Conducting research is a central part of studying history. Research experience makes our graduates attractive job candidates and helps them with admission to graduate programs in history and other fields. The History Department offers a variety of research opportunities, including assignments in our classes, paid research assistant positions, internships, and as part of student/faculty research grants.

For more information about research opportunities and policies, visit our Advising Resources page

Highlights on History Department Student Researchers

History and American Studies Majors at Saint Anselm are able to participate in a variety of research opportunities. These are offered as assignments in the classroom, paid research assistant positions, as part of student/faculty research grants, and more.

2019 Sarah Hummel Student Research Spotlgiht.jpg

Sarah has undertaken an number of research projects while at Saint Anselm College, both in and outside the classroom. As a part of her Women’s History course, taught by Professor Salerno, Sarah looked into the life of Mrs. Lois Warren Shaw, one of 400 militant suffragists mentioned in the National Women’s Party newspaper The Suffragist.

During this experience, Sarah came face-to-face with some of the difficulties that researchers encounter while tackling their work. For example, when attempting to use genealogical information, she found that her suffragist shared the same name with her daughter which made it difficult to attribute various deeds to the correct person.

Sarah’s biographical sketches and research notes on this topic have been published in the Women and Social Movements database, to which hundreds of academic libraries subscribe. Sarah has also presented her research on this topic at the New England Historical Association Conference in 2016.

“I agreed to present my research experience because I was eager to share with other students and educators the lessons that the project taught me. The NEHA Conference seemed like the perfect place to network and share my experience as a historian with like-minded history students and professors.”

She observed, “Presenting in a conference setting forced me to focus not just on paring down my ideas, but also expressions. I also learned that if you are enthusiastic and knowledgeable about the information you are going to present, those two factors make presenting much less nerve-racking – but it’s okay to be a little nervous too!”

Speaking at the conference helped Sarah realize that historians do much more than just researching and writing—sharing the information they discover in many ways is just as important.

In addition, Sarah has held a position at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics on campus for several years and has contributed to a number of museum-type exhibits including one on John F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign another on “Perspectives of Equality” in the American political system.

Current Paid Student Research Positions

Professor Perrone: approximately 56 hours in the fall (two students) with continuation if desired in spring.
Several students are currently helping Professor Perrone on a project that furthers research on royal finances and church-state relations in sixteenth-century Spain by offering new datasets to analyze and raising new questions to explore. This is being done by completing databases on the ecclesiastical contribution to the king of Spain (Charles V) for ArcGIS (a computer-based data visualization program) and preparation of a short publication on the databases for other scholars. These students are, additionally, transcribing data for Excel databases, writing instructions for their use, drafting introductory content for the historical material, and compiling a bibliography.