History

Engaged History

Engaged History takes what you’re learning in your courses and puts it into practice through internships, research, study away, winter term, career exploration, and beyond.

Here’s a sampling of recent projects, field experiences, and post-graduate destinations for history majors.

RISE at Oberlin
Research. Internships. Study Away. Experiential Learning.

Ways History Majors Rise

Research

Majors may choose a one-semester senior capstone project or a two-semester honors project. Recent topics include:

  • Music Education in Revolutionary Russia
  • Youth Criminality in Communist East Germany
  • Race and the United Mine Workers’ Strike of 1925
  • “Purim Sheni” among Sephardi and Ashkenazi Jews of Early Modern Europe
  • Flying Tigers: Transnational Memories of a World War II Collaboration
  • Narrations of Defeat among German Soldiers in World War II
  • Contested Land, Contested Representations: Re-visiting the Arab Revolt of 1936-1939 in Palestine

Internships

  • Federalist Society for Law & Public Policy Studies, Washington, DC
  • National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR), Oakland, Calif.
  • Black Women’s Blueprint, Brooklyn, New York City
  • Wende Museum of the Cold War, Culver City, Calif.
  • Ideastream, Cleveland PBS/NPR, radio and TV production, Cleveland

Study Away

  • CGEE Nation Building and Globalization Program, Namibia
  • DIS Copenhagen (Danish Institute for Study Abroad), Denmark
  • Border Studies Program, Arizona and Mexico
  • Russian Area Studies and Russian Language, St. Petersburg State University, Russia

Experiential Learning

  • Learning and doing digital humanities in the Digital History Lab
  • Research for the Ohio Immigrant Work Project in a History of U.S. Immigration class
  • Archival Research in Germany and Russia
  • Presenting student research at undergraduate and professional conferences

First Destinations of Recent History Majors

  • Positions:
    • Associate, JP Morgan Chase
    • Associate, Capco (financial services consulting)
    • Teacher, United for Success Academy
    • Associate editorial producer, Fareed Zakharia GPS
    • Legal assistant, DangerLaw
    • Office of Audience Engagement, National Museum of American History
    • Fulbright Fellows in South Korea and Germany
    • Human rights accompanier, Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala
    • Oberlin Shansi (Japan)
  • Graduate Schools:
    • PhD programs in Jewish history, University of Chicago
    • Medieval art history, University of Michigan
    • European history, Stanford
    • American history, University of Pennsylvania and University of North Carolina
    • Medieval history, Columbia. MA programs in education and information studies, UCLA
    • Music, Carnegie Mellon
    • Information studies, McGill. Law school at George Washington University and Tulane University