IBHistory offers students many opportunities to explore different interests throughout the programme
Alumna International Bachelor History
Study programme: International Bachelor History
Graduation year: 2022
Job: Junior researcher at Huygens Institute
Historical perspective
I chose to study the International Bachelor History (IBHistory) at Erasmus University Rotterdam because of its international orientation and its focus on modern global history. Many of the subjects - such as colonialism, migration, trade, world religions - covered important global developments that helped me to understand current challenges from a historical perspective. The first year of the history programme is all about learning the basic knowledge, theories and skills, then in the next year you got to choose what you want to focus on. IBHistory offers students many opportunities to explore different interests throughout the programme, for example through elective courses.
Archives and research: landing my first job
During my master’s I started working as a student assistant at Huygens Institute, where I could stay as a research assistant once I graduated. I am now working at the institute as a junior researcher on the GLOBABLISE project; a project building a digital infrastructure that facilitates access to the archive of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). Because the VOC operated in the 17th and 18th centuries, many terms, place names, or person names mentioned in the Company's documents are unfamiliar to us today. The project is therefore creating a thesaurus and various datasets where users can look up information about these entities. My job is conducting research to provide that information. For example, I probe through historical maps to locate a fort that had been destroyed, consult secondary works to define a court title in early modern Indonesia, or provide contextualisation for historical terms that are considered problematic.
Valuable skills
My tasks at Huygens Institute involve a lot of investigative historical research, so it is useful that I have been taught in the IBHistory programme how to navigate through historical materials such as the archive, how to review and synthesise information from secondary historiography, and how to evaluate my sources critically. To me, the most valuable thing I have gained from the programme is the ability to recognise and critically discuss one's positionality, awareness of history's silent and marginalised voices, and an open, inclusive attitude toward different perspectives.
Be confident
My advice to history students who are starting their career soon is: don't be afraid to apply, even if you don't meet every single requirement on the job description. Focus on what you can do that matches the employer's needs, and be confident in your ability to learn along the way.