Public History MA

The MA in Public History combines cutting-edge, research-led knowledge of how history is produced and engaged with in public contexts, with training in the practices through which public historical understanding is created and communicated.

The approach of the MA in Public History is distinctively global and interdisciplinary. Students will be primarily based out of UCL East, working alongside those undertaking studies in the related fields of global urbanism, heritage studies, creative humanities, and media studies. They will first examine what public history means and how it changes over time and place across distinct global contexts, exploring key concepts and debates centring on memory, heritage, history as activism, history as business, policy, and as institutional and community memory, as well as the arts and acts of remembrance.

Students will then focus on developing their practical public history skills in an area, or areas, of public history relevant to them, through project-based work in collaboration with one of UCL’s experienced practitioner-mentors. The programme’s emphasis on combining a theoretical framework with practice-based learning will allow students to critically self-reflect on their public history efforts as they produce them.