Tag Archives: Classical Culture & Society

My Summer at The Photo Review: Exploring all Angles by Ella Sokulski ‘27

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Name: Ella Sokulski
Class Year: 2027
Majors: Classical Culture and Society, Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology Minors: Fine Arts, Museum Studies

Internship Organization: The Photo Review
Internship Title: Intern
Location: Langhorne, PA

What’s happening at your internship? We would love to hear what kind of work you are doing!

I started this internship by getting to know the office in Langhorne, and generally exploring the area. I had never really explored that suburb of Philly. I worked on adding new records to the data base at Photo Review, we had just received many photos and I worked to scan and add them into our collection. The Photo Review also has a publication where there is a large listing of all the upcoming photography shows throughout the US. I have been working to prepare for the Sep-Oct edition by updating and finding now shows that are going to be opening in museums and galleries.

Why did you apply for this internship?

I took Intro to Dark Room Photography last semester as Haverford and I really enjoyed my experience, I have continued shooting on my film camera. I asked my professor if he knew of any art related internships for the summer and he pointed me in this direction.

Working remotely for the first time? What has that experience been like for you?

This is my first time working heavily remotely, there are definitely many positives and negatives! I really enjoy being able to choose where I work, I have been able to explore cool cafes around Philly. I also enjoy being able to have the flexibility to travel, especially in the summer. I find that sometimes it is harder to get my questions answered, it is different not to have your boss so readily available. I have had many in-person working and intern experiences so this is definitely expanding my horizons when it comes to work environments and I think it will be super helpful for when I am applying to jobs in the feature, I will know what I like.

Was this internship what you expected it to be?

To be quite honest I was not to sure what this internship was going to be like. It was suggested to me by a professor that I really like so I had high hopes. On the website there was a long list of things the internship could include but I was not too sure what I was actually going to be doing. I was just excited to be working on something creative. It has been a very fun experience so far, I have expanded my skills for how to use databases, which through my many internships I can say with full confidence is one of the most important parts of a functional creative space. I have also been very happy to help with the publication. This is something I had not done before, I have little experience with any sort of magazine and the work that comes with one. Overall, I am happy with the way this internship has been going.

Elizabeth Bailey ’27: Research Assistant Working with Belize Kriol and 20th Century Poetry 

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Name: Elizabeth Bailey
Class Year: 2027
Major: Linguistics, Classical Culture & Society
 
Internship Organization: Swarthmore College
Internship Title:   “Language, Culture and History: Belize in a Digital Age” and “Creole Poetics & Subject-Formation in 20th Century Belize”
Location: Remote

What’s happening at your internship? We would love to hear what kind of work you are doing!  

I’m working remotely as a research assistant with a transnational team on a collaborative project coordinated by Prof. Fuller Medina, of Swarthmore College, and Prof. Christopher DeShield, of the University of Belize. It brings together two projects on poetry and the social history of Belize Kriol, with the aim of creating an open-access digital archive of 20th century written Belize Kriol in poetry found in newspapers from Belize, which are currently located in the Belize Archives and Records Service. My tasks include running and manually correcting OCR of scanned text and conducting bibliographic research. I also work with metadata for the texts and assist with organizing the information to make it easier to work with.

Why did you apply for this internship?  

I am a linguistics student, so I was excited to find an opportunity relating to language. I also sought a position that would help me improve my research skills and that would give me a chance to work with professional academic linguists. 

What is something you have learned from your internship that you didn’t expect? 

I knew that I should expect to work on the computer, since it is a remote position, and I knew that I might have to learn new programs and systems in order to complete my work. However, I hadn’t quite prepared myself for the process of learning these systems. It made me confront how often I choose to do a task the longer or less efficient way to avoid having to navigate an unfamiliar computer tool. Being required to use new programs gave me the motivation to get over my wariness. I’e been making good use now of Bryn Mawr’s access to Zotero and Adobe Acrobat, and I’m surprised at how much less confusing they have ended up being compared with my expectations. 

Working remotely for the first time? What has that experience been like for you?

One thing that working remotely has taught me is that there is definitely a time and a place for a long, detailed, specific email. After years of school training me out of being into a very condensed, punchy style, I’m finding that my somewhat-forgotten skills in making sure I leave no stone unturned are useful again. It’s important to maintain good written communication when working remotely, and this includes a lot of detailed emailing to clarify details of assignments and provide updates for ongoing tasks. You have to remember not to leave out a detail that you perceive as unimportant, but that everyone else involved actually needed to know. Online meetings have also been very important, and a year of remote school during the pandemic definitely helped prepare me for the slight awkwardness of talking to a person’s face when that person isn’t actually in front of you.