History

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Well, good morning, good afternoon to everyone. My name is Jonathan Pierce. I'm part of the admissions team here at University of Illinois, Springfield. Before we get into the presentation today, I just have a couple of housekeeping items to go over. Just so you're aware of, this webinar is being recorded and will be made available for viewing. So don't feel that you have the need to take some frantic notes. Now within your share screen, you'll see that there's a closed captioning option. So on the navigation bar at the top right corner, the little CC button right next to it is the option to make the video full screen, if you'd like to do that as well. If you need to resync your audio or resync your video at any time, just refresh the browser and that should clear things up.

We'd love to see your questions in the chat, so feel free to post those throughout the presentation. But we're going to be looking at the questions at the end of the session. So we'll put those on pause until later and then we'll get to through those questions at the end of the session. I know there are a lot of people in the session today, which is wonderful. We're so happy that you're with us today. With that, I want to introduce you to Kenneth Owen. I believe he's going to be with us today, but definitely Devin Hunter from the History Program. Thank you, Devin, for being with us today and look forward to the session.

Thanks Jonathan. And yes, I'll be, I'll be holding court today with with the address for my my colleague Dr. Owen who of course I can pass on any questions you might have about him and his work. But thank you again for taking time to learn a little bit about the History MA program. I'll give just a a general overview of the program, the faculty, some of the the most common questions.

And issues that come up with applying.

And and leave plenty of time for any questions as well.

So a little bit about the UIS History department.

We have 9 tenured faculty professors here.

And that's maybe a little unique from other programs you might be looking at to have a faculty that that consists completely of tenured faculty members.

All of whom have been here at least since 2018 or so any longer.

And our areas of expertise really have a have a wide coverage of both themes and chronology. Just to give you an example, my my field is modern 20th century United States cultural and political history and especially public history. But we also have a lot of expertise in the Civil War era and Lincoln Studies.

US women and gender and activism, East Asia especially.

Especially Japan, the modern Middle East, ancient Greece and Egypt, modern Europe, particularly Russia and then early Christianity. And that's just a few. A lot of us do even more than that.

Some of the general information about the MA program here.

The the inmate program at UIS goes back many years, I think to at least the early 1980s, back when the university was known as Sangamon State University, before it kind of became in the part of EU of I system.

And it's always had a strong focus on public history. In fact, for a long time that was the only focus for the MA program here. That changed 15 years ago or so when we started offering United States and world concentrations in the MA. And I'll talk about that here in a second. Our general approach to graduate study here.

1st is that this is this is a standalone MA program. There's no PhD program which is which you'll see some places. So if you if you're looking to get MA, sometimes that will be part of the PhD program, Sometimes that will be separate. You'll be taking classes with PhD students.

All that type of stuff. Here is a standalone MA program. You'll be with fellow MA students, MA students only.

And.

The the general approach here to our graduate study is that we really think of history as both a social science and a humanities field. As you heard from our faculty area of expertise, we have a lot of coverage here, and a lot of us within our own fields of interest really take an interdisciplinary approach.

To where we're looking at literature and sociological, anthropological concepts, this type of thing.

So it may not be the the more traditional history that you have in mind.

Which makes it interesting for for students, we think.

We the other big thing that maybe stands out is that the MA curriculum has in it a significant final closure thesis or internship and project. So in order to complete the degree after you take your courses instead of taking an exam or.

Or this type of thing where some other programs might have you do. You are going to write a major thesis or complete an internship and project, and I'll talk a little bit about those here in a second.

Like I mentioned, we have 3 concentrations in the history MA. You don't need to know which concentration you're going to do when you apply. And really, even in the first semester or so, you don't have to commit to something. So don't feel like you have to make a case for which concentration you're going to do when you apply. It helps in many cases, but there's some flexibility there and people do change concentrations within reason while they're here.

So the the the three concentrations are are United States history, world history, and public history.

Each of the the Regardless of what concentration you're in, you take a core of graduate classes.

As a whole, you'll be taking, you'll take nine courses regardless of concentration, plus that eight credit hour closure. All told, that's 35 to 38 credit hours for the degree. Again, that includes the the, the closure.

