about us
What we Believe
Service-Learning Inspires Future Leaders
We prepare students, regardless of their background or professional ambition, to seek a deeper understanding of the past, to learn from it, and to help communities preserve it for future generations.
The Public Must Understand History
Understanding lessons of the past can inform the present and facilitate social progress in the future.
Research Guides Policy
We conduct research not for it to remain confined in an ivory tower, but rather so that history can be applied in meaningful ways and can be used to foster positive economic impact at the local, state and federal level.
Public History Can Be Data-Driven
We use surveys, statistical analyses and other techniques to derive actionable findings that assist leaders in government, nonprofits and the private sector.
DR. SHERI SHUCK-HALL, DIRECTOR
Dr. Sheri Shuck-Hall is a professor in the Department of History at Christopher Newport and director of the Public History Center. She is the author of Journey to the West: The Alabama and Coushatta Indians (University of Oklahoma Press) and co-author of Mapping the Mississippian Shatter Zone: The Colonial Indian Slave Trade and Regional Instability in the American South (University of Nebraska Press).
Shuck-Hall has worked as an expert on Southeastern tribes for museum exhibitions, and currently serves on the Advisory Committee for the Atlanta History Center as they develop a new gallery on Southeastern Indigenous peoples. She also assisted tribal advocates in legal cases to secure indigenous claims to ancestral lands.
With over 30 years of experience in the field of public history, she recently worked as a historic preservation expert for the Town of Cape Charles, Virginia, where she helped implement an economic impact survey and co-authored a study focusing on historic preservation best practices. She is currently working with the Historic Services Division of Newport News, Virginia, assisting with their strategic mission and plan for 15 historic sites and museums.
Shuck-Hall also acts as the director of the Public History Program at CNU, which includes managing history internships. She was awarded Outstanding American History Teacher of the Year by the National Society Daughters of the Colonial Wars, and was one of two professors selected nationwide who were awarded for excellence in teaching and engaging students in American history.
CAPABILITIES
Our data analysis capabilities extend well beyond pie charts and simple crosstabs. Rather, we have employed applied econometric techniques to analyze surveys and other data to derive actionable findings for executives and leaders in a wide variety of agencies.
DR. THOMAS HALL, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR
Dr. Thomas Hall is an associate professor of finance and economics in the Luter School of Business at Christopher Newport and associate director of the Public History Center. He has more than three decades of experience analyzing data to generate actionable findings for government agencies, nonprofits and the private sector.
His research has been supported by grants and commissions from various local governments as well as the National Park Service, Yale School of Management, PricewaterhouseCoopers, the Virginia Aquarium, Dominion Energy, the OECD, the Mariners’ Museum, Huntington Ingalls and the Fort Monroe Authority.
Hall’s research on determinants and trends in museum and public history attendance has been funded by the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts. His private sector experience includes management consulting for KPMG and PriceWaterhouseCoopers as well as serving in the Financial Analytics and Structured Transactions group at Bear Stearns Companies.
His research has been published in the Journal of Software, the Journal of Corporate Finance, the Quarterly Journal of Finance, and the Journal of Economic Issues. Recently, he was lead author of “Estimating the Economic Impact of a One-Time Event: The Case of l’Hermione in Yorktown,” appearing in Nonprofit Management and Leadership.
The Public History Center
Christopher Newport University
McMurran Hall 353, 1 Avenue of the Arts
Newport News, Virginia 23606-3072
Dr. Shuck-Hall, Director
Dr. Thomas Hall, Associate Director