Shippensburg University’s graduate program in Applied History is designed for college graduates seeking advanced historical training and educators seeking professional development opportunities. The program provides all students with a strong grounding in historical scholarship and research. Additionally, our program’s focus on applied history prepares our students to share their knowledge with the public in diverse and creative ways, and to use their knowledge and skills to make a meaningful impact on the world. Our graduates apply their historical expertise at museums and historic sites; with state, local, and national government agencies; at non-profit organizations and for-profit businesses; and in high school and college classrooms across the nation.
For students pursuing careers in public history, our program offers specialized courses in museum studies, museum education, oral history, historic preservation, and archival studies. Our program combines classroom instruction with hands-on learning and community-based projects. Students can also pursue professional internships to gain on-the-job training and to prepare them for employment.
For educators, our program offers a diverse array of courses that will enhance their content knowledge and provide additional resources that they can integrated into their own classrooms. Our program also offers a yearly summer teacher’s institute on a popular historical theme. At the institute, teachers from across the region can network, share ideas and experiences, and explore new approaches and resources for teaching core history topics. All Shippensburg University graduate classes (including the summer institute) can be used to help satisfy Pennsylvania’s Act 48 requirements.
Many graduates have also used this terminal Master’s degree as a foundation for future graduate work in history or library science. Shippensburg University’s Master’s in Applied History degree may be completed simultaneously with the Master’s of Library and Information Science degree offered by Clarion University.
The Applied History Master’s degree provides students with the greatest degree of flexibility and the opportunity to use coursework from other disciplines to fulfill the degree requirements. It is well suited for the needs of educators and students who wish to develop a broad historical training. Students who wish to specialize in a particular field of public history may pursue one of our three graduate concentrations: Historic Preservation and Cultural Resource Management, Museum Studies, or Community History Research. Students in those tracks develop a capstone internship or thesis project that provides additional expertise in the area of specialization.
Admission Requirements
To be eligible to pursue a Master of Arts degree in applied history, you must:
- Have a baccalaureate degree from an accredited college or university.
- Present an official transcript showing at least a 2.75 cumulative quality point average for your undergraduate studies.
If you have less than a 2.75 cumulative undergraduate quality point average, you may be accepted following an interview and the submission of a 500-word Statement of Purpose in which you provide additional evidence of your interest in history, your potential as a graduate student, and your reasons for pursuing graduate studies.