Graduate Internships

Funding

The Department of History will sponsor 10-15 internships with not-for-profit organizations with a $6,500 stipend. Internships will require about 20 hours of work/week for 8 weeks (or a similar distribution of 160 hours during the summer). Students apply directly to internship organizations and those organizations will make hiring decisions. When you have been hired (hooray!), apply for funding using this form. The internship program will accept applications on a rolling basis through April 15.

Thematic Areas

Students have two options when applying for internships: they may apply for a position curated by the Department of History or they may find their own internship by searching Handshake, meeting with an advisor in the International Internships Program, or by contacting organizations themselves. In recent years, students have pursued both options. For examples of past internships (both curated and independent), see the categories below.

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Advocacy/Social Justice Work

  • American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
  • UpEnd Movement

Policy/Government

  • Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau

Public History/Museum Work

  • Center for Campus History
  • Schumacher Farm/Dane County Parks
  • UW Cartography Lab
  • UniverCity Alliance/Public History Project

Editing/Publishing/Academic Publishing

  • Radical History Review/Abusable Past
  • UW Press

Oral History/Archival Work

  • UW Oral History Archive
  • NOAA Voices Oral History Project
  • Seattle Municipal Archives
  • Maine Historical Society/Pejebscot History Center

University Administration and Professional Societies

  • Consortium for the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
  • Vice Provost for Indigenous Programming and Research/University of Alberta

International Internships

  • Corporatión Desarrollo Solidario (Colombia)
  • Non-Violent Peace Force (Indonesia)

How to Apply

We encourage you to contact organizations that are a good fit for your interests. Plan to meet with Christina Matta (christina.matta@wisc.edu) to discuss internship search options. If you find a paid position, that is super. If you find a position that is unpaid, you can apply for the same $6,500 in internship funding. You can look at big places like the Smithsonian and smaller, local ones like Centro Hispano, Rooted, Freedom, Inc., and Nehemiah.

Selection Criteria

The Graduate Program will give priority to students who:

  • are first-time participants in the program
  • demonstrate alignment between their professional goals and the selected internship
  • do not have other forms of summer support (fellowship, lecturer position, PA position, etc.)

Note: Students with a summer stipend in their funding package cannot collect both forms of funding at the same time. The Graduate Program will push the summer support stipend to a subsequent summer.

Application Timeline

  • Begin applying for internships as soon as job descriptions land in the folder.
  • Complete the funding application once you have been hired (the application form will be open through April 15)
  • Your supervisor will share an assessment of your work with the History Department at the end of your internship (assessments are due September 1). Don’t worry. We will send a reminder.

Questions?

Please contact Christina Matta (christina.matta@wisc.edu), Career Advisor, and/or Susan Nelson (susan.nelson@wisc.edu), Graduate Program Manager, with questions about summer internships for graduate students.

Intern Testimonials

American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee

“I found working for ADC this summer extremely valuable, both professionally and academically, as it connected me directly with the community I am studying. Some current staff members are those who attended the very schools I am researching, and I am now in the process of trying to schedule an interview with the director of ADC and will be attending the ADC conference this September. Only recently, I also discovered one of the interviewees I met with is running the ADC conference. Having the funding to support my internship has been crucial to providing me an avenue to engage with the community in a meaningful way while also providing the necessary financial support required to live during the summer.”

NOAA Voices Oral History Archive

“Being at NOAA was excellent exposure to the potential positions available to people in the humanities at institutions centered on more quantitative scientific research. If I do not go into academia, my hope is to work with scientists either from a research or consulting perspective. My time with NOAA Voices offered me some reassurance that there are careers out there that depend on the kind of skills history of science cultivates.”