Internships

Three people at a table in front of a window having a discussion. (Sean Flynn/UConn Photo)
(Sean Flynn/UConn Photo)

Internships offer valuable opportunities for students to test out career options, gain valuable practical experience, and build relationships with professionals and organizations in their areas of interest. Internships often provide not only useful work experience, but also letters of recommendation, personal references, and sometimes even a job offer. Connecticut and New England are particularly rich in historical organizations providing internship opportunities during the semester and over the course of the summer. Descriptions of some opportunities are available from the links below. Most historical organizations are very receptive to working with interns, so if your favorite museum or historic site is not listed here, contact the organization's director or education department and ask if they would be interested in sponsoring an internship.

What We Offer

The History Department offers internships working with faculty and select institutional partners. Descriptions of those opportunities are listed below. If you are interested, please complete the interest form. We will contact students at the beginning of each semester to fill internship vacancies.

Instructions:

  • Examine the list of internships and ensure that you are clear about the (a) campus (b) transportation required and (c) time commitment. For example, one (1) credit corresponds to 3 hours weekly and this is the minimum number of hours for which you can be assigned. The maximum is 10 hours weekly and this corresponds to 3 credits for the semester. If you would like a remote only option, some of these can converted to that option.
  • We will request that there are no hours during midterms and finals.
  • Multiple positions are available per research project, unless noted.

Ongoing Internship Opportunities - Fall 2026

Hartford Bound

Assist the project Hartford Bound with identifying individuals who have lived in Hartford between the 1790s and  2020. Phase 1 of the project will focus on 1790-1900. 

Responsibilities include: conducting research in archival sources, historical newspapers, community archives to find sermons, speeches, editorials, and letters, written by African Americans, Puerto Ricans and West Indians to accumulate a total test sample of 100. 

A separate sample will include  audio from 100 oral histories Dr. Vernal has conducted. Interns will assist with transcribing these writings and excerpt relevant audio and then provide historical introductions, annotations, images, and commissioned/customized drawings to contextualize these writings.

Once these have been transcribed, annotated, and indexed, we will create a custom vocabulary, a master set of themes, and set of maps for each entry. Sample vocabularies and themes from the 57 articles include: suffrage, temperance, freedom, equality, justice, citizenship, lynching, Negro, Colored, African American; Talcott Street Congregational Church, slum clearance, urban renewal. 

These new set of maps will help to show vibrant networks of benevolent societies, lodges, social clubs, community centers, athletic clubs, schools, and churches that integrated the community into a dense web of mutual aid, civic engagement, political and social activity. The maps will also show how African Americans, West Indians, and Puerto Ricans engaged their diasporas.

Historical photographs and commissioned drawings will provide another medium to aid in visualizing the themes.  There may be opportunities to help shape public programs, presentations, and content delivered via a variety of media and in-person events. 

Participation may be virtual, hybrid, or in person, though attendance will be required at team meetings.

Engaged, Public, Oral, and Community Histories (EPOCH)

EPOCH has a number of Initiatives this year that students can select 

  1. Assist with EPOCH initiatives, including research on African American, Puerto Rican, and West Indian  settlement in Hartford,  neighborhood change, and community succession, the history of black churches and social justice activism in Hartford. Check out carribeanmosaics.com and hartfordbound.com for segments of the project to see if you are interested in developing these stories. Our new landing page is here:https://museumconnectx.com/ 
  2. Hartford Bound: help to conduct research for development of story maps of 50 stories to capture the history of African American settlement in Hartford;
  3.  Shade Tobacco: exhibition on labor and migration and the evolution of Connecticut’s boutique industry for a summer premiere; conducting research in archival sources, historical newspapers, community archives on the crop, its farmers and its laborers;
  4. Puerto Rican Oral History initiative: assist research and Black and Puerto Rican caucus;
  5. Caribbean Museum: assist with visioning and creation of curriculum development, activities and games for K-12 and adults.