ISSUED: 5 March 2024
MEDIA CONTACT: Cecelia Mason
SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV — Dr. James Broomall is one of five finalists for the Faculty Merit Foundation 2023 West Virginia Professor of the Year. This is the third year in a row that a Shepherd professor has been among the five finalists.
Broomall is a Civil War-era scholar who, in 2015, deliberately chose to teach at Shepherd because of its location in Shepherdstown and near places like Antietam National Battlefield and Harpers Ferry National Historical Park.
“I am in one of the best places, quite literally, in the world, to do my work,” he said.
Broomall, an associate professor of history, also serves as director of the George Tyler Moore Center for the Study of the Civil War (GTM Center) and director of the Robert C. Byrd Center for Congressional History and Education. When it comes to teaching, he utilizes a variety of resources to engage students, such as documents, art, images, photography, music, and video.
“I also think of the classroom as a much larger space,” he said.
That much larger space includes the community and various historical sites in the surrounding region.
“Students get extremely excited about seeing the resource, interacting with the landscape, and thinking about a historical question differently,” Broomall said. “It’s what’s so special about Shepherd. Even going into Shepherdstown itself and exploring the 18th- and 19th-century landscape and the various layers of the built environment affords students tremendous opportunities.”
Broomall also looks for opportunities for students to participate in internships and meet professionals who have careers that line up with earning history degrees. His goal is to equip students with the knowledge and information that will help them navigate a sometimes-challenging job market.
“We have this incredible community around us, and one of the things that has been so wonderful about being at Shepherd is the collaborations and partnerships I’ve been able to cultivate. This is a community that is very giving, and they have been willing to talk to our students.”
Broomall spends a great deal of time cultivating partnerships with museums, historic sites, National Park Service sites, and other colleges and universities to create experiences for students.
One example is a relationship with the Antietam Institute, a relatively new organization that has created a scholarship and paid internship for Shepherd students. Other partners include the Clarke County Historical Society and Museum and Virginia Piedmont Heritage Area in Virginia and the Belle Boyd House, Martinsburg Roundhouse, and Berkeley County Historical Society in West Virginia.
Listen to an interview with Dr. James Broomall
In his classes, Broomall develops skills necessary for job success, such as writing, making convincing arguments, and thinking critically while studying and researching historical facts. He also designs class projects, which involve creating websites, walking tours, podcasts, and interpretive panels.
“Students are gathering the source materials, synthesizing said materials, and then thinking critically about how to create a narrative with these resources and distilling that in a format for someone who may not know much about history but would encounter it at, say, a public history site,” he said.
In some cases, his classes partner with organizations that will use the work the students create. Broomall said he knows that not all students will get jobs in museums or at national parks. He works to expose them to a variety of potential careers, such as library science, archive work, law, and teaching.
As director of the GTM Center, Broomall creates partnerships and programs that benefit both students and the community. The center hosts speakers, roundtable discussions, and offers programs such as a yearly Civil War seminar and student-led participation in Shepherdstown’s annual holiday celebration, Christmas in Shepherdstown.
“It’s this tremendous opportunity for students to inhabit that space [the GTM Center], to think about how they want to interpret that space, and to interact with visitors on that respective Saturday with things like guided tours and demonstrations showing what life was like in Shepherdstown during the 19th century,” Broomall said.
Broomall serves on the Save Historic Antietam Foundation board and Historic Shepherdstown Commission and is a member of the Shepherdstown Rotary Club. He previously served three years on the Jefferson County Historic Landmarks Commission.
The Faculty Merit Foundation was created in 1984 to recognize and reward innovation and creativity among the faculties of West Virginia’s public and private colleges and universities. Finalists will be honored, and the Professor of the Year will be announced on Wednesday, April 10, at the Culture Center in Charleston, West Virginia.
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