What next with your history degree? To help you decide we run a range of paid internships each year for our students. These internships will give you the opportunity to gain some valuable work experience to build your CV. They also allow our students to try out some sectors such as teaching, archives, heritage industry and public history to see if you would like to pursue a career in these areas.
Over the last few years our students have worked as researchers on the Histories of the Unexpected podcast and website with Professor James Daybell and Dr Sam Willis. Our student researchers have gained valuable experience researching material for this well known podcast. As part of their work students have produced over 50 research blogs on a variety of topics from oranges and gloves, beds and zombies.
Over the past few years Plymouth History students have helped to develop a pilot project on PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) at BRNC. Each year a number of student interns have helped to develop this ground breaking digital story telling project.
Project Co-ordinator Dr Darren Aoki describes the project:"A key aim of this pilot project is to bring on board students whose own personal insights, experiences, knowledge and skills would help to shape our research conception, aims, methodology, and outputs. The curiosity, initiative, and skills that Plymouth students have consistently demonstrated in their BA (Hons) History programmes has been of immense value to the Project."
In 2017/8 two first year students Lucy deGroot and Thomas E. Davies developed the initial database. In 2018/9 two third year students David Angeles and Harrison Rees have taken the project to the next stage
"The work I have done so far on the PTSD/Digital Storytelling Internship has been absolutely fascinating in terms of historicising both expressions of mental health needs, and 20th century interaction with social media." David Angeles
"My work on the project entails searching through a large database of videos loosely or directly related to PTSD. The work has allowed me to further expand my knowledge of databases and their potential for historical analysis using both quantitative and qualitative methods intertwined." Harrison Rees
In our recent alumni magazine, Invenite, we interviewed Professor James Daybell and Professor Daniel Maudlin about their work at Powderham Castle.
Room by room, page by page; line by line, the layers of history begin to peel away and give up their secrets. With every receipt, love letter and lock of hair, the evidence builds in forensic fashion; how the medieval stronghold that was Powderham Castle became the Georgian country residence, and a stage for William ‘Kitty’ Courtenay to marry off his 13 sisters.