And the nine courses the that MA core that all graduate history graduate students here take regardless of concentration, consist of our History 501, which is sort of an introduction to professional historical work and in historiography history five O 3, which usually take in one of your last semesters of course work that gets you prepared to write that thesis or complete your your final project.

You have to take two graduate reading seminars.

And those are offered every semester and they alternate between the US and a non-us topic. And then you have that closure thesis or project. That's the core. That's what everyone takes depending on your concentration. The rest of your electives and requirements differ with the US and the world concentration.

You have your opportunity to take take topical courses in in those both.

As a as a graduate level course, you can also take up to three undergraduate upper division courses. As a grad student, we give you extra work, that type of thing. That's for the US and the world for the public history concentration.

It's similar, but you have a required Intro to Public History colloquium and then a required Digital Humanities Class 2. Anybody from any concentration can take those classes as well. In fact, we have a lot of.

Of folks in the US and the world, concentrations will be taking public history classes to get their get their electives in. And then for public history students you have the option to write a thesis or complete an 8 credit hour internship and project that I can talk more about.

About that closure in general, whether it's a thesis or internship and project, it's something that you develop based on your interests in collaboration with a faculty committee of three.

That you're developing off and on. Then usually students, if they're going full time, will will dedicate an entire semester or so to riding that or completing that closure project and internship, and then you present it to the faculty committee and you get your degree.

A lot of times people ask about the what the classes are like here. First off, for full time graduate study. That is up to three classes a semester.

Anything else is is part time technically and I don't think there's any any possibility to do more than three. There is some opportunities for summer class often.

The classes the graduate classes are are they're small, between 7:00 and and 12:00 or so students, probably an average, more more like 10.

Are held once a week at night here on campus.

And there's lots of reading and lots of discussion and writing papers.

And the the 400 level classes that you can take for some of your requirements, those are scheduled throughout the day, some are online, some are in the summer. It really depends.

Our our student population for the MA. Here it's mostly students who are taking full time courses, hoping to finish and finish their coursework in three semesters and then finish that thesis in the 4th.

Most are recent, recently out of undergraduate school. That's not like I say most We have teachers, We have people who are retired looking to pick up a second career. We have, you know, all everything in between.

About a third of our students come out of the the, the program here as undergraduates at UIS and the rest are really from all around, whether it's from, you know, larger state schools in the region or small liberal arts colleges as well. So we really have a kind of a nice, you know, diverse mix of folks when they come in.

In terms of admission and and funding, probably hopefully important on your mind if you're going to apply some things to know. One is that we have a rolling deadline for admissions and you can start any semester, full time or part time. You can start part time and then go to full time. You can start full time and then go down to part time.

So that you know that is the general admission to the to the program.

With that admission, we once your application is.

Is complete, the department can make a pretty quick decision on admission.

Then the the issue of a funding decisions that process unfolds separately. So this is important in terms of funding. One thing that is unique about the program here that we're really proud of is that we have a very high rate of of of full time students getting full funding over the last many years certainly since I've been here in 2015 and.

We have two programs you may have heard about the Graduate Assistant program and the the Graduate Public Service Internship Program with GPSI. I can give you a bunch of information about that. I know there's been separate webinars maybe you've been to where you can catch the recording. But in generally in general, those two programs, the Graduate Assistantship and the the GPSI come with full tuition waivers and that clues out of state and.

Up to 20 hours a week.

Campus or within a state agency office here in town, GPS is a little different because during the summer you work full time. The graduate assistant positions here on campus, there's no summer obligations. Those are for one year, they're renewable for a second year. So those are that's incredibly generous and like I said, we have a high rate of students getting those traditionally who who come into the history and may program.

Some of the currents.

Georgia positions where history MA students are working on campus history departments, UIS, archives, communications departments, Learning hub. Recently we've had history MA students as grad assistants in the Provost office, places like this, other departments. So that's the graduate assistant program.

And upcoming GA positions we think will be open include the Center for Lincoln Studies here on campus.

