U-M History alums will be front and center at the department's November 7-8 Undergraduate Banquet and Career Conference. After all, they know best how to put a U-M History degree to work in the real world.
The events will bring nine alums back to campus to connect with current students. Things will kick off on Thursday, November 7, with three speakers who aim to inspire current students to maintain their passion for history after they graduate.
Professor Mary Beth Norton (BA 1964) will share opening remarks about her journey from student to scholar. Then, Vice Provost Angela Dillard to moderate a conversation between novelist and historian Brad Meltzer (BA 1992) and travel journalist Karen Carmichael (BA 2007), who will discuss how their history degrees have shaped their careers and lives after college.
Learn more about Norton, Meltzer, and Carmichael below, and stay tuned for a future article with more on the six alums headlining the November 8 career roundtable.
Karen Carmichael
BA 2007
Karen Carmichael is a travel journalist and expedition leader. After working for a travel magazine publisher in London, England, she earned a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Maryland. Her work has been published in National Geographic, National Geographic Traveler, and more than a dozen National Geographic books, as well as Afar, Budget Travel, and the Los Angeles Times. Karen has journeyed to 50 countries and all seven continents, and has led trips around the world for National Geographic and the Smithsonian.
How did your experience as a history major influence your career?
I always wanted to be a journalist, but I purposely did not pursue an undergrad degree in journalism. I instead wanted to obtain a concrete base of knowledge in a subject—and history was perfect for that.
What was your favorite history class at U-M?
I remember so many fantastic history courses at U-M ... but my favorite was “Europe Since 1945,” taught by Rita Chin.
How do you engage in history inside and outside of work?
I use history every day in my work: historical details make up a part of every travel article. History is so entwined with travel; it’s part of the story of every place and is a major reason why people want to travel.
Brad Meltzer
BA 1992
Brad Meltzer is the Emmy-nominated, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Lightning Rod and twelve other bestselling thrillers. He also writes non-fiction books like The Nazi Conspiracy and the Ordinary People Change the World kids book series, which inspired the TV show on PBS KIDS, Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum. Brad is also the host of Brad Meltzer’s Decoded on the History Channel, and is responsible for helping find the missing 9/11 flag with his show Brad Meltzer’s Lost History. In 2024 he delivered the commencement address at the University of Michigan.
How did your experience as a history major influence your career?
I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing if I wasn't a history major.
What was your favorite history class at U-M?
“The Vietnam War” taught by Tom Collier. I dedicated my book The Nazi Conspiracy to him.
How do you engage in history inside and outside of work?
Nonstop.
Mary Beth Norton
BA 1964
Mary Beth Norton is the Mary Donlon Alger Professor of American History Emerita at Cornell University, where she taught from 1971 to 2018. She has written seven books about early American history, including Liberty’s Daughters: The Revolutionary Experience of American Women, 1750-1800, and In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692. She was an author, with others, of A People and a Nation, which appeared in its eleventh edition in 2018. She has been elected a member of both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, and she served as president of the American Historical Association in 2018.
How did your experience as a history major influence your career?
My undergraduate classes gave me a strong foundation in thinking historically and reading books critically in order to understand the authors' viewpoints and to use (and evaluate others' uses of) primary sources.
What was your favorite history class at U-M?
My favorite history class was John Higham's course in US intellectual history. My biggest takeaway was that history was more than “past politics,” which is how I had thought of the subject before. Ideas have a history! That was a revelation for me.
How do you engage in history inside and outside of work?
I read or write history every day. It is my work and my pleasure too.
