Working Historians
Working Historians is a podcast series that showcases the work and careers of historians in a wide variety of career fields. We hope to introduce history students and the general public to the career paths available to people who study history, introduce and promote historians to students and the public, and showcase the work that historians do on a regular basis. Hosts Rob Denning and Jimmy Fennessy can be reached at workinghistorians@gmail.com.
Episodes
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 h...
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 f...
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.
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 a...
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 mor...
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.
...
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 06:36 - CB Repass 07:55 - Ryan Tripp 10:03 - Allison Millward 12:42 - Eric Greisinger 14:22 - Rob Denning 17:49 - Ryan Tripp 18:59 - CB Repass 20:14 - Matt Schandler 21:43 - Rob Denning
...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 04:56 - Eric Greisinger 05:17 - Rob Denning 06:05 - CB Repass 06:15 - Rob Denning 06:38 - Eric Greisinger 06:44 - Rob Denning 07:26 - Ryan Tripp 08:15 - CB Repass 08:49 - Allison Millward 09:46...
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 responsib...
In this third episode of our series on how historians research and write on historical topics, the panel explains how they tackle the potentially vast body of existing secondary sources that will help them provide context on the research project. We discuss different ways to search for secondary sources, how to determine which secondary sources might be more useful or important than others, and the historian’s ethical responsibilit...
In this second episode of our series on how historians research and write on historical topics, the panel tackles the importance and selection of a good research question, which will guide the historian throughout the research process.
Speaker timeline:
01:00 - CB Repass 01:48 - Eric Greisinger 02:13 - CB Repass 02:28 - Matt Schandler 03:09 - Allison Millward 04:48 - Rob Denning 05:55 - CB Repass 06:15 - Ryan Tripp 06:51 - Rob D...
With this episode we are launching a new series on how historians research and write on historical topics, starting with the selection of a research topic and ending with the writing process. In this first episode, a panel of historians discuss the initial selection of a research topic.
Speaker timeline:
00:58 - CB Repass 01:58 - Ryan Tripp 02:48 - Allison Millward 04:31 - Eric Greisinger 05:31 - Allison Millward 05:36 - Rob Denn...
Mathew Merz earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Southern New Hampshire University in 2020 and works as Conflicts Analyst at Akerman LLP. In this episode, Mathew discusses the research, writing, and analytical skills that he learned as a history major which have been particularly useful to his job as a researcher for a law firm.
Recommendations and Links:
Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (Rando...
Nina Thomas is the manager of the Westerville History Museum, which is part of the public library system in Westerville, Ohio. In this episode, Nina discusses her academic and professional background, life as a museum manager, the nature of the museum’s public outreach efforts, and what a museum manager might look for in job applicants.
Recommendations:
Clint Smith, How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning w...
In this episode, Rob talks to Deb Gogliettino, Associate Dean for online Business Academics at Southern New Hampshire University, about the ways that her undergraduate degree in history has helped her business-oriented career, which included positions in human resources, business administration, and academics. We also discuss how history students can market themselves to non-academic employers.
In this episode, Jimmy and Rob talk to Paul Witcover, Associate Dean for the online Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program at Southern New Hampshire University, about his recent novel, Lincolnstein, and the skills and responsibilities required of authors writing historical fiction.
Recommendations:
Paul Witcover, Lincolnstein (PS Publishing, 2021) - recommended by Rob
Victor Klemperer, I Will Bear Witness (Weidenfeld & ...
In this second episode on the Black Death, the Spanish Flu, and Covid-19, Rob Denning, James Fennessy, and Scotty Edler discuss the long-term political, social, economic, and cultural consequences of the plague and the flu, and they attempt to use those precedents to predict the long-term effects of Covid-19 on our own future lives.
During the next two episodes, Rob and James talk to Scotty Edler about his research into the causes and consequences of three major disease epidemics: the Black Death, the Spanish Flu, and Covid-19. Here we discuss the historical contexts of each disease and the lessons learned from each outbreak.
In this episode, Rob presents his research into quick questions from his employer's communications office regarding the history of the Juneteenth Holiday. He does not provide quick answers.
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