PhD Interns in the Humanities Reflect

At the Institute of Contemporary Art, Alina Amvrosova (History) researched artists affiliated with the African American Master Artists-in Residency Program and used archival materials to craft biographies for several individual artists. Read Alina’s full reflection.

Drawing on primary sources in the Boston Athenæum’s holdings, Meredith Barber (History) developed and presented on source sets on topics in African American history for future use by K-12 educators. Read Meredith’s full reflection and watch her lightening presentation.

At the New England Historic Genealogical Society, Irene Garcia (History of Art & Architecture) contributed to the 10 Million Names project. Working with primary source materials, Irene researched African American abolitionists Nathan and Polly Johnson and several of the fugitives whom they sheltered in New Bedford, MA. Read Irene’s full reflection.

As the curatorial intern in the Exhibitions Department of the Concord Museum, Genevieve Kane (American Studies) conducted historical research and drafted object labels for three upcoming exhibitions that will commemorate the 250th Anniversary of the American Revolution through. Read Genevieve’s full reflection.

Toni Armstrong (HAA): Boston Symphony Orchestra

“In my own research, I’ve accessed archives like this one and learned to navigate finding aides, but working from the repository’s perspective gave me new ideas for how to search a collection, how to work with unusual archival materials like an oral history, and the kinds of decisions that are made by an archive when choosing how and when to preserve a collection.” At the BSO, Toni digitized a cassette tape collection that featured oral history interviews and created a finding guide for this new collection. See Toni talk more about her summer here.

Anne Boyd (AMNESP): Massachusetts Historical Society

“The focus of my internship was creating a new source set supported by my own expertise and research interests in the Civil War and its aftermath.” At the MHS, Anne created a new source set focused on Reconstruction for the MHS’s online resource, History Source, which draws from MHS collections to promote and guide learning in US history and civics at every grade level. See Anne talk more about her summer here.

Hannah Jew (HAA): Peabody Essex Museum

“It can sometimes be difficult to find avenues to put [your] work into practice while in the midst of [your] education, so to have this opportunity to get to be hands on with a collection and engage with the public-facing aspects of [my] discipline was incredible.” As an intern, Hannah helped adapt a touring exhibit to be shown at PEM, assisted with records augmentation for an exhibition about a topic she’s worked very closely with in her own research, and catalogued new acquisitions. See Hannah talk more about her summer here.

Catherine Lennartz (HAA): Institute of Contemporary Art

“Despite working in museums before starting my doctoral studies, this was the first time I got to participate in curatorial work directly. This was an amazing opportunity for me to gain experience and really get a sense of the day to day, not only of the curators, but of the registrars and preparators.” At the ICA, Catherine worked to adapt the museum’s forthcoming exhibition, Forecast Form: Art in the Caribbean Diaspora, 1990’s to today, which comes to the ICA from Chicago, for Boston audiences. See Catherine talk more about her summer here.

Caryne Nicholas (History): Boston Athenæum

“Before starting this internship, remaining in academia was the only path I could see myself taking, but after engaging with those in different departments at the Athenaeum and learning how I can use my skills to make history more accessible and public-facing, I can certainly say that I hope to work in a museum or library setting after graduation.” As the Athenæum’s Education Intern, Caryne selected the theme History of Queer American Resistance for the Athenæums 2024 Education Workshop and developed a syllabus and activities that draw from the Athenæum’s collection. See Caryne talk more about her summer here.

Henry Tonks (History): New England Historic Genealogical Society

“I was taken out of [my] comfort zone in a really beneficial way that encouraged [me] to embrace the curiosity and creativity that I think can sometimes be lost if one is focused on one’s own research.” At the New England Historic Genealogical Society, Henry researched and wrote about artifacts in the NEHGS collection related to the Society’s Ten Million Names Project, which seeks to recover and restore ancestral information to as many descendants of the estimated ten million people who were enslaved in North America as possible. See Henry talk more about his summer here.

Renée Brown (HAA): Boston Athenæum

“I enjoyed using my research skills to create something that is useful to a broad audience.” Renée helped to research, organize, and plan the Boston Athenæum’s annual educator workshop, which is designed to help K-12 educators learn best practices for incorporating primary sources in their classroom teaching. See Renée talk more about her summer here.

Karina Sembe (RS): Boston Mayor’s Office

“One of the most interesting things I learned was how public art in Boston is commissioned and approved.” At the Boston Mayor’s Office, Karina worked with the public art team and made research-informed suggestions to make their website more accessible, action driven, and inclusive. She also created and presented project proposal guides for artist-initiated and community-initiated projects.

