Specializing in digital humanities and volunteering opened doors for history grad
By Susan Hickman
With only a few months to graduation, Elise Bigley landed a plum job as director of cultural affairs at the Embassy of Israel this summer.
The 26-year-old, who graduates with a master’s of arts in history from Carleton in November, credits her many hours as a volunteer holocaust educator at the Centre for Holocaust Education and Scholarship (CHES) and her final year internship there for launching her career.
While she admits her specialization in digital humanities drastically changed her approach to research, Bigley also tributes her history professors, who “were very insightful and encouraging” throughout her studies. “The department has good relationships with other departments at Carleton, so if my thesis ever found its way into a different stream of study, my supervisors were quick to suggest a professor in another department who was an expert in that field.”
Her concentrated digital humanities courses “also opened many new doors for potential careers with my history degree that I would not have considered prior to this degree,” she says, adding that her internship in the Developing Future Leaders program, a program run by the Zelikovitz Centre for Jewish Studies that funds internship placements in the Jewish community, was one of her favourite experiences at Carleton.
Bigley advises new history students to “be proud and confident” going into the program and suggests volunteering or becoming involved in something they are passionate about.
“I wanted to make my degree practical in terms of finding careers, and I was passionate about holocaust education, so alongside my degree I dedicated a lot of time to this cause.”