Applications for our fall 2025 internship, HIST593, are open.
How to apply:
Please read carefully below about the focus of the 2025 internship course and how to apply. Deadline to apply is Friday, April 18, 2025 by noon EST.
The Southern Oral History Program (SOHP) is currently accepting applications for our Spring 2025 undergraduate internship. The SOHP’s internship program provides experiential education in the intellectual, practical, and curatorial work of oral history. Students must apply for the program; upon acceptance, they will be enrolled in HIST 593 for three credit hours. The course will meet at the Center for the Study of the American South on Fridays from 10:10 am–1:00 pm during the Fall 2025 semester.
This semester, students will work in partnership with Project Threadways, a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to craft preservation, cultural heritage, and creative placemaking. Through oral history fieldwork and collaborative research, students will help document the stories of people whose lives and labor have shaped textile production in the American South. We will explore how memory, narrative, and place intersect in the telling of textile and craft histories, and consider how these stories connect to broader questions of labor, economy, identity, and cultural expression.
As part of this course, students will be expected to conduct oral history interviews outside of class time. This includes outreach, scheduling, and in some cases, cold calling individuals in order to secure interviews and complete their semester-long projects. Students should be prepared to take initiative and feel comfortable engaging with community members they do not already know. Over the semester, students will gain experience in oral history interviewing, ethical fieldwork practices, and public history interpretation. They will also be introduced to digital tools and platforms that support exhibit creation and archival work.
Throughout the course, we will consider how oral history can be used to examine both the lived experiences of the past and the ways people construct meaning in the present through memory and storytelling.
Submit a one-page letter of interest, a resume, and contact information for one faculty reference by April 18th, 2025 email to Phil MacDonald at ptmacdon@unc.edu with the subject line “SOHP 2025 Fall Internship [your last name]”Example: SOHP 2025 Fall MacDonald
Questions to consider answering within your letter of interest are:
- Describe your interest in oral history
- How would an internship at SOHP apply to your studies and future endeavors?
- What skills and experiences do you bring to the table that would be beneficial to the SOHP?