Keara Sebold (HI): Boston Symphony Orchestra

“I had only spent a brief time in an archival setting before. This experience showed me that I can thrive in that setting; it showed me more about how archives work from the moment a collection is donated to the moment a finding aide is published.” As the Archival Assistant Intern at the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Keara worked on a new collection donated by the family of Doriot Anthony Dwyer, who served as the BSO’s Principal Flautist for 38 years. Keara processed the collection, came up with series, created archival headers and boxes, and wrote a finding aide to be used by future researchers. See Keara talk more about her summer here.

Phillippa Pitts (HAA): Institute of Contemporary Art

“One of the things that I love most about museum work is the constant push to think about how scholarship serves both the academy and the public . . . And that’s something that I really got to see my mentors at the ICA model in ways that I will carry with me.” At the ICA, Phillippa worked with her mentors to curate an upcoming exhibit that reflects on childhood and caregiving. She researched and drafted object labels and helped to develop a “reading room” component of the exhibition for which she wrote profiles of individuals who pushed the field of children’s literature. See Phillippa talk more about her summer here.

Grace McGowan (AMNESP): Massachusetts Historical Society

“It was so great to be able to bring my scholarship into this realm of public history and also see the ways in which public history can inform scholarship.” At the Massachusetts Historical Society (MHS), Grace worked to gather sources and create resources that are based on MHS collections for use by K-12 educators. Specifically, she worked on a project that focused on Phillis Wheatley Peters. See Grace talk more about her summer here.

William Lewis (CL): New England Historic Genealogical Society

 “Although I love being a classicist, the most persistent fear that I have always had is that my education won’t be useful outside of a position teaching classics. I’m very pleased to say that my usual academic experiences actually translated quite directly to this project.” At the New England Historic Genealogical Society, Will collected information about the genealogies and family histories for people who did not yet have good records. See Will talk more about his summer here.

Nicole Correri (RN):Peabody Essex Museum

“Thinking through how to make this material relevant to a variety of people in different age groups was really interesting to me as someone who’s coming from an academic environment. And knowing that I could also use my skills in a way that would benefit others in terms of education, broadening horizons, and advancing thinking was really exciting for me.” As the Education and Civic Engagement Intern at the Peabody Essex Museum, Nicole helped to make an exhibit featuring over sixty films that dealt with the theme of “hope” accessible to various audiences. The films were made by over fifty artists from across Asia. See Nicole talk more about her summer here.

Sophia Hadley (EN): Boston Athenæum

“One of my favorite parts of the internship was using my own research skills to find [primary] sources and to think creatively about how they could be used in the classroom. I realized that the skills I’ve been developing in my PhD were useful in this different setting as well.”

As the Boston Athenæum’s Academic Program Intern, Sophia helped plan the Athenæum’s Summer 2022 annual educator’s workshop. Developed around the theme of “active citizenship,” the workshop will connect teachers of all kinds to primary sources at the Athenæum and help them consider how to use those sources in the classroom. See Sophia talk more about her summer here.

Carlos Muñoz Cadilla (HAA): Boston Public Library

“As PhD candidates and prospective scholars we often tackle questions of relevance within our own fields, but often enough, we don’t take into consideration how relevant our interests are to the general public or how one would go about creating public programs around a specialized interest. This internship was an amazing example of how we can bridge the gap between academic and community interests… As PhDs in the humanities, we have all the professional tools to begin addressing real-world problems…” 

At the Boston Public Library, Carlos conducted research to help the library determine how it might create an interactive exhibition and educational program around a collection of  18th century prints by Giovanni Battista Piranesi and how it might tailor the collection to engage with common themes of public interest. See Carlos talk more about his summer here.

Kayli Rideout (AMNESP): Massachusetts Historical Society

“The MHS has an incredible collection of material objects…and it was important for me to encourage students to consider how objects might be able to build out a historic narrative for which there is no written record. This supported an additional goal of mine, to complicate the traditional narrative of the end of slavery in MA and bring these histories into the present day.”

As an intern in the Massachusetts Historical Society’s education department, Kayli helped curate a forthcoming digital project called “The Case for Ending Slavery,” which will feature objects from Massachusetts Historical Society and Library of Congress collections to create a nuanced narrative about the end of slavery in Massachusetts and the ways in which the legacy of slavery play out in contemporary Massachusetts society and culture. See Kayli talk more about her summer here.

