The federal government presents a range of exceptional opportunities for historians to serve the public. Historians have the potential to contribute their teaching and research skills to advancing the mission of different agencies and their personal backgrounds and experiences to enriching the diversity of the federal workforce. In the next few years, some two-thirds of federal workers will be eligible to retire. The need for motivated, highly trained, and mission-driven public servants is an urgent public need that should appeal to more historians facing the often tenuous and discouraging labor conditions within the academy.

This roundtable intends to share specific information about how to access and succeed in federal jobs as well as encouragement and networking opportunities to historians wishing to explore these opportunities.

The roundtable conversation will be organized around a series of prompts designed to illuminate these career pathways and provide specific and actionable advice to historians exploring federal service. These topics include:

• The steps (and missteps) each participant took in securing their first job in the federal government, as well as guidance for increasing one’s chances of landing a federal job
• The skills developed in their graduate training that help them to succeed in their current job, including specific accomplishments that their historical training made possible
• Their identity as a historian in these federal jobs, as well as their ongoing teaching, research, and publishing experience as federal workers
• The similarities and differences between the professional conditions within the academy and the federal government

The historians in this roundtable discussion represent an array of academic backgrounds, career stages, and experiences within the federal government. The participants specialize in different historical topics and entered federal service at different moments in their careers: directly from their PhD program, from a postdoctoral position, and from tenure-track faculty positions. Our jobs include not only formal historical research in the Office of the Historian at the State Department and in the Judicial History Office in the Federal Judiciary Center, but also less obvious applications of our historical skill set in the Office on Violence Against Women in the Department of Justice and in the Small Business Administration, as well as in Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a federally funded research and development center. In showing this range of experiences, we hope to give audience members a chance to envision themselves in these and other federal positions.

Please note: In addition to the applicants, there are a number of other historians working in federal jobs who would be enthusiastic to contribute to this roundtable, if space would permit.