Introducing the KU Department of History’s Historical Research Internship.
In the Fall of 2019, a half-dozen or so KU History majors set out to explore the documentary record of the Department of History at the University of Kansas. This is their story.
This fall, the Department of History launched its first Historical Research Internship Program.
Why a Historical Research Internship?
For us in the Department, we want have a better grasp of our history better, and share that story with others.
Are any of those people on the steps of the old North College the first history students at KU?
“North College,” c. 1890. Image courtesy of the Spencer Research Library.
For me personally, I want to bring students into the archive. This is part of a broader effort to rethink the way I teach history–to make it more inquiry-driven, more exploratory, more experiential (which is why this blog is housed in The History Lab).
For the students? You can check out their individual reasons for doing this on the Fall 2019 Research Interns page. But, broadly speaking, they signed on to get experience doing the kind of intensive archival work that real scholarship requires–and that employers value.
Our goal is to find answers to some the basic questions about the history of the History Department. Along the way we expect that the archive itself will confront us with whole new questions we haven’t considered yet.
Starting next week, we will be posting small snippets of what we have been finding at the Spencer Research Archive. Look for posts about twice a week until the end of the semester.