History with Public History

History with Public History is a degree that combines the scholarly study of the past with a sustained focus on how that past is communicated, contested, and made meaningful in public life. Academic history develops the analytical rigour to evaluate evidence, construct arguments, and understand change over time. Public history extends those skills into the world of museums, archives, heritage sites, documentary film, journalism, and community memory projects, asking not only what happened and why but who gets to tell that story and for what purposes.

At Goldsmiths, this three-year full-time programme takes you across a range of historical periods and geographical areas, developing your ability to engage with primary sources, historiographical debates, and different modes of historical argument. The public history strand connects this scholarly work to the practical and ethical questions of how history reaches audiences outside the academy: how museums interpret objects and create exhibitions, how archives manage access and preservation, how heritage tourism shapes communities and economies, and how collective memory is formed and reformed across time. Goldsmiths has a strong commitment to critical and creative thinking across all its disciplines, and the programme reflects that in its approach to both the content and methods of history.

You will develop skills in research, analysis, written and verbal communication, and the ability to engage critically with multiple perspectives on the same events and processes. Public history components will also develop your capacity to design and deliver historical content for specific audiences.

Graduates pursue careers in museums and heritage organisations, archives and libraries, education, journalism, documentary production, and the public sector. Many go on to postgraduate study in history, heritage management, archive studies, or museum studies. The combination of historical rigour and public engagement skills is increasingly valued by organisations concerned with how communities understand and relate to the past.