This core module will be compulsory for all MA in Public History students, providing them with essential training in the theory and practice of public history, and enabling them to develop their powers of critical self-reflection as they engage in designing and executing public history outputs. This module also provides students with the opportunity to work on a collaborative public history project, working within a small group and mentored by an experienced public history practitioner, and to develop specific project planning and practical skills relevant to such a project. This module is divided into three parts. The first weeks of Term 1 provide a conceptual foundation in the shifting meanings of public history and the key concepts and debates surrounding it. Students will critically explore: diverse history-making publics and contexts from across the globe; public history’s relationship with power; the idea of shared authority; efforts to apply historical understandings and representations of the past to address present-day societal challenges, and the public consumption of history as leisure and entertainment. Students will then study different practices, genres and spaces of public history (from exhibitions, to documentaries to heritage place-making) in a workshop environment, where they will also engage with experienced practitioners who will mentor and brief the students on their group projects for that year (see below).In term 2, the emphasis will be on project planning and skills training. In the first four weeks, students will gain practical skills necessary to researching, organizing and producing a collaborative public history output based on a given theme, object-based collection or ongoing programme of historical research. These projects will involve students working with either a UCL academic/curator/librarian, or outreach specialist, who will act as their project mentor. Students will work in small teams. In the final week, these projects will be presented at an end of term showcase.