Digital History
One of the things that really sets Western's Public History MA program apart from others is our interest in digital history. We know that museums, heritage sites and historical societies require a presence on the web. We know that new collections of primary sources are being made available online every day. Public historians will increasingly need to be able to operate in the digital realm, and the Western Public History MA program is the place to learn how. Each of our courses involves some kind of digital work, whether it is digitizing images or audio, building online repositories, reviewing and creating websites, or developing historical material for new platforms like GPS-enabled handhelds, interactive white boards or microcontroller-based exhibits.
We have two semesters of graduate coursework in digital history. In the fall term, students take History 9808A, a required introductory digital history seminar. This course emphasizes both the presentation of history on the web, and the use of computational techniques to work with digital resources. It also introduces the students to the basics of XML, HTML and CSS, and gets them started with blogging. In the winter term, students have the option of taking History 9832B, a studio course on interactive exhibit design. Students learn how to create interactive exhibits through a series of hands-on projects that teach the basics of interaction design, physical computing, and fabrication.
Since 2005, Western Public History MA students have also been required to present themselves professionally online, through the practice of reflective blogging and the use of other social media. Many of our graduates have been able to parlay their reputations in the digital humanities into internships, conference invitations and even job offers.
For students who are particularly interested in digital history, we also offer summer internships at UWO on advanced topics like web mashups, text mining and machine learning, social network visualization, alternate reality gaming, geospatial computing, physical computing and desktop fabrication.
William J. Turkel
Public History MA Student Blogs, 2008-09
- Natalie Dyck
- Lois Fenton
- Heather George
- Kalyna Klumkiw
- Ruthann LaBlance
- Jenna Leifso
- Meili Ma
- Sophie Malek
- Krista McCracken
- Meaghan Nelligan
- Andrew Robertson
- Melissa Robinson
- David Rodger
- Simon Rygal
- Vicky Tran
- Matthew VanderHeide
Public History MA Student Blogs, 2007-08
- Helen Button
- Adam Crymble
- Aaron Day
- Samantha Diamond
- Grace Dungavell
- Devon Elliott
- Corey Everrett
- Sarah Ferencz
- Rebecca Giesbrecht
- Carrie Lunde
- Andrea Melvin
- Nana Robinette
- Patrick Stewart
- Sarah Waugh
- Kristen Way
Also from this web page:
Past Students
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"Part of my new position at the History Society will be updating and creating content for the Kayak magazine website, something that I am only prepared to do because of the time I spent working on our public history group project at Western. Digital history skills have been extremely important and helpful to me."
- Joel Ralph, Education and Outreach Programs Coordinator, Canada's National History Society"As a result of my experience ... I feel prepared to take on challenges, whether it involves what I have already learned, or some entirely new aspect of technology. I am excited about how technology can be used to teach history, and I think that it is wonderful to be able to come out of a program excited about the future."
- Karell Pfeiffer, Historical Interpreter at Black Creek Pioneer Village