Althea Ruoppo (HAA): Boston Mayor’s Office

“Before this summer’s internship, I had explored more traditional careers in art history… but my experience in the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture has showed me that I can successfully apply the skills that I have learned as a graduate student to professional opportunities in civic engagement.”

As Public Art Fellow at the Boston Mayor’s Office, Althea helped evaluate the “City of Boston Public Art Policies and Procedures Document” and worked with a team to think through how procedures could be made more transparent and accessible to artists, organizations, and other city agencies. She also offered feedback on calls for public art and reviewed artists’ submissions with other staff members. See Althea talk more about her summer here.

Astrid Tvetenstrand (AMNESP): Peabody Essex Museum

“Working with the education department was wonderful because it exposed me to a side of humanities work and museum work that bridges the gap between PhD academic research and curatorial and museum work.”

At the Peabody Essex Museum, Astrid split her time between the education department and curatorial department. Her experience balanced exposure to new areas of museum work and unfamiliar topics with tasks that honed skills related to her own dissertation and primary area of study. See Astrid talk more about her summer here.

Sean Case: Massachusetts Historical Society Summer PhD Intern

Degree Program: American & New England Studies

Sean Case, a PhD student in the American & New England Studies Program at BU, supported the Massachusetts Historical Society’s public history programs through his 2020 internship.  He prepared study aids for students in grades 6 through 12 participating in a yearlong program intended “to foster a deeper appreciation of history through engagement with primary sources,” culminating in National History Day.  Sean also researched materials from the Society’s archives relating to foreign policy, in the field of peace studies, particularly the Society’s nineteenth-century holdings from the American Peace Society.  Sean hopes that these primary sources will fill a gap in Massachusetts’ public school history curriculum: coverage of the history of American international relations.  See Sean talk more about his summer here.

Kimber Chewning: Boston Public Library Summer PhD Intern

Degree Program: History of Art & Architecture

Kimber Chewning, a PhD student in the History of Art & Architecture Department at BU interned at the Boston Public Library.  Kimber set out to make the BPL’s underutilized archives more accessible.  She focused on the 14,000 photos collected from the U.S. Soldier System Center, part of the BPL’s Digital Commonwealth holdings.  Studying images of food, packaging and textiles, Kimber identified connections between the varied needs of the military needs over time and emerging patterns of US mass consumption culture.  For example, corporations, having originated designs of the chicken nugget and clothing geared to protect against excessive heat and cold at the behest of the US Soldier System Center, in turn scaled these military commissions into commercial products for mass consumption.  Through this research, Kimber was able “to understand how the military-industrial complex really works.”  As a scholar of the history of photography, Kimber’s work helped her appreciate even more the ways in which “photos can make visible hard to see historical forces.”  See Kimber talk more about her summer here.

Colleen Foran: Mayor’s Office Summer PhD Intern

Degree Program: History of Art & Architecture

Colleen Foran, a PhD student in the History of Art & Architecture Department at BU worked in the Office of the Mayor of the City of Boston.  Colleen worked to support the Boston Arts Commission investigation of two controversial statues in the news: an 1879 Thomas Ball replica “The Emancipation Group” and a 1979 statue of Christopher Columbus.  Colleen notes: “It was incredibly rewarding to be a part of this process.  I actually got to watch in real time the decision being made to take down the ‘Emancipation Group.’”  Having researched and collected background information on which the Commission relied when it voted to remove, relocate and contextualize the statue, Colleen concludes: “Being part of the decision-making process definitely made me think more critically about public art, public space, and what it means to have representation of the very diverse publics here in Boston.”  See Colleen talk more about her summer here.

Katherine Mitchell: Boston Athenæum Summer PhD Intern

Degree Program: History of Art & Architecture

Katherine Mitchell, a PhD student in the History of Art & Architecture Department at BU worked with the Boston Athenæum.  Katherine wrote a syllabus and lesson plans for the Athenæum’s 2021 educators’ workshop on the subject of Abolitionism and the Underground Railroad.  She developed a civics module for the study of the monuments in the vicinity of the Athenæum: the Old State House and Boston Commons.  She also helped run the 2020 Athenæum educators’ workshop on the subject of Women and Suffrage.  Katherine notes that she has since been able to apply the knowledge she gained in lesson preparation and classroom pedagogy in her role as teaching fellow at BU.  As part of the internship, Katherine was able to interact with a wide variety of public history professionals: “Meeting with museum professionals, some of who come from similar academic backgrounds to my own was an excellent way to learn about careers outside the academy.”  See Katherine talk more about her summer here.

