Why I’m in the George Mason University digital public history program – 2nd version

I teach history at a comprehensive university in the Midwest. I’ve written and edited three books, focused on, respectively, early American foreign relations, the history of American exceptionalism, and the letters of a Civil War soldier and his wife. I’m interested to study digital humanities and public history principally to expand my teaching portfolio, and to become more valuable at a local history museum, where I am on the board of directors and a volunteer for its programming and fundraising. I have little experience in digital humanities, other than completing HIST 608 at GMU, the first course in the DH certificate program in which I am enrolled. I’d like to learn how public history sites involve communities in their programming, and how to create an effective public history project or exhibition, including how to gauge its effectiveness.