And Sangmin Experience, which is our local regional public history center.

GPSI, the the public service internship program through the state agency offices. Very popular with students, especially public history students because a lot of those offices are public history offices.

Some of our current GPSI students are working at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Museum.

The State Historic sites.

Office of Springfield in the Springfield area.

And.

We've had some in the past at the oh we have one mouth historic preservation office. In the past we've had them at art and architecture program. So really all around and those are the more public history focused ones. Our history in May students are very popular among all the state agencies whether it's public history related or not, whether it's Department of Revenue, Department of Transportation, all these sort of office.

Offices that that need general support and it's it's a great program. It's been established here for a long time. It's well known it's a great alumni network as well for both the GA and GPS.

When you apply for the program, we can admit you in the program. Like I said, the funding decisions for those 2GO along a separate track after you're admitted. In the case of you're looking to start in the fall and get funding. You'd want to be admitted to the program by March 1st or so at the latest, because then the Graduate Assistant Programs offices will start to look for for assistance through March.

And then the GPSI of the state agencies will be looking for their assistance through March and April as well.

So what happens is you'll get, you'll get admitted and then through a separate process, same application. For the most part, you'll be getting funding decisions for the rest of the spring. There's also a fall.

Funding season that will start in the spring, it's it's a little later, so that's important to know and also when you do apply.

You and you click on the GAGPSI button.

Be sure to get your 3 letters of recommendation in sooner than later for the GA and GPSI. It's very important for them to consider you for funding, so happy to talk more about that if you haven't had a chance to to follow up on that webinar.

Other things that come up before I wrap up and see if there's questions, A lot of times prospective students want to know what our alumni are up to.

And we are happy to put you in connection or talk more about specific alumni and and what they've gotten into and how their their experience here at UIS has helped them. It's good for the alumni network here in the area and beyond. Obviously we have a, you know, a nice network that we can put you in touch with.

As soon as you get here on campus, we do a lot of class projects with our alumni, especially in public history.

In the public history concentration over the last several years, I'd say three or four at least. We have 100% placement rate for our alumni and those replacement rates in jobs that are full time like real jobs, you know, not not kind of part time or or temporary deals. So 100% placement rate for public history.

Students in the last few years, everywhere from the state public history offices here in Springfield, but also well beyond anywhere from Montana to Massachusetts and everywhere between.

Washington, DC Most recently, we had a student who is education coordinator for the new National Museum of the US Army. We have alumni working at the Smithsonian National Park Service National Archives.

In Saint Louis and in DC recently, and then directing small museums in Tennessee, You name it. We have an alumni there in the recent years.

And that's for public history. So for the US and the world is really is a kind of a wide range. We do place students and PhD programs if they really want to. We have a a student who recently completed her PhD at Mississippi and is now a postdoc with the Park Service, so we can talk about that as well other.

Other US and and world.

Grads do things like teaching. Teach for America is a recent one as well.

So I wanted to leave at least 10 minutes or so to answer any questions that come up.

So hi Devin. Thank you so much. Appreciate all the information you provided. A couple students have just reached out. One is really excited to join the program a little bit later I believe in the summer. One question that came up is regarding assistantship. I'm not specifically is looking for a teaching role because that's a potential, you know, long term career goals for Emmett. What's your suggestion because I know that assistantships are not guaranteed for any particular?

Division within the university. So what could be done for Emmett to move towards being able to be offered a teaching assistantship?

Right. It's a, it's a good question. You're thinking about what exactly graduate assistants do here on campus. It really does depend on the office or the department that is making the selection. We're not a campus that has a lot of like teaching assistants traditionally speaking. So I think it would come down to if if you were selected in a an academic program.

Finding opportunities to work with faculty. So for example, our department graduate assistant will assist us in, you know, preparing for class, for doing research, this type of thing. And there's certainly nothing, nothing preventing a graduate assistant in any given program from helping out in the classroom. So I think that's probably the main thing. The other opportunity would be something like the Learning Hub, which is sort of our tutoring Center for both undergraduates and graduates, you know, like we have.

