First week as a Public History Student

My first week at Western as an MA student in the Public History program consisted of several orientation sessions, free lunches, an introduction to my courses and a meeting at my GSA (Graduate student assistant) position at Fanshawe Pioneer Village. The orientation sessions were just as I expected- an overload of information that simultaneously made me feel ready to tackle on this program and nervous at the same time. Luckily this program is very small (only 7 of us in total!) and the professors and administration in the History department at Western seem eager to help. This semester I have 3 courses: HIS 9800 which focuses on public history theory, history and practice, HIS 9808 which explores digital public history, and HIS 9806 which provides an introduction to understanding archives. Out of the three of these courses I am most nervous for HIS 9800, since it includes group collaboration and working with community members in London. This type of work is very different from the independent assignments I completed throughout most of my undergrad, but that is what the "Public" in "Public History" entails. This week I also visited Fanshawe Pioneer Village where I will be completing around 10 hours of work each week. Since I grew up in the London area, I have been to the Pioneer Village before, but the last time I visited was for a field trip in elementary school. It will be nice to work somewhere that focuses not only on the history of London, but also on Middlesex County which encompasses the rural areas which are more familiar to me. I toured around the site of Fanshawe Pioneer Village which includes several authentic historic buildings and replica buildings which house artifacts and live-in history interpreters. They also have sheep, chickens and pigs on site which was a fun surprise. I will be working in the main building on site where the rest of the artifacts are housed, and I am starting on some research-oriented tasks for the first couple of weeks there.