Humanities students gain career skills through internship
In 2022 the OHC, in collaboration with UO Libraries’ Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA), created the Humanities Undergraduate Program for Archival Studies and Practice. Maggie Dobson and Bryanna Hensley began their fellowship in winter term. Their internship begins in spring. Jena Turner, Associate Director of the OHC, asked about their experiences. (Edited for clarity)
Why did you apply for this fellowship and how did you learn about it?
Maggie: I had not heard about the fellowship until Ellen Hermann, one of my professors, had told me about it. She wrote to me and thought it would be a perfect fit. And it is a perfect fit. I was looking for something extra to add to my degree and this was a perfect fit.
Bryanna: For me, I am part of Sigma Tau Delta (English Honors Society) and Dr. Upton sent out an email about it. I am going into my master’s program in the fall, and I thought this would be a perfect segue. So far, it has been. It’s been so great.
How have your studies prepared you for this work?
Bryanna: I am an English major, which is structured around critical thinking. I think that there is a lot of use for critical thinking and using language for describing, which is a huge part of processing a collection.
Maggie: I am a history major. All my classes are really focused on primary sources. Institutions like SCUA are where those primary sources are. I’ve been in a few classes where we’ve used SCUA to inform our research. There is a big difference between reading somebody who has written about a primary source versus holding it in your hands. I think that is so important not only in academia but also just for the public at large to have access to those founding documents because they hold so much value.
What have you learned during winter term studying with David de Lorenzo (Giustina Director of Special Collections and University Archives), the meetings you are having, and your orientation in to SCUA?
Maggie: A big thing that we’ve heard from everyone is the challenge of not having enough funding and how creative everyone is with that, and how much work is getting done even with those challenges. I think this will stick with me going forward. Also, everyone is big into education and always continuing their education. Archives is such a progressive profession. There is a lot of change. David talks about how different this was in the 80’s.
Bryanna: I’ve learned a sense of where to focus my own career path. We’ve talked a lot about how complicated it is moving into the digital age, and how archivists do that. That made me think about what impact I want to have in this field.
Maggie: David has talked about how our generation’s role in the profession is to bring the archives into the digital age. That made me think about what graduate school is going to look like.
Bryanna: We’ve met many of the SCUA staff in meetings and they have discussed what they do. We’ve taken tours of the different centers and the basement that holds a lot of the collections. And we’ve met the people who are working here, which I think is valuable because not only do we see the kind of positions that we could potentially have in the future but get to understand the university in more depth.
Maggie: With David we’ve gone in-depth on a lot of the theory behind archives, but in working with both him and the rest of the members of staff, we’ve learned about every step in the process. We’ve learned (which I didn’t know before this) that the archival field is not a monolith. Everybody has different jobs that are very niche. I like being able to explore that to see if I would be more interested in [one area over another].
Bryanna: When I decided to go into library science, I didn’t think there were a lot of options. I thought, “Oh, I will be a librarian.” So, it is cool to see the options. And learning about everyone’s past experiences in their field as well.
Maggie: Yeah, this is one of those fields where you can go in a lot of different directions and for me the big thing about this internship has inspired me to get my graduate degree in info sciences and library sciences. Hearing about everyone’s paths has made me see myself doing this as a career.
What will you be working on during spring term?
Bryanna: We will be processing the John F. Finerty papers, his case notes and other working papers. He was a civil rights lawyer.
Maggie: We will be writing and publishing a finding guide. It will be amazing to have this for our resumé and to have experience writing a finding guide. It will teach us more about the process of accessioning, how the public finds things, public access, and what our role is in helping people with their research. We also have to do our own research to be able to process the collection.
How do you think this experience will shape your studies or work in the future?
Bryanna: We are gaining actual work experience, which is the most critical aspect of all of this.
Maggie: This internship gives us practical hands-on experience, connections, and letters of recommendation. All these things are crucial because this is a field that is not easy to get into. It takes a lot of money, time, connections, and unpaid internships. You have to be ready to move across the country. I’d love to get my master’s now that I have this experience and then go on into archives—museums or archives. I am passionate about sharing history with the public.
Byranna: It is also good to get [a sense] of what the day-to-day would be like because then you can decide. Because you might have your heart set on something like going into archives, but then you are like, “this is boring, a little dusty.”
Maggie: The people in this field—my values aligned with what they are working toward.
What do you each think about the importance about the humanities and what advice do you have for other students about the value of the humanities looking forward to a career since so many students the pressure of feeling like they need to be able to get a job with their degree?
Bryanna: I think a lot about the perception of the humanities—that there is no money or jobs. I would say that there are [opportunities] out there, but you might need to be more flexible in what you are doing. I think there is a lot of value in it because humanities inform a lot of other subjects. If for example, digital humanities are good for informing and entertaining. While there may not be big statistics that you are going to be making a lot of money, other things are valuable. Especially in our generation coming up we are starting to recognize that more.
Maggie: I think a lot of us undergrads are really focused on our majors and don’t always think of humanities as the overarching thing that connects all those majors. I think people often focus on their exact degree and what lines up with what they’ve studied. But what humanities show us is such a big variety of careers that people can be passionate about. They are not all teaching, in academia, or underpaid. There is so much variety. Being able to get some hands-on experience [giving you an idea of] what a job in this career can really look like, is so valuable because you can’t learn that in a classroom.