PhD Internships in the Humanities

Interns will bring to their roles the array of skills developed during their PhD training, including research and writing and area-based expertise. Internships run for approximately 10 weeks. Interns will serve in their roles for 20 hours per week and receive a $7,000 stipend. All internships will have an in-person component, and we expect that the graduate students holding these internships will not hold any additional BU-supported summer teaching, internships, or fellowships in the relevant summer.

Click here to watch reflections by former interns.

Boston Athenæum
The Boston Athenæum seeks a graduate intern to work with the Director of Education to help create a professional development workshop for secondary school teachers on teaching with primary sources for summer 2025. Working with the Athenaeum’s collection, the intern will identify a selection of sources and research possible speakers and partner organizations. The intern will also work closely with the Director of Education to further identify key areas of the special collections that would have the most potential for creating curriculum for both K-12 and college/university classes.

Boston Symphony Orchestra
In preparation for Symphony Hall’s 125^th birthday in 2025, the BSO is rethinking how it presents its history in Symphony Hall. This summer’s BUCH internship at the BSO focuses on the presentation of history, both in Symphony Hall and online, as part of the BSO’s online archival exhibit program (www.bso.org). Exhibit content created during the past 23+ years will be documented and compiled into a digital collection. Following this, the intern will help create new online exhibit content. There may also be an opportunity to work on a physical exhibit to be mounted in Symphony Hall for the 2024-2025 Season.

The intern will gain a deep understanding of the history of the BSO and Symphony Hall as well as the BSO’s archival collections. In addition, the intern will scan documents, create a spreadsheet cataloguing exhibit content, and gain experience creating an online exhibit, while highlighting underrepresented stories in orchestral performance history.

Concord Museum
The Concord Museum educates visitors of all ages about the history of Concord and its continuing influence on American political, literary and cultural life. The Museum’s nationally significant collection serves as a catalyst for changing exhibitions, extended classroom learning, dynamic programs and publications relevant to an ever-changing world. The Museum seeks a curatorial intern to work on research for upcoming special exhibitions in 2025 and 2026 that will commemorate the 250^th anniversary of the American Revolution. Focused on the theme of “Whose Revolution,” these exhibitions will explore themes of liberty, community, and memory, tracing the continued legacy of the Revolution today. The curatorial intern will have the opportunity to complete research and draft exhibition labels for a significant public-facing project, as well as learn more about related initiatives in education, public programs, and other departments across the Concord Museum.

Institute of Contemporary Art
An internship in the Curatorial Department at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston will expose the intern to many facets of curatorial work and the fast-paced world of contemporary art. This person will support curators in research for exhibition projects, publications, and potential acquisitions and have an opportunity to see projects of various scales and at different stages of development.

Massachusetts Historical Society
The Massachusetts Historical Society, founded in 1791, collects and communicates materials and resources from America’s past to promote understanding of the history of Massachusetts and the nation. The intern will work closely with the Education team to gather sources and create resources that are based on MHS collections for use by K-12 educators as part of our resource portal, the History Source.

New England Historic Genealogical Society

The New England Historic Genealogical Society, founded in 1845, launched an ambitious project in 2023: 10 Million Names. The collaborative project is dedicated to recovering the names of the estimated 10 million men, women, and children of African descent who were enslaved in pre- and post-colonial America (specifically, the territory that would become the United States) between the 1500s and 1865.

The project seeks to amplify the voices of people who have been telling their family stories for centuries, connect researchers and data partners with people seeking answers to family history questions, and expand access to data, resources, and information about enslaved African Americans.

The intern will research, write, and manage their own project, alongside trained genealogists—both collaboratively and independently—to support the 10 Million Names project.

Race and Regency Lab

The Race and Regency Lab, directed by Patricia A Matthew, brings together the public, scholars, and cultural critics to reimagine our understandings of race in nineteenth-century British culture. Working under the supervision of the Director, and in association with multi-institutional advisory board of academics and curators, the intern will have the opportunity to work on the Lab’s inaugural digital exhibition and be part of an exciting new public humanities project. The digital exhibition will be published in coordination with the public launch of the Lab at the John Carter Brown Library in September, 2024, which will involve a series of talks and a public viewing of archival materials. The intern will also conduct research in Boston, Providence, and New York City, meet with scholars and curators who are working on the Lab and related digital projects on race, and learn to write for public-facing arts and culture publications.

Applications include a CV, a personal statement, and two letters of recommendation and are processed through the InfoReady Review portal. Applicants should request recommendations through the InfoReady portal; please allow adequate time for your recommenders.

Applicants will be evaluated in terms of their academic accomplishments (including degree progress) and the appropriateness of their professional goals for this program.

Please note that in the application you will identify your first and second choice internship institutions. You will be asked to explain both choices.

Recipients are announced by late March.