While the Department’s curriculum provides all concentrators with hands-on, small-group instruction in historical method, many students may wish to have an even more individualized research experience at some point during their undergraduate careers. The History Department currently facilitates four kinds of independent research experience for Harvard undergraduates: (1) term-time independent study, known as History 91r; (2) term-time work with faculty on research projects, known as History Lab or History 92r; (3) summer research grants for students planning to write a Senior Thesis; and (4) Research Assistantships with faculty members.
Research & Employment Opportunities
History 91r
Juniors and seniors who wish to pursue an independent course of study with a faculty member may apply to enroll in History 91r. Ordinarily, students must have already taken at least one regular course in History that would provide background for their special reading and research. Each History 91r will have its own requirements, as the instructor in each case sets them. But they must include at least the following: (1) a thirty minute oral examination at the end of the course, given by the instructor and one other member of the Department; and (2) a paper at least ten pages long, submitted to the instructor and graded by him or her. A bibliography of all reading in the course and a copy of the paper must be filed in the History Undergraduate Office at the end of the term before the Director of Undergraduate Studies will forward the grade to the Registrar’s Office. A 91r may not be taken pass/fail.
History 92r
History Lab offers History concentrators and other students a chance to spend a semester working with History faculty on faculty research projects. Outcomes will include familiarity with a range of digital tools for research and data visualization and insights on how to design and execute a major research project. Students will be assessed on the basis of blogs and presentations of research assignments. Consult http://dighist.fas.harvard.edu for more details.
Summer Thesis Research
It is not necessary to conduct summer research in order to write an excellent senior thesis. Many students do, however, choose to take advantage of the many generous thesis research grants available to visit libraries, archives, and historic sites around the world. The History Undergraduate Office holds a meeting every December for juniors interested in applying for thesis research grants, introducing them to the process. The Tutorial Office also maintains a comprehensive database of Harvard grants available to our senior thesis writers and sample grant proposals that have been successful in previous years.
- Visit the Department’s thesis research grants page.
- Students should also remember to check Harvard’s Summer Funding Database, which allows one to search for grants by geographical location, concentration, and area of interest.
Research & Employment Opportunities
Job & Research Assistantship Listings
History faculty members often look for eager and qualified individuals to help them conduct research and prepare for their courses, and in many cases they find good matches among the student body. For students, the chance to be a Research Assistant is one of the best ways to sit at the elbow of a practicing historian and learn the disciplinary techniques and standards that make one's classroom experience come alive, and which can contribute to writing a stellar senior thesis.
Many faculty hire research assistants from among the students who take their classes, but some seek them by posting job announcements with the Department or the Student Employment Office (SEO).
- See research & employment opportunities below
- Visit the Student Employment Office’s jobs database.
- Consult research assistantship listings on the websites of affiliated departments and centers on campus, such as the Center for European Studies.
- Check out Radcliffe's Research Partnership Program for research opportunties working with a Radcliffe Institute Fellow
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Posted February 14, 2024
Research Assistant Opportunity
Scientific Expeditions and New Imperialism
I’m a PhD student in the economics department at Harvard working on a project examining how scientific expeditions conditioned public interest in imperialism in 19th century Britain. We are working with expedition log books from the UK National Archives, and are seeking a transcriber to work on a freelance basis who is highly experienced in working with 18th-19th century English manuscripts. A sample page is attached. The hourly pay rate will be $25. Please send a brief CV and unofficial transcript to Matthew Lee Chen (scientific.expeditions.data@gmail.com) if you are interested. We are looking to recruit someone as soon as possible, so please get in touch immediately if you are interested.
Listings for Summer Opportunities
Summer opportunities abound for history concentrators. Many choose to spend at least part of one summer either conducting research or participating in an academic program. If you are a junior interested in grants for summer thesis research, please visit our page dedicated to this subject and mark your calendars for our annual fellowships meeting on January 30, 2018, where the ADUS and DWF will discuss how to make your grant application as strong as possible. Harvard's Centralized Application for Research and Travel (CARAT): https://apps2.registrar.fas.harvard.edu/carat and the Office of Undergraduate Research and Fellowships are also terrific resources.
Even before thesis research, many opportunities exist for concentrators to spend their summer abroad. Some of these academic internships are quite specialized, such as the opportunity to work at Dumbarton Oaks, a research library that specializes in Byzantine, Garden and Landscape, and Pre-Columbian studies; Villa I Tatti, the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, offers a similarly focused internship program. Closer to home, concentrators interested in early America might want to check out the summer internship at Old Sturbridge Village, and library enthusiasts might be interested in the Junior Fellows Summer Program at the Library of Congress (application due January 26, 2018). Other programs offer more general opportunities for summer research, such as the Harvard Center for History and Economics' summer travel grant to Cambridge University, or the many classes offered around the world by the Harvard Summer School—keep in mind that any history courses taken with Harvard History faculty can be counted towards concentration credit!
History concentrators also of course spend their summers in positions completely unrelated to their academic work as they try to figure out what to do after college. We not only support this, we highly encourage it! As you begin to look for these opportunities, use all the resources available to you, including the experiences of your fellow concentrators. The earlier you start planning for the summer, the better, and the staff at the Office of Career Services can help you with your search, interview prep, resume feedback, etc.
Good luck!