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Enhancing the student experience: internships and placements for historians taking a new second-year core module called 'Doing History'

Photo of Peter MarshallThe History department would like to offer a range of placements and internships, either in the vacation or the first year or during the second year of study with a variety of different types of relevant organisations: museums, archives, galleries, heritage bodies, public history projects and media organisations. These could be at a local or national level and could vary in length depending on the type of host institution. The placements and internships will be integrated as much as possible into a new second-year module called 'Doing History', so that the experience students gain on them will be used to shape or inform projects that they will undertake as part of their assessed work. It is envisaged that the outputs will be digital, made available through the university website, thereby creating extra visibility for the host institutions offering placements and cementing partnerships for the future. The project will be assisted by Dr Helen Clifford, who is curator of the Swaledale Museum in North Yorkshire and has extensive contacts in the museum and archive world. The challenge of finding internships and placements to enhance the student experience is one which many other departments in the university will face. The experience gained by History should be of interest to others and therefore Helen will compile a brief report about the project for dissemination within and across the university.

Peter Marshall is a Professor in the History Department, where he has taught since 1994, and is currently Director of Undergraduate Studies. His research and teaching focuses on the history of religion in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.