the most recent grade is considered for courses that have been repeated. All courses taken for the major must be taken on the letter-grade basis. A maximum of eight transfer credits may be counted toward the major; exceptions must be approved by the department chair.

The Major consists of an 8-credit core; 8 credits of methods course work; 16 credits of course work in one of the following tracks: Space & Place, Museums & Collections, Advocacy & Social Justice, Memory Studies, and Public Writing; 2 credits of experiential learning (EXL, internship, or GL Study Away); Junior Seminar; and a 6 credit Senior Project.

 

Core Coursework 12 credit hours)


Public Humanities Tracks (16 credit hours)


Choose ONE of the following tracks and complete 16 credits of coursework 

  • Not all four 4-credit courses can come from the same department; students must take courses from at least two different departments 
  • Students may not double count courses that appear in the core and in a track, nor may students double count junior seminars with track courses 
  • At least eight credits in the track to be taken at or above the 300 level. 

SPACE & PLACE:


Students pursuing the Space & Place track may be interested in environmental studies, cultural geographies, urban histories, and place making. Courses in the Space & Place track support future career pathways in entry level positions in city/urban planning, nonprofit programming and management (e.g. RAICES), community liaison, community garden manager, communications specialist, and sustainability coordinator.

 

MUSEUMS & COLLECTIONS:


Students pursuing the Museums & Collections track may be interested in digital and/or oral storytelling projects, ethnography, memory studies, museums, art history, and curatorial studies. Courses in the Museums & Collections track support future career pathways in museums and other institutions of display, archives, library science, content creation, and documentary making. 

 

MEMORY STUDIES:


Students pursuing the Memory Studies track may be interested in how historical knowledge operates in the public sphere, surfacing previously hidden or under-represented histories, examining power dynamics inherent to history writing, decolonizing knowledge, and global media cultures. Courses in the Memory Studies track support future career pathways in historical societies and other history organizations, federal and state government opportunities within the National Park Service, Department of State Office of the Historian, Senate Historical Office, historical consulting firms, media art and memorialization projects, documentaries and multimedia historical recovery projects, and archival management.   

 

PUBLIC WRITING:


Students pursuing the Public Writing track may be interested in the communication of specialized knowledge to broader audiences, and content creation on new media platforms. Courses in the Public Writing track support future careers in podcasting, advertising, journalism, editing screenplay writing for films, online game story development, publishing, technical writing, public relations, and web design.

Experiential Learning:


Students must complete at least 2 credits of EXL 529. Instead of EXL 529, students may choose to take at least 2 credits of: ART 520, Erie Art Museum Internship; JOURN 501 & JOURN 502, Internship: The Campus I & II; or HIST 506 Intern: Archivist Pelletier Library. 

Possible internship sites for EXL 529 include (but are not limited to):

  • Gettysburg National Park 
  • Baldwin Reynolds House Museum 
  • Meadville Market House
  • Crawford County Historical Society
  • Crawford County Tourism Bureau
  • Conneaut Lake Historical Society
  • French Creek Valley Railroad Historical Society
  • Pymatuning State Park (DCNR)
  • Meadville Public Library
  • French Creek Valley Conservancy 
  • Margaret Shontz Memorial Library
  • Drake Well Museum

Advanced


Must complete ALL of the following (10 credits)

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