In recent years, the UNC History Department has undertaken a number of new initiatives to prepare graduate students for a wide array of careers beyond academia.
Among the opportunities available at UNC for graduate students to explore non-academic careers is the Clein Fellowship. The competitive fellowship offers funding to a handful of graduate students each summer to support their pursuit of internship opportunities in non-academic settings, including non-profit organizations, corporations, government agencies, labor unions, museums, libraries, historic sites, and media organizations.
Emma Rothberg, a third-year PhD student in US History, received a Clein Fellowship for the summer of 2018 to intern with the Library Instructional Services staff at UNC’s Wilson Library.
“I had initially gone into Wilson looking for an archive job, as I had done some collections work in college,” Rothberg said.
Because construction in Wilson Library limited her ability to work in the archives themselves, she devoted most of her time to developing its Library Guides and writing blog posts.
“Library Guides serve as starting places for researchers coming to Wilson Library. They list relevant secondary and archival sources as well as any databases that may be of use,” Rothberg said. “Library Guides are useful for Wilson’s outreach services too, as they are used in K-12 classrooms as well as UNC classes.”
Rothberg’s expertise in nineteenth century US History proved indispensable in her work at the Library.
“The two Library Guides I wrote were on the Civil War and Reconstruction,” Rothberg said. “Both of these topics are huge and get a lot of research traffic, but Wilson had no comprehensive Library Guide for them.”
While Rothberg and many other graduate students have benefited from the Clein Fellowship, others have gained experience in non-academic settings through other avenues.
Brian Fennessy, a seventh-year PhD candidate in US History, is currently completing a year-long internship with the Office of the Secretary of Defense—Historical Office, an opportunity he first learned of through UNC History Department’s Dr. Wayne Lee.
Fennessy described the Office of the Secretary of Defense—Historical Office as “the institutional memory of the Office,” which documents “the policies that have been set not only by the Secretary, but also by Undersecretaries and Assistant Secretaries for personnel, intelligence, research, development, and acquisition.”
Fennessy’s work consists mainly of developing a database documenting each country that former Secretaries of Defense have travelled to since 1947. Once the database is made public on the Department of Defense’s website, users will be able to explore by clicking on any Secretary or any country.
“This is something the Secretary of State’s historical office started years ago,” Fennessy said. “It’s long-term ambition of our historical office to create a similar database.”
Yet short-term “taskers” often interrupt his work on the database.
“We provide historical input when different defense agencies have a question about precedents for creating new policies,” Fennessy said. “We give one to two pages giving historical background that can potentially inform a policy decision.”
Fennessy sees the short-term taskers as one of his favorite parts of the job.
“We have a very short deadline to turn it around really quickly,” Fennessy said. “I think it’s exciting to have to drop everything and research something you don’t know much about and use your historical resources to give an informed perspective.”
Although the Historical Office differs from academia in certain respects, Fennessy’s graduate experience at UNC has contributed greatly to his government work.
“It deals with a lot of the same basic skills we learn in graduate school—thinking about change over time and continuity, comparative analysis, being able to find the information you need—but I am now writing for government audiences.” Fennessy said. “And that’s something you learn in graduate school too—to write with a particular audience in mind, and at the same time, not whitewash anything.”
Overall, Fennessy’s experience has led him to explore more seriously a career in public service or policy-related fields.
“I’m still doing rigorous historical work every day, and you can see that there is an immediate benefit to what you are doing,” Fennessy said. “I find that very fulfilling.”