Murray State University History Department

Earlier this week, Dr. Jim Humphreys, Dr. Tamara Feinstein and Dr. Christine Lindner joined students Emma Alexander and Gabe Crass to participate in the annual meeting of the Kentucky Museum and Heritage Alliance in Paducah. The group shared their experiences exploring Public History on the roundtable discussion “Experiential Learning Through Public History: Teaching History Beyond the Classroom.” Alumni Zach Alexander and Nathan Lynn also attended the annual meeting. Over the three days, they met with museum professionals from across the commonwealth who discussed the items in their collections and spoke about their experiences working in the field of public history. They also learned new skills to read historic documents, like quilt drafting charts! The meeting included excursions and activities including a visit to Wickliffe Mounds, the Hotel Metropolitan, the Quilt Museum and the Market House Museum which was hosting an exhibit on regional artist Helen LaFrance. Thanks so much to KMHA and all who helped put together the conference. Murray State University: College of Humanities and Fine Arts

Next week, Dr. Humphreys, Dr. Feinstein and Dr. Lindner, along with students Emma Alexander and Gabriel Crass will be attending the annual conference for the Kentucky Museum & Heritage Alliance (KMHA) which is taking place in Paducah! They will present on the roundtable discussion entitled “Experiential Learning through Public History: Teaching Beyond the Classroom,” where the professors will reflect on recent experiential learning projects that they have developed, while the students will share their experiences participating in these projects.

The conference is from Sunday June 7 to Tuesday June 9, with the roundtable being on Monday afternoon. There is still time to register to attend the conference, either for all three days or just for one day! For more about the conference visit https://kymuseums.org/conference/

All smiles as we wrap up Teacher Appreciation Week 📚🍎

Our senior history/social studies students Jocelyn Stark, Briah Cook, and Bryli Jones are ready to share their passion for history with future middle and high school students!

Briah Cook not only successfully completed her student teaching at Paducah Tilghman High School this semester, she also presented at a conference at the University of Kentucky last week and participated on a student teaching panel hosted by the MSU chapter of the Kentucky Education Association (KEA). Well done, Briah!

Briah's conference paper "The Moscow Art Theatre Tours America: Exploring the Impact of Konstantin Stanislavsky's Method on American Acting, 1923-24," was produced in Dr. Hilton HIS 400 course last semester.

Congratulations to all our amazing history seniors! Thanks for the memories!
See you at graduation!!! 🎓🥳

Today's featured History/Social Studies senior is Jocelyn Stark, who has spent the semester student teaching at Mayfield High School!

Congratulations, Jocelyn! 🥳🎉🍎 Wishing you all the best!

Teacher Appreciation Week continues! Today's featured History/Social Studies senior is Bryli Jones, who has spent the semester student teaching at Graves County High School!

Congratulations, Bryli! 🥳🎉🍎 Wishing you all the best!

Finals week is teacher appreciation week! 🍎🎉📚🥳 Thank your educators!

We want to highlight our history/social studies pre-service teachers, starting with our juniors Cecilia Broxon, Emmi Knight, Seth Skebo, Taylor Smith, and Ella Zimmerman, who completed their first practicum at regional high schools and had a fantastic semester of growth with Dr. Koulisis in HIS 361!

Wishing them and all our students the best during finals!

This Wednesday the Murray State History Department hosted their End Of Year Celebration and Award Reception. Thank you to all of the students and professors for joining us to celebrate the completion of another great year! Big congratulations to Kate Wahnsiedler for winning the Outstanding Researcher award and Jack Worley for the Phi Alpha Theta Outstanding Volunteer Award!

Reminder to ALL history undergraduate and graduate students!!! Please join us TODAY at the Wrather Hall Mezzanine (on the second floor of Wrather Museum) for the History Department Award Reception and Phi Alpha Theta Induction Ceremony for new members. Reception starts at 3:00pm and awards will begin at 4:00pm. We hope to see you there!

Last Friday Dr. Black, Dr. Horton, and Dr. Koulisis brought students in History, English, and Honors to Memphis to visit both the Civil Rights Museum, which included a superb special exhibit on Bayard Rustin, and the Rock n Soul Museum.

We had a great time synthesizing classroom studies with museum exhibits, resulting in many conversations on twentieth century politics, culture, education, and social movements. We even had time for walking on Beale Street!

Though unable to travel with the group, big thanks to Dr. Osborne and Dominique Suiter for initiating, organizing, and logistics!