My last two years in a tenure line position as a Digital Historian in the Department of History and Art History at George Mason University have brought to fruition significant elements of the work that I have undertaken since coming to the university and the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media (RRCHNM) in 2004 as a Research Assistant Professor. While this trajectory has involved a number of different positions and titles, I have consistently pursued a research agenda focused on using digital tools and methods to bring rigorous historical scholarship into the public realm.
During my early years at the Center, I led the work on key educational projects that focused on using digital tools to improve the teaching and learning of historical thinking skills, including Historical Thinking Matters <http://historicalthinkingmatters.org/>, Object of History: Behind the Scenes with the Curators of the National Museum of American History <http://objectofhistory.org/>, and the National History Education Clearinghouse <http://teachinghistory.org/>. With the work on Object of History, I began to move into a serious concentration on digital public history that has become a primary focus of my work since. I became Director of Public Projects at the Center in October 2007 and I have served in that role since then. In 2010, I was reviewed and promoted to the rank of Research Associate Professor based on my accomplishments at RRCHNM.
In 2013, I moved over to a tenure line position in the History and Art History Department, which has allowed me to dedicate more time to my research interests in digital public history and American religious history, and to more fully take up the work of teaching and mentoring graduate students. At RRCHNM I have exercise leadership in my role supervising and funding 7-9 classified staff members and research faculty, and a host of graduate research assistants. This oversight is essential to the continuing success of the Center’s projects, but it is also essential to the development of a growing cohort of experienced individuals who will go on to expand the field of digital history. Together, we work to plan, develop, and maintain more than a dozen digital history projects and software applications.