Maddie Webster: Boston Red Sox Summer PhD Intern

Degree Program: American & New England Studies

Maddie Webster, a PhD student in the American & New England Studies Program at BU spent the summer with the Boston Red Sox.  Working closely with the team’s historian Gordon Edes impressed upon Maddie “the variety of skills necessary for one to make it outside academia.”  Maddie not only practiced writing in a variety of non-academic genres, she also helped run virtual book talks sponsored by the Great Fenway Park Writers’ Series.  Researching and writing a blog post on the Royal Rooters, the Red Sox’s earliest fan club, their charismatic leader Michael T. “Nuff Ced” McGreevy, and his pioneering sports bar Third Base Saloon, the internship invigorated her own interests in Boston history, historic preservation and material culture.  See Maddie talk more about her summer here.

Marina Wells: Health Humanities Summer PhD Intern

Degree Program: American & New England Studies

Marina Wells, a PhD student in the American & New England Studies Program at BU interned at BU’s Health Humanities program in summer 2020.  She worked closely with Anthony Petro, Associate Professor in BU’s Department of Religion, in the Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies Program, and  the incoming NEH Distinguished Teaching Professor. She helped Professor Petro launch the Health Humanities at BU.  The health humanities brings together a variety of disciplines, drawing on the humanities and social sciences, as well as work in the arts, to understand aspects of the human condition related to health and medicine.  Marina helped launch a health humanities website to serve the academic needs of BU students.  In addition to its cross-disciplinarity, work in the health humanities intersected “in exciting and unexpected ways” with Marina’s own academic interests: trauma and masculinity studies.  See Marina talk more about her summer here.

Sasha Goldman: Boston Mayor’s Office Summer 2019 PhD Intern

Degree Program: History of Art & Architecture

Sasha Goldman, a PhD student in the History of Art & Architecture at BU, interned at the Boston Mayor’s Office in the Boston Art Commission. “The focus of my internship was re-writing the narratives of the works of art in the City’s collection,” Sasha said. “I worked with the new collections manager to review the existing narratives (the texts that had been written about objects in the City’s collection) and revise and rewrite them.” In particular, Sasha worked to modernize the language of these narratives and more appropriately represent their sometimes-controversial subject matter. You can see Sasha’s reflection on her internship here.

Lydia Harrington: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Summer 2019 PhD Intern

Degree Program: History of Art & Architecture

Lydia Harrington, a PhD student in the History of Art & Architecture at BU, interned at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum as a curatorial researcher. Lydia researched Isabella Stewart Gardner’s travel albums in support of an exhibition at the museum that will debut in 2021. These photo albums, as Lydia discusses in her reflection video, included photographs, notes, drawings, and other materials and influenced what Isabella Stewart Gardner collected for her museum. “It was a really good experience for me to hone my skills in photographic history, history of manuscripts, and connect to my own work,” Lydia said. “I would encourage people to apply for the internship.”

Arthur Kamya: Boston Athenæum Summer 2019 PhD Intern

Degree Program: American & New England Studies

Arthur Kamya, a PhD student in the American & New England Studies program at BU, worked on curriculum development and educator workshops at the Boston Athenæum. Using the Athenæum’s expansive holdings, Arthur spent the summer developing a workshop for secondary educators on the topic of women’s rights. Arthur’s archival research and programming focused on the struggles that culminated in, as he notes, “the adoption of the women’s suffrage amendment to the Constitution” nearly 100 years ago. Working on this project in the year leading up to the Amendment’s centennial anniversary was a unique and rewarding experience. See Arthur talk more about his summer here.

Rachel Kirby, Boston Red Sox Summer 2019 PhD Intern

Degree Program: American & New England Studies

Rachel Kirby, a PhD student in the American & New England Studies program at BU, interned with the Boston Red Sox, working alongside the team’s historian to document and publicize the iconic baseball team’s dynamic past. Beyond the excitement of working in the nation’s oldest ballpark, Rachel also enjoyed conducting interviews, writing blog posts, and undertaking research in support of the team historian’s many projects. One of Rachel’s favorite experiences as an intern resulted in a piece on the connections between her dissertation research on Florida oranges and the Boston Red Sox, “a really fun discovery,” that illustrated the many, often surprising ways in which the PhD Internships in the Humanities intersect with and ultimately enrich a doctoral education. “I never would have imagined that I would have an internship with a professional sports team,” Kirby said. “It’s expanded what I think of as the possibilities for public humanities work, and all in all, it’s been a fun way to spend the summer.” See Rachel talk more about her summer here.

