UMass Boston

Jane Becker’s research and professional interests include public history and museum studies; U.S. social and cultural history between the world wars; history of the Appalachian South; and American material culture studies. She directs the Public History Track in the History MA program, manages internships and outreach initiative for Public History, and teaches one of the core public history courses, "Interpreting History in Public: Approaches to Public History Practice."

PhD (American Studies) Boston University
BA (History & Music) Hamilton College

• Selling Tradition: Appalachia and the Construction of an American Folk, 1930-40 (University of North Carolina Press, 1998).
• Folk Roots, New Roots: Folklore in American Life, co-editor with Barbara Franco (Museum of Our National Heritage, 1988).
• Review of Curating America: Journeys Through Storyscapes of the American Past, by Richard Rabinowitz. New England Quarterly 90 (June 2017): 297-300.
• “Lucy Morgan: The Penland School of Handicrafts and the Southern Appalachian Craft Revival.” In North Carolina Women: Their Lives and Times, Volume 2, eds. Michele Gillespie and Sally McMillen, 77-100. University of North Carolina Press, 2015.
• Jane Becker and Alberta Sebolt George, “Teaching With the Past at Old Sturbridge Village: An Interview With Alberta Sebolt George.” The Public Historian 34 (February 2012): 83-111.
• Cathy Stanton and Jane Becker, In the Heart of Polish Salem: An Ethnohistorical Study of St. Joseph Hall and Its Neighborhood. Salem Maritime National Historical Site, Special Ethnographic Report. Boston: National Park Service, 2009.
• "Craft Revival" and "Allen Eaton," in Rudy Abramson and Jean Haskell, eds., Encyclopedia of Appalachia (University of Tennessee Press, 2006).
• Review of Christine Bold's The WPA Guides: Mapping America, in Journal of Southern History (February 2002).
• "Revealing Traditions: The Politics of Culture and Community in America, 1888-1988," in Jane S. Becker and Barbara Franco, eds., Folk Roots, New Roots: Folklore in American Life (Museum of Our National Heritage, 1988).
• Selected catalogue entries, "The Art That Is Life": The Arts and Crafts Movement in America, 1875-1920. Edited by Wendy Kaplan. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1987.

I began my life in museums in my hometown, Washington, DC, but embarked on a career in history museums during graduate school in American Studies at Boston University. I have worked in a wide range of venues--large and small history museums both nationally and locally focused; state arts and humanities councils; local and federal historic sites and parks; universities; and local preservation commissions. In these cultural organizations I have conducted research; developed conceptual and interpretive plans for exhibits, tours, and programs; and managed exhibit and oral history projects. In addition, I have developed programs and worked as a historian for a variety of projects serving different communities in New England, ranging from organizing and leading inventory projects, to conducting oral histories in a community setting. 

My teaching focuses on areas related to public history and museum practice—graduate seminars in interpretation and exhibits for history museums and sites, and material culture studies. Currently, I teach the interpretation/methods course in the public history track.

I am a believer in and witness to the potential of history in transforming communities and empowering citizens, and an enthusiastic supporter of the public humanities.