New Phone, Who Dis?
My name is Kevin Lukacs. I was named after my father who in turn was named after what my grandmother thought was a nice name. She had had six kids and had run out of meaningful first names. I am currently twenty-five percent of the way through a master’s degree in public history here at American University. So far its been challenging, but not the nightmare I was warned it would be. Here at AU I hope to really garner an understanding of the best practices of public history, what’s been tried before, and suggestions for the future. I also hope to collect hard skills like conducting oral histories and working on digital platforms, and I want to refine my soft skills like public speaking, good written communication, and flexibility.
Like A Resume, But Better
Before coming to American, I had a lot of fun engaging the public with history through a lot of different mediums. I threw out the first pitch at a vintage baseball game dressed as Abraham Lincoln. I wrote and produced several historical plays. I researched, wrote, and produced a documentary for Butler Little Theater’s 75th anniversary. As a student at Slippery Rock University, I worked extensively on butlerhistorical.org, which was my first real experience producing digital content. This project helped get me used to some basic ideas, like finding quality images and keeping an eye on a strict word count. Currently I moonlight with a video game blog, handsomephantom.com, which has been growing rapidly over the past year, and has taught me a lot about writing quick, engaging pieces, and improving on metrics like bounce rates and SEO scores.
While I do have a little bit of experience doing digital history, I don’t feel confident in those skills, and really want to improve them this semester, while also getting a better sense of how digital history operates within the professional realm.