Hi Everyone!
I’m Leah and I’m in my second year of the Public History MA program here at American. I was born and raised in Manhattan, New York City. Being from New York I spend much of my childhood roaming the halls of it’s many museums (i.e. the Met, Natural History, etc.) which help grow my passion for history and museums. I received my BA in history from Queens College. A lot of my undergraduate work focused on European and American Jewish history and I ended up doing my senior capstone project on Jews in the Italian Fascist party.
I’ve always been passionate about Jewish history and spend year volunteering for the Museum at Eldridge Street on New York’s Lower East Side. As a volunteer I gave tours and worked events at the museum. This experienced allowed me to experience how by sharing our diverse and unique histories we end up finding more in common then we expect. This has become my goal as public historian, to help Americans connect with our shared heritage by the learning about the diverse backgrounds of our fellow citizens.
I have thoroughly enjoyed by experience in AU’s Public History thus far. I hope the skills I have learned will help to create educational programing for all types of visitors to whatever museum or historic site I might be lucky enough to find a job with. In this course in particular I hope to learned more about about digital exhibition creation as I feel like, especially in light of the panini, digital content is becoming more important than ever. I look forward to working with everyone!