Dr. Denise Danielle Meringolo
Professor · Tenured
College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences
She/Her/Hers/Herself
About
Denise D. Meringolo is Professor and Char of History at UMBC and a practitioner of public history who has worked in a variety of museums and public history institutions.Research interests
Denise Meringolo's research explores the significance and value of American cultural institutions. Her first book, Museums, Monuments, and National Parks: Toward a New Genealogy of Public History (University of Massachusetts, 2012) won the 2013 book prize from the National Council on Public History. Her second book, an edited open access publication, Radical Roots: Civic Engagement, Public History, and a Tradition of Social Justice Activism, broadens the accepted genealogy of the field by exploring precedents for community-centered public history practice. (Amherst College Press, 2021). She also established Preserve the Baltimore Uprising, a crowd-sourced digital collections project. During the 2018-2019 academic year, she activated the collection as a platform for community-centered research as a Whiting Foundation Public Engagement Fellow.Teaching interests
Denise Meringolo specializes in teaching courses in community-based public history practice, material culture, and museum studies. She also teaches courses in digital public history, and in United States social and cultural History between 1877 and 1945.Education
-
Ph D, American Studies
— The George Washington University (2005) Turning Nature into History: The Professionalization of Public History in the National Park Service During the 1930s
-
MA, English
— University of Maryland (1994) Alice Walker, Medium
- BA, American Studies — The George Washington University (1990)