For new faculty members on campus, leading undergraduate classes is often one of their primary responsibilities. But for Steven Lubar, professor of American civilization, that's not part of his job yet.
Instead, Lubar, director of the John Nicholas Brown Center for the Study of American Civilization and a former curator at the Smithsonian Institution, is spending his first semester on campus developing a new graduate program in the study of public humanities.
If the University approves the program, students will be enrolled next fall. According to Lubar's preliminary Web site, the master's degree program will "provide training for careers in museums, historic preservation, documentaries, community cultural organizations" and other cultural organizations.
The carriage house behind the John Nicholas Brown Center is not currently being used on a regular basis, but it is being restored and renovated to serve as a museum exhibit space. Lubar is directing the work to turn the carriage house into an experimental museum.
"Currently, there is no place in the world where you can try an exhibition" without depending on it to succeed, Lubar said. Much like a university art museum, which might hold experimental student art exhibits, the carriage house will serve to provide a space for museum studies students to develop their skills with exhibits.
While he is not teaching any undergraduate courses now, Lubar said he wants to teach undergraduates and is hoping to propose a new course for the spring semester. He is particularly interested in incorporating something about the history of memorials, the significance of museums and how they play into how the public remembers and thinks about history.
Lubar spent the last 15 years working at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., creating exhibits in its National Museum of American History. His most recent project was the exhibit "America on the Move," which explores how transportation transformed life and the landscape in America. He also worked extensively on many other exhibits during his time at the Smithsonian, including the project "Smithsonian's America," an enormously popular exhibit in Tokyo designed to present American history to a Japanese audience.
But Lubar is not new to academia, despite his 15 years at the Smithsonian. He has held visiting professorships at the University of Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins University. It was through his time in the classroom at those schools that he discovered he wanted to work in academia. He said he views his new position is an opportunity to reflect on the nature of public history and how people think about the past more than is possible while doing day-to-day work in museums, and he wanted to have the chance to teach the next generation of people working in museums and public history.
During his time at the Smithsonian, Lubar also worked with many interns - meeting them enticed him to pursue work at Brown, he said.
"Consistently some of the very best (interns) have been from Brown," Lubar said. "Brown students are the most independent students I've ever met. They can really do what needs to be done."
