UWG Center for Public History

05/16/2025

Congratulations to Museum Partner GRA Fiona Rainwater (pictured in cap and gown) on earning her MA in History concentrating in Public History with a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Musem Studies, Brooke Curwin (pictured with Fiona) on earning her Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Museum Studies, and former Center volunteers and public history course students Aniedi Nsentip and Kaetlyn Smallwood (not pictured) on earning their BA in History concentrating in Secondary Education today! Congratulations and best wishes to all the new UWG alumni!

📸: Fiona Rainwater

05/08/2025

Congratualtions to Fiona Rainwater on successfully defending her graduate portfolio! Her graduate work is impressive, featuring coursework in public history and museum studies. Much of Fiona's projects and papers centered on air and space history or contributed to her graduate research assistantship with the Aviation History & Technology Center. This semester, Fiona earns a Master of Arts in History and a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Museum Studies. Congratluations!

Thesis committee members: Dr. Mark Janzen, Dr. Gary Van Valen, and Keri Adams.

05/02/2025

Check out this feature on public history students participating in the Humaities Graduate Symposium!

Georgia Humanities Fellow Alaina White presented her research entitled “Silent Farewells: Funeral Customs and Death Practices in the 19th Century” and National History Day Georgia Intern Hayleigh Sebaugh presented her internship work entitled "Public History in Practice: The Impact of Internships” in the poster session.

Click the link to learn about more students in the humanities!

There’s always a first time for everything – and for University of West Georgia graduate students Alaina White ’23 and Hayleigh Sebaugh, presenting their professional research for their first time at the School of Humanities’ Graduate Symposium on April 3, marked the beginning of an exciting...

02/26/2025

📢 Next Week: Careers in History Panel 📢

Join the School of Humanities and Career Services for History's annual career panel featuring our amazing alumni. This is a virtual event, and all are welcome to join and learn what history can do for you!

Monday, March 3, 5:30-7:00
Microsoft Teams (linked below)

Panelists:
Terence Smith (MA 2020), Academic Advisor, UWG

Dr. Tiffany Harris (BA), Asst. Professor of Educational Policy at College of Charleston

Laurel Durham (MA 2016), Former ESL Instructor in South Korea and now works for the southeast Library in Fulton County and is adjunct at UWG

Patrick Carmody (MA 2023), Museum Educator, Mosaic, Jekyll Island Museum

Tinaye Gibbons (BA 2021), Document Control Records Management at Los Alamos National Laboratory

Breanna Vaccaro (MA), Museum Registrar, Culture, Parks, and Recreation, Town of Ft. Myers

We are especially excited to hear from former public history students, Patrick Carmody, Tinaye Gibbons, and Breanna Vaccaro. Tinaye also worked as an undergraduate research assistant at the Center.

803387cc-f4e5-4971-9c77-9e320424ee07@8de19331-cc30-459f-8443-6a4b68734b50" rel="ugc" target="_blank">https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/803387cc-f4e5-4971-9c77-9e320424ee07@8de19331-cc30-459f-8443-6a4b68734b50

02/04/2025

Heading to the Georgia Association of Museums annual conference this week? Then, we'd love to meet up with you! All UWG alumni, former students and faculty, and current students are invited to a BYOL meetup at Metropolis Cafe on Wednesday, February 5, 12:00-2:00. The cafe is about 4 blocks from the conference location. See Mark Janzen or Keri Adams with questions. See you soon!

12/18/2024

What a semester we had in public history and museum studies!

HIST 4400 Introduction to Public History (with Prof. Keri Adams) students held three live interview sessions with professionals, including alumni W. Jeff Bishop, Director of the Funk Heritage Center, and Annie Shirley with the National Park Service, as well as Mary Wilson Joseph, African American Programs Coordinator with Georgia Historic Preservation Division. Thank you, Mary, Annie, and Jeff for speaking with our students!

Center Intern Floyd Hurst created and planned a pop-up history harvest in collaboration with UWG Q***r Student Alliance and Carrollton Rainbow Inc. along with History and Center alum Allison McClure. Many, many thanks to our partners for that event, and thanks to all who stopped by our table!

Then, Intro students speed presented their final creative projects to class, including proposals for local museums and historical societies, heritage tourism products, and educational aids for the classroom, too. Nice work!

