Distinguished Visiting Public Historians

Each year the Department of History hosts a Distinguished Visiting Public Historian, who is in residence for at least one semester teaching the "Current Issues in Public History" seminar. He or she does not necessarily have an academic affiliation, but does bring years of practical experience and expertise in one or more practice fields, facilitating discussion about the connections between practice and theory.

Our Recent Distinguished Visiting Public Historians:

2006: Dwight Pitcaithley

Dr. Dwight Pitcaithley, former Chief Historian of the National Park Service, and currently on the faculty of New Mexico State University, taught a course in summer 2006 on the topic of “Reinterpreting the Civil War.” The course examined the strategies that three National Historic Battlefields and two museums have adopted in recent years to interpret a broader history of the Civil War. As Chief  Historian, he launched a sweeping Civil War reinterpretation initiative, articulated in Rally on the High Ground: The National Park Service Symposium on the Civil War (Eastern National, 2001).

Dr. Pitcaithley also co-moderated a community forum, “Rethinking the Civil War after 150 Years,” with Dr. John Coski,  Director of the Museum of the Confederacy, on opportunities and challenges with commemorating the sesquicentennial of the Civil War (2011-2015).

2007: Trudy Huskamp Peterson

Dr. Trudy Huskamp Peterson is a consulting archivist and author of Final Acts: A Guide to Preserving the Records of Truth Commissions (Woodrow Wilson Center Press/Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005).  Her 30-year career as an archivist has included a stint as deputy archivist of the United States, serving on South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and appointment as a public policy scholar with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

In addition to teaching a summer graduate course on the power of records, Dr. Peterson was the featured speaker at a public forum during which she addressed topics related to her international work to connect the preservation of records to human rights.


2008:  Michael Tomlan

Dr. Michael Tomlan wears many hats, including director of the Historic Preservation Planning Program at Cornell University, project director for the National Council of Preservation Education, advisor to the Global Heritage Fund, and president of Historic Urban Plans Inc. He has also consulted on projects for the World Heritage Fund, the
J. Paul Getty Trust, and numerous other national and international projects.

Dr. Tomlan taught a graduate seminar on sacred places and preservation. He also presented "Why Historians and Preservationists Avoid Religion," a community lecture,
at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Murfreesboro. 

2009:  Spencer Crew

Dr. Spencer Crew, widely recognized as one of the top public historians in the nation, is the former executive director of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History (NMAH) and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.  He is currently on the faculty of George Mason University.

Dr. Crew’s seminar, “Issues of Conscience, Commemoration, and Memory in Museums and Historic Places,” focused on ways that public historians are incorporating issues of freedom and justice into their work.  Dr. Crew also moderated a panel discussion, “American Slavery and Its Impact on Universities, Past and Present,” that included Dr. Jim Campbell of Stanford University, Dr. Alfred Brophy of the University of North Carolina, and MTSU’s own Dr. Carroll Van West.