Skip to main content

MHY7077: Public History Internship

(alternative to MHY7025: Historical Documents and Sources)

Semester 2 (Jan.-June)

Co-ordinator: Dr Olwen Purdue (o.purdue@qub.ac.uk) 

What is this course about?

In this module you will be given the opportunity to engage with the core ideas, debates and best practices in the field of public history and to get hands-on experience of ‘doing’ public history through a placement in the heritage sector.

For approximately 14 days spread over several months, you will undertake an internship in a public history institution of your choice. Here you will get hands-on experience of working in a public history environment in two different ways.  Firstly, by shadowing public history professionals, you will acquire broad experience in their particular field and become familiar with the range of issues that they face in the course of their work. Secondly, by selecting a particular collection or archive on which to work, you will engage in a very practical way with issues such as preservation policy, archiving, digital collections and exhibition development.

By participating in this module, you will gain a broad experience of communicating history to a wider audience. You will gain a range of employability skills. In addition, students who successfully complete every aspect of the module will qualify for the Queen’s Employability and Skills Award.   

How will it be taught and assessed?

The main part of the module will be the internship which will be organised by the student in conjunction with the co-ordinator.
There will be three compulsory workshops. Two of these will take the form of vocational training on applying for jobs and giving effective presentations. The third will be a lecture on the experience of ‘doing public history’ by someone currently working in the field.
There will also be an optional two-day residential field trip towards the end of the internship period. This will allow students to come together in an informal environment to explore aspects of public history and share their experiences of placement in a public history environment.

Assessment will take the form of a pre-placement submission including CV, covering letter and a forward analysis of skills (10%), a reflective 5,000-word essay (80%) and a short presentation (10%).

Possible placements include:

Centre for Migration Studies, Ulster American Folk Park, Omagh
Ulster Museum
Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, Cultra
Special Collections, QUB library
Linen Hall Library
Causeway Museum Service, Coleraine
Lagan Legacy, Belfast
Castle Ward, National Trust, Strangford
Derry City Council Museums
as well as many more….