Public history intern Seth Milam completed the inaugural semester with the Carroll County Solicitor's Office initiated by History alum Robert Hunnicutt, Assistant Solicitor-General. Many thanks to all at the Solicitor's Office for directing Seth's internship, including Mr. Hunnicutt and the Solicitor-General.

Lastly, public history students volunteered time and service-learning hours at two events: the Center's table at Carrollton Rainbow's Pride and the History Program's annual John Ferling Distinguished Lecture Series. Thank you, HIST 4400 students and History MA students! (edited to add!)

Not represented by photos in this post are the hard work and accomplishments of our other Center research assistants (Blessing Ameh, Alan Valdes collaborating with Dr. Nathan Rees and the Sacred Harp Publishing Company and Museum, Cameron Robinson, Alaina White with Georgia Humanities, Fiona Rainwater with Marietta Aviation Museum, and Ash Rossman), Aniedi Nsentip as public history intern and fellow with the Historic Oakland Cemetery directed by Jessica VanLanduyt, and graduate students in Director Dr. Mark Janzen's public history and museum studies courses.

Thank you to all of our students in the Center and the classroom, our partners and collaborators, alumni and colleagues in the field, and our colleagues and administrators in the School of Humanities and UWG College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. Great work this semester, all!

12/06/2024

Congratulations to Sam Hudson for successfully defending his MA portfolio this past Tuesday to graduate this fall semester! Sam returned to get his degree after a career in business, and he proved to be an outstanding student, eager to learn as much as he could about history! He even crossed the Atlantic in summer 2022 to participate in our Study Abroad in South Africa, where he had an incredible opportunity to learn first hand about the African continent! Our best to you, Sam, in whatever you chose to do next!

12/04/2024

Congratulations to Deb Wold for successfully defending her MA public history portfolio today. Pictured here are Deb with her committee: Chair Dr. Colleen Vasconcellos and committee members Dr. Keith Pacholl and Dr. Ann McCleary. Deb is continuing to work as a Project Registrar at the Atlanta History Center. We wish you continued success!

12/02/2024

Congratulations to Camille Coe who successfully defended her MA Portfolio in Public History today! Pictured with Camille are committee chair Ms. Keri Adams and committee members Dr. Colleen Vasconcellos and Dr. Ann McCleary! Camille is working as a museum educator at the Holocaust Museum at Kennesaw State University. We’re all so happy for you!

11/04/2024

The UWG Center for Public History is partnering with the UWG Q***r Student Alliance and Carrollton Rainbow Inc. to host a Q***r History Harvest to digitize and collect local LGBTQIA+ history. This Thursday, November 7, 2:00 - 4:00, we'll be in the TLC 1st floor lobby with scanners to digitize personal photographs, flyers, posters, letters, and other memorabilia to be a part of a forthcoming pop-up history exhibit created and organized by a public history intern with the UWG Center for Public History. We will have a digital upload option as well, and opportunities for mini-oral history sessions and sign-ups for full oral history sessions. This event is open to all, including the non-UWG community members.

10/18/2024

Do you want to learn more about the upcoming John Ferling Distinguished Lecture in History? Read this two-minute article. See you there!

When: Tuesday, October 22, 6:00 reception & 7:00 lecture
Where: UWG Campus Center Ballrooms
Parking: UWG Campus Center, Lot 12B

This is a free event that is open to the public. All are welcome.

The University of West Georgia’s John Ferling Distinguished Lecture in History will welcome 20th-century expert Dr. Petra Goedde, professor of history at Temple University, on Tuesday, Oct. 22, at 7 p.m. in the Campus Center. Her lecture, entitled “The Things They Carried,” will focus on impor...

10/15/2024

Join the History Program on Tuesday, October 22 at 7:00 p.m. at the UWG Campus Center for the annual John Ferling Distinguished Lecture Series in History.

This year, Dr. Petra Goedde, Professor of History at Temple University, shares her research on the Berlin Airlift in Post-WWII Germany with her talk "'The Thing They Carried:' The Berlin Airlift and Germany's Postwar Reinvention."

The UWG College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences Dean's Signature Series event will have a light reception from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. and a Q&A session with the speaker following the lecture at 8:00 p.m. Free parking is available next to the Campus Center. This event is free and open to the public. All are welcome.

Contact the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at [email protected] or 678-839-5450 with questions.