Join us as we hear from our students who were interning this past spring! Both graduate and undergraduate student worked in the field of historical spaces in a variety of capacities. This blog post is authored by History MA student, Connor Madden, and has been lightly edited for clarity.
My name is Connor Madden, and I’m a first-year grad student in the history program here at Bowling Green. I’m originally from Grand Rapids, Michigan, and have been a massive fan of history since I was a little kid, going all the way back to watching movies like Gladiator with my dad. As I grew up, games like Assassin’s Creed and more focused history classes in middle school and high school only cemented my love for the topic.
It was this dual enjoyment of history in media and in education that first gave me a sense of what I wanted to do with my professional life. In the first few weeks of my time at BGSU, a handful of professors knew about my interest in historical film/media and recommended I pursue an internship during the spring semester that offered working alongside a director in the promotion of his new documentary on the American Constitution.
This film, fittingly titled The American Constitution, was directed by David Garrigus, who was planning to take the film on a roadshow across the country for the United States’ 250th birthday in 2026. After reaching out to the director, I came on board as an Impact Producer, helping to contact universities, civic institutions, local governments, and history-oriented societies across the country.
I organized events, established professional relationships across the country, developed a master schedule of the film’s roadshow dates, managed contracts and invoices, frequently coordinated strategy with the director, and spoke with local officials on the specific topics, promotion, and mission statement of the film.
This internship has significantly helped my progression as a public historian and allowed me to take my first (of hopefully many!) steps at the intersection of history, public media, and popular culture. By working with communities and organizations in the promotion of history-based educational media, I have been able to see how the work we do in academia can be translated into something valuable for a mass audience. Thanks to this opportunity, I have developed skills and a greater understanding of professional writing, communication, networking and relationship building, dealing with financial and legal documents, the role of history in media, and what it can take to generate public interest in historical education.