Shared History Program

The Shared History program at the University of Nevada, Reno, empowers humanities students to engage in applied and collaborative public history projects with community and faculty partners focusing the lens of history on the contemporary world. The Shared History office, located on the first floor of historic Lincoln Hall, has an open door to any and all students, undergraduate and graduate, interested in broadening career possibilities, in pursuing internship opportunities with campus and community cultural organizations, startups, NGOs, or government, or just to stop by a chat about applied and public history. Join an existing student project affiliated with Shared History, start your own, or collaborate in the production of a documentary, capturing oral histories, developing a museum exhibit for our Gallery 120, or streaming history-casts.

Evidence-based thinking, critical analysis skills, historically informed perspective and adept writing combined with future-proof skills in digital and public presentation are a powerful combination for a competitive job market. Shared History, a form of community-intensive public history, is a team sport. Our undergraduate and graduate students are afforded opportunities to work collaboratively and to develop the toolkits required for cooperative success. Our students are risk takers and entrepreneurial, often starting their own projects. We offer a range of courses and an applied history specialization to help facilitate our students in their professional development. The specialization allows our students to pursue customized trajectories giving them the opportunity to develop history-centered, interdisciplinary skills in the digital arts, documentary filmmaking, museum studies and scholarship for public and community benefit.