Thomas Sojka: Boston Public Library Summer 2019 PhD Intern

Degree Program: History

Thomas Sojka, a PhD student in History at BU, interned at the Boston Public Library, assisting the BPL with two projects: a digital exhibition and developing a strategy for crowdsourcing metadata for an audio/visual collection. Enjoying the opportunity to engage with projects distinct from his doctoral research, Thomas pursued projects at the BPL related to his interests in “drinking culture, nightlife, and attempts to regulate and control social life.” He was also able to bring past programming experience to bear on his work at the BPL. See Thomas discuss his internship in detail here.

Kelsey Gustin: Boston Public Library Summer 2018 PhD Intern

Degree Program: History of Art & Architecture

Kelsey Gustin, a PhD student in the History of Art & Architecture Department at BU, worked on the BPL’s Anti-Slavery Manuscripts transcription project during her internship. Over the course of the summer, she “wrote a series of blog posts focused on abolitionist imagery, to provide historical context and possibly entice more volunteers to the project.” She transcribed approximately 75 letters and worked to identify common subjects and visual themes. Kelsey writes, “my time at the BPL exposed me to the broad possibilities of the Digital Humanities and gave me unique opportunity to share my research with a wide audience.” See Kelsey talk more about her summer here and read Kelsey’s blog post to learn more about the project here.

Ewa Matyczyk: Mayor’s Office Summer 2018 PhD Intern

Degree Program: History of Art & Architecture

Ewa Matyczyk, a PhD student in the History of Art & Architecture Department at BU, interned at Boston City Hall where she conducted research for the Boston Art Commission (BAC) which functions within the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture (MOAC). Ewa’s role was to “examine the city’s public art collection from a perspective informed by the national conversation surrounding monuments, equity, race, and public space.” Ewa remarks, “the research I conducted for the BAC showed me that the skills I have honed in graduate school are transferable and valuable in a number of contexts and fields outside of higher education.” See Ewa talk about her summer here.

Emma Newcombe: Boston Athenæum Summer 2018 PhD Intern

Degree Program: American & New England Studies

Emma Newcombe, a PhD student in the American and New England Studies Program at BU, interned at the Boston Athenæum, where she developed a workshop for educators that will run next summer. She describes this workshop as a “two-day program for K-12 instructors, with a focus on how to incorporate primary sources into the classroom.” Emma writes, “this is by far the most valuable experience I have had in terms of building my knowledge of and experience with career paths that are alternatives to academia. I now feel that I can confidently apply to jobs in these alternative career fields, and that I have a professional network I can reach out to as I look for a position. I also simply feel more confident in my interest in a career outside of the academy.” See Emma talk more about her summer here.

Christopher Stokum: Boston Red Sox Summer 2018 PhD Intern

Degree Program: American & New England Studies

Chris Stokum is a PhD student in the American and New England Studies Program at BU. During the summer, he interned with the Boston Red Sox, working with the team’s official historian and the Red Sox curator. Chris assisted with events, which included a book release for Skip Desjardin’s September 1918: War, Plague, and the World Series. Among other projects, he completed an article that will take the place of the historian’s usual column in the November issue of the Red Sox’s in-house publication, Red Sox Magazine. When describing the internship, Chris states that “the internship also supplied new vantage points from which to review my ongoing dissertation research. Although I previously had given little thought to the possibility of connections between the emergence of professional sports and nineteenth-century vitalism, those links now seem both obvious and important.” See Christopher talk more about his summer here.

Rachel Wilson: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Summer 2018 PhD Intern

Degree Program: History

Rachel Wilson, a PhD student in the Department of History at BU, was the Archives and Collections Intern at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. In the archives, Rachel conducted research on the connection between the Stewart family and slavery. As part of the collections department, she organized and recorded the previously unseen “Vatichino Books,” a collection of Isabella Stewart Gardner’s nearly 1,000 works from her personal library. Reflecting on the experience, Rachel writes, “[the internship] provided me with the invaluable opportunity to deepen my understanding of curatorial work, collections management, and archival research that I would not have received in the classroom and has proved a crucial step in furthering my professional goals.” See Rachel talk more about her summer here.