Blog CLXXIV (174): The History Ph.D. as a Lot More of Things

Over the past couple of years the American Historical Association has had a feature on its website called "AHA Member Spotlight."  These biographical profiles, offer short professional sketches of various historians.  After going through all of these postings I have come to the less than startling conclusion that most AHA members are primarily academics.  No big surprise there.  Every once in a while, though, there were some outliers.  Below are a series of links to the "Spotlight" of AHA members that are doing something that is a bit unique; that are teaching in departments other than history; that are working overseas; that teach in high schools; or those that are public historians of one sort or another. These features are highlighted here in the hopes that they might give the viewers of this blog unconventional ideas about future employment.  The "Spotlights" were not developed with that purpose in mind, but a highly creative mind can look at these features analytically and find new insights in them.  Enjoy:

• Peter Kizilos-Clift, independent scholar

• Blaine Brownell, academic administration, University of Alabama at Birmingham; University of North Texas; University of Memphis; Ball State University; University of South Florida

• Ellen Griffith Spears, New College/American Studies, University of Alabama

• Nancy McTygue, Executive Director, California History-Social Science Project, University of California, Davis

• William M. Ferraro, editor, Papers of George Washington 

• Carl Abbott, Urban Studies and Planning, Portland State University

• David J. Trowbridge, Director, African and African American Studies, Marshall University

• Ronald J. Granieri, historian, Office of the Secretary of Defense

• Craig Perrier, high school social studies and history specialist, Fairfax County Public Schools

• Daniel Geary, Trinity College, University of Dublin

• Marty Blatt, Chief of Cultural Resources and Historian, Boston National Historical Park/Boston African American National Historic Site

• Amalia D. Kessler, Stanford Law School, Stanford University

• Colin F. Wilder, Associate Director, Center for Digital Humanities, University of South Carolina

• Michael Cullinane, Department of Humanities, Northumbria University 

• Beth Boland, historian, National Park Service

• Taylor Stoermer, historian, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

• Jeffrey S. Reznick, Chief, History of Medicine Division U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health