Throughlines

Throughlines, like threads in fabric, are forms of understanding that bind together knowledge, ideas, and experiences in ways that strengthen the overall structure. As a historian, a public historian, and as a higher ed administrator, I surface throughlines in ways that bring insight from the past to bear on the present and future.

My name is Marla Miller, and I’m a historian, educator, and administrator. I completed my PhD in History at the University of North Carolina. After two (splendid) years in the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College (processing collections from the records of the Women’s Action Alliance to the Gloria Steinem Papers), I joined the faculty of the UMass Amherst Department of History. There I directed the Public History program for almost twenty years, and then shifted into a new role as the Associate Dean for Strategic Initiatives in the College of Humanities and Fine Arts.

Over my long career as a historian and in humanities leadership, I have provided consulting services for a wide range of museums and historic sites, as well as editorial work for university presses and scholarly journals. As the director of the Public History Program and as an Associate Dean I have brought Throughlines approaches to Humanities Administration. Other opportunites to think about Humanities leadership and entrepreneurship came via service as President of the National Council on Public History, and President of the Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife. Other past projects as an educator and/or consultant described across this site include a wide range of public history initiatives and museum exhibits, as well as emerging initiatives in the field of Health Humanities and Healthy Aging.