Alumni Voices

An interview with James McAllister, a doctoral candidate in the History department, who is currently working within the education section of the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability, a research arm of the Florida Legislature.

I graduated from FSU back in 2018 after studying early twentieth-century immigration policy under Dr. Koslow. In the fall semester of 2019, I received a tenure-track position at LaGrange College.

This past spring, it hit me – I finished my dissertation 10 years ago. Wow, it is still a bit of a shock to think about it. Where has all the time gone?

I’m currently a product manager for the plastic packaging division of Jabil, Inc., one of the largest electronics manufacturing services companies in the world.

It is late summer, which for students and faculty means gearing up for another year at school (whatever that might mean in the current COVID crisis). It also means that another cycle on the academic job market is about to begin.

I am the collections and projects coordinator at the Florida Historic Capitol Museum. We just staged the exhibit Rightfully Hers, which featured the National Archives pop-up exhibit panels on American woman suffrage alongside contemporary artifacts on loan from Mr. Ronald L. Book and Senator Lauren L. Book.

In Fall 2018, I graduated from Florida State University with a Bachelor’s Degree in History and Women’s Studies. Doing a double major allowed me to focus on women’s history specifically and approach history from an intersectional perspective. This has greatly influenced the way I conduct research and work in the museum field.

I graduated with an MA in Public History this spring, and less than a month later found a job with direct ties to the internship I did with the Cultural Resources Office at the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) the summer before.

Upon graduation from the Historic Administration and Public History program at FSU (2018), I began working at the State Archives of Florida. I worked for a little over a year as an archivist in collections management before moving to the Museum of Florida History (MFH) team.

In mid-June I began a career as part of the Bureau of Health Care Practitioner Regulation in the State of Florida’s Department of Health, Division of Medical Quality Assurance.