Our Internships
“...Public History at the University of Western Ontario provided the student intern with a solid understanding of both the theoretical and practical aspects of working in the fields of heritage, culture and public history. This allowed the student to seamlessly integrate into the work environment throughout their internship at our Museum.”
- Carson Phillips (Ph.D), Managing Director, Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre
"My Public History internship provided me with the once in a lifetime opportunity to assist in the early development of the Oil Springs heritage district, the ultimate goal of which is a bid for UNESCO World Heritage Site Designation."
"The internship program is tremendously useful as a way to link up young professionals with organizations seeking expert and competent workers. The JBCA has benefited immensely from working with both interns and graduates of the program."
- Mike Bechthold, Executive Director, Juno Beach Centre Association
The capstone for students in the Public History field at Western is the summer internship. Conducted within the twelve weeks of the summer academic term between early May and the end of August, the internship is designed to provide students with the invaluable opportunity to learn in the field under the guidance of a professional public historian. Hands-on work in a real-life setting enables students to move from theory to practice and further hone their marketable skills in communicating the past to a wider audience.
Our interns have served in a tremendous variety of roles, from researchers to curatorial assistants, in institutions differing in purpose, size, and scale, from small local museums to federal government departments. Geographically, students have spent their summers all over Canada, from Newfoundland to the Yukon, as well as in parts of Australia, Europe and the United States.
We realize that each person is unique, especially in terms of their particular skill set, career interests and life situation. It is for this reason that we build a large degree of flexibility into the internship process to help facilitate the main goal of having the best possible internship experience for our students.
Please explore the wonderful personal journeys our students have experienced over the years as Western Public History Interns through their profiles appearing in the section Experiences.
I welcome your inquiries anytime!
Mike Dove, Internship Coordinator
mdove2@uwo.ca
519-661-2111 ext. 84996
2023 Summer Internships
Intern |
Host |
Location |
| Katherine-Mackenzie Bodnar | Canadian Museum of History | Gatineau, QC |
| Jessica Hugh | Know History |
Ottawa, ON |
| Niġel Klemenčič-Puglisevich | Nevis Bath Spring/Malta Maritime Museum | Nevis/Malta |
| Hannah Mantel | Watson’s Mill & Dickinson House Museum | Manotick, ON |
| Zahra McDoom | Robert Cochrane Lambton County Fellow, Oil Museum of Canada | Oil Springs, ON |
| Sarah Pointer | Long Point Conservation Authority | Tillsonburg, ON |