A student who is there now and and she is one of the writing tutors. So that gives you a lot of opportunity to work with students if you're looking at.

Good quest.

Awesome. That's great. Yeah. And you know, from my own personal experience, I'm in international recruitment. I have a graduate assistant who works with me. She's in the MAF communication, so she works in a professional environment. But yes, she's studying communication. So for her, it's a really good tie in, but might not necessarily be that specific tie in with someone who wants to teach in history. But I appreciate the ability to connect with faculty and get engaged with a learning experience that perhaps aligns more with.

A teaching opportunity. Here's another student, Sid Young.

Senior in Milliken and plan to graduate. This May however, plan on taking a year off before starting Masters program. Could I start the application process now though? Yes, absolutely. I'll step in and say now is the best time to begin applying. The deadline to submit an application is May 1st. If you have all application materials completed by then, you have better opportunity to be have the application review and to be admitted to the program.

Anything else Doctor Hunter you wish to add?

Yeah, well, that's a great point and and my understanding too is that if admitted students can defer up to a year as well. So for that general admission. So that, you know that's kind of nice if you're going to take that year anyway.

And then you can even stay in the the applicant pool for the for the graduate assistant and GPSI funding opportunities. So you know we have that every once in a while someone will will apply. So actually I'm going to take another semester or something like that and and we just defer the the, the start.

Yeah, great. And Sid, I'd like to add as well that as you submit your application, we will need a current transcript showing courses that you have currently completed. And then once your degree is conferred and that's posted to your official transcript, then we'll need one final official transcript. But we were able to provide you with an admissions decision based on your incomplete undergraduate program. But I think by the 1st semester of the program then you would need to submit that final transcript that shows your degree is completed.

Here's another question. Would this program help get a job in museum administration?

Yeah, absolutely. It's it's one of our our clear sort of career paths that that show up for folks as they're finishing.

We have people come in who like just they like museums in general and they're not sure, maybe don't know the differences between working more back the house as a curator or exhibit design or that type of thing. Or maybe they want to run a museum someday. Small museum, big museum, all sorts of things. So our our approach is to give you exposure to as many of these paths as possible.

And then work with you as you get towards that that internship and closure project for the public history students to really identify what you want to specialize on more. So we don't really ask that you come in hyper focused in terms of what you want to do as a public historian in this case. That's fine if you do, but keep an open mind, but we'll get you there through internship. So there's museum administration, we have classes like museums and society, material culture and we do have a historical administration class that we offer so often.

So through your coursework, certainly for preparation, and then within those courses.

Will oftentimes have a project with with the public history institution in town and right now our our our most active partner is the Illinois State Museum. So we work with the the interim director there and their senior leadership as well as the curators and the more front of the house staff and we'll we'll build a project in those classes.

And that's just within the classes. And then as you get towards the internship and your own closure project, we can develop something that's more along those lines. So for museum administration, we could talk about, you know, writing grants, you know, strategic planning, this type of thing the museum administrators really look for and in terms of alumni.

We've placed three relatively recent grads at the state museum and then I mentioned our recent graduate in in DC.

With the the Army museum, so really strong track record of both coursework and and and placement in our alumni network who are in the museum administration field.

And for this particular student, perhaps the internship would be the better option, as opposed to an assistantship where the internship could potentially be within a local museum and give them a direct experience they're seeking.

Yes, ideal situation if there's opportunities here for that to to have that internship for two full years.

Through the the GPSI and then you develop that the closure project is well based, based around those experiences. So it works out well for a lot of students.

Awesome.

I don't see any other questions popping in, so I think we'll go ahead and close the session at this time. Again, if you have questions about the application process, please reach out to me. I placed it my contact information, my e-mail address in the chat. It's international dash admissions at us.edu. That's if you are an international student. If you are a domestic student, then please contact admissions@uis.edu and we'll be happy to assist.

And then also Please note Doctor Hunter put his e-mail address there in the chat as well.

So Doctor Hunter, thank you so much for your session today. I appreciate it so much. And students, participants, thank you for joining us. I wish you the best of the day.

Thank you all.