Reflection: Christine D’Auria on Working at the Center as Graduate Program Intern
This summer, I am working at the Center for the Humanities as a program intern, assisting with the broad range of operations that constitute the life of the Center. In this evolving position, my duties have included producing and editing copy, managing application procedures, assisting in the production of the Center’s newsletter and publicity materials, contributing content for and learning to design the Center’s new website, and helping to organize Forum 2019 on the topic of Dialogue and Debate in the Contemporary Academy. All of these experiences have contributed to my sense of the Center as a dynamic, capacious intellectual environment that is rewarding to work in both because of the rigor of the ideas that circulate within its institutional borders and because the work itself is challenging and highly varied.
Importantly, this summer has allowed the Center to test and refine the purpose of the graduate program intern, and we’ve found that the skillsets and interests of Humanities graduate students complement the day-to-day functions, programming, and longer-term goals of the Center. For instance, I have been able to contribute to some of the most formative aspects of Forum 2019. Being a member of the Forum 2019 organizational committee allows me to integrate my interests in universities as institutions, labor, and forms of censorship, while it has also enabled me to forge connections with other graduate students who will be participating in the event as speakers and coordinators.
As a doctoral student working in the interdisciplinary field of American Studies, I have been rewarded by the contact with other disciplines and projects that my position entails. And as a graduate student in the process of writing a highly specialized dissertation typical of Humanities PhDs, it is energizing to engage with ideas and perspectives distinct from the concerns and methods of my own project.
Working as a program intern at the Center has enriched my graduate education and expanded my professional horizons.
— Christine D’Auria, PhD Candidate, American & New England Studies