I recently completed a placement with the Schools of Empire project (https://www.schoolsofempireproject.org/), a research project that seeks to understand the connections between public schools and the British Empire. Launched in 2020 and hosted by Rugby School, the project seeks to highlight the themes of education, class, colonialism, gender, and race between 1750 and 1945 in public school archives.
This was an advertised placement opportunity that I applied to do through the OOC DTP, as the themes of this project closely relate to my PhD research. For my PhD in history, I work with the National Trust researching the imperial connections of one of their properties, Killerton House. Both my PhD project and the Schools of Empire project are motivated by the importance of highlighting the links between the British empire and national heritage institutions, to be able to tell more diverse histories and acknowledge the ongoing impact that the legacies of colonialism have on present-day society.
I visited the archives of two public schools – Rugby School and St Paul’s School – to gather material for the research. I mostly focused on collections of prize-winning poems and essays written by students at the schools in the mid- to late nineteenth century. Then I developed some placement outcomes with the Schools of Empire team. I wrote several blog posts for the Schools of Empire website (for example, this one explores what nineteenth-century public school students thought about Islam and how this fit into a British imperial mindset: https://www.schoolsofempireproject.org/islam-and-empire). I compiled a poetry anthology of the several prize-winning poems written by students that contained imperial themes, complete with introductions and annotations to explain historical language, events, and references. I also completed a survey of the memorials in Rugby School Chapel, exploring how empire and imperial careers were commemorated in a space that was very important in the school’s culture.
I really enjoyed this placement; the Schools of Empire team were very supportive, whilst giving me freedom to craft the placement outputs to my interests. It gave me valuable experience working on a research project outside of academia, improved my skills in writing for a public audience, as well as developing my knowledge and contacts in a field that significantly overlapped with my PhD topic.
I would recommend undertaking a placement to other OOC DTP students. Whether you apply for an advertised one that relates to your areas of interest, or if you design your own, it is a great opportunity to spend time working on something aside from your PhD that interests you, at the same time as diversifying the experience on your CV!
