Working Historians

Get out your parchment and quill, it’s Constitution Day! In this episode, Rob will discuss the historical origins of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, how legal and popular conceptions of the Amendment have changed over the decades, and how the Amendment is relevant to our present political sphere.

Dr. Denning is the Associate Dean for Southern New Hampshire University’s online graduate and undergraduate history programs, the host of the Working Historians podcast series, and producer of the Passion and Practicality podcast series.

Karen Kincaid Brady is the Programming Director for the Neill-Cochran House Museum in Austin, Texas. In this episode, Karen talks to Southern New Hampshire University’s Callie Cook about the value of building your network, career opportunities in history, and creative ways to connect and build experiences with colleagues.

This episode was originally broadcast on Southern New Hampshire University’s Passion and Practicality podcast feed.

Karl McKinnon is the Assistant Director of Operations and Chief Financial Officer at the Schiele Museum of Natural History and Planetarium in Gastonia, North Carolina. Today Karl speaks with Southern New Hampshire University’s Peter Bartel about how to make yourself stand out when applying for careers in the museum world, the importance of exuding passion in your work, and the value of having experience outside of the classroom.

This episode was originally broadcast on Southern New Hampshire University’s Passion and Practicality podcast feed.

Buster Ratliff is the Director of Operations for the Cultural Foundation of the Texas Panhandle & Panhandle-Plains Museum on the campus of West Texas A&M University in Canyon, Texas. In this episode, Buster talks with Southern New Hampshire University’s Callie Cook about the value of building your network and understanding company values.

This episode was originally broadcast on Southern New Hampshire University’s Passion and Practicality podcast feed.

Bonnie Barnes is the Executive Director for Keys History and Discovery Center in Florida. In this episode, Bonnie talks to Southern New Hampshire University’s Callie Cook about informational interviewing, company research, and the different career paths one can explore with a history degree.

This episode was originally broadcast on Southern New Hampshire University’s Passion and Practicality podcast feed.

Tim Garrity has served as a hospital administrator and the director of the Mount Desert Island Historical Society, from which he recently retired. We have talked to Tim before about his organization, but this time we discuss his view of the liberal arts in general, what liberal arts degree holders bring to various industries, and what liberal arts students should learn to market themselves better for different career paths. For more information on Tim and the Mount Desert Island Historical Society, listen to our earlier conversation here and learn more about the Society here.

This episode was originally broadcast on Southern New Hampshire University’s Passion and Practicality podcast feed.

Rob keeps the gang together to answer the question often posed by history majors: Should I go to graduate school in history? Eric Greisinger, Allison Millward, CB Repass, Matt Schandler, Ryan Tripp, and Rob discuss the magnitude and consequences of the decision to pursue master’s or doctoral degrees in history, share some of their grad school experiences, and muse about whether or not their degrees were worth the time and energy.

Speaker timeline:

01:16 - Matt Schandler

In this final episode of our series on how historians research and write on historical topics, the panel tackles the writing process: How do you organize your thoughts and get past that dreaded blank page?

Speaker timeline:

00:54 - Matt Schandler 

In this fifth episode of our series on how historians research and write on historical topics, the panel tackles thesis statements: What are they, why they are important, and how do you develop them? 

Speaker timeline:

00:51 - Matt Schandler

In this fourth episode of our series on how historians research and write on historical topics, the panel explains how they identify relevant primary sources that will help them go beyond the existing secondary source literature. We will discuss different ways to search for relevant and useful primary sources, how to determine which primary sources might be more useful or important than others, and the historian’s ethical responsibility to be familiar with as much of the primary source base as possible.

Speaker timeline:

02:15 - CB Repass