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I just wanna be a historian

I've always really loved history (esp egyptian/ancient history but I'll study anything) and in the future I think it would be really nice to be able to just do my research every day, look at primary sources, present my findings and be an expert in a particular area. Does this job even exist?? And if it does, can I do it without a PhD?

I've been looking at history jobs but honestly I don't want to spend the next 10 years of my life getting qualified for it, I just want to get on with it.

Reply 1

userhep

I will say, if you like researching then that's kind of what getting qualified is all about. I'm studying history at undergrad and it's all about learning research skills and putting them to use for essays. Yes, there are lectures and seminars too but the research side of it is like being a historian already. And lectures and seminars kind of mimic conferences.

If you want to handle primary sources and spend time working with them - have you considered archive work? A lot of archives are looking for volunteers so you could start getting some experience and seeing if that's for you. From what I've gathered, archivist jobs generally require an undergrad degree and then a postgrad qualification so like 4-5yrs rather than 10. And sometimes the postgrad stuff can be done as an apprenticeship from when I've been looking into postgrad options.

There's also the heritage sector with museum work and that. You'd be working with artefacts and primary sources which you could use in research. There's not such a clear cut way into that industry - there are Museum Studies degrees. But organisations like Fair Museum Jobs (https://fairmuseumjobs.org/about-us/) are working on removing degree requirements from jobs in the sector. So that could be a different route into historian work. If you look around some museums do do apprenticeships as well I'm pretty sure.

Also not all the lecturers at my university have a PhD since they aren't all Dr's so I'm guessing you can become an academic and a expert in a field without that. (https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/job-profiles/higher-education-lecturer - it seems you could do that by doing an undergrad, then a masters with some TA work alongside it, then start lecturing and researching what you want whilst picking up a teaching qualification)

(edited 10 months ago)

Reply 2

Sop 27

Yeah I'm definitely interested in research and I guess I'll be doing lots of that at uni! I've looked at being an archivist before as well which might also be an option. Thanks for ur advice :smile: