Ô°ÇøÒùÂÒ

The Calgary Institute for Humanities is thrilled to announce the establishment of The Palmer Family Foundation Graduate Student Intern Program, to commence in Fall of 2026. The program, made possible by a generous $150,000 gift from the Palmer Family Foundation in honor of the CIH’s 50^th anniversary this year, will expand the institute’s ability to connect with the community, while giving graduate students the real-world skills and experiences they need to launch a successful career in the humanities. 

The program will fund one graduate student intern per academic year, working under the supervision of the CIH manager. The program has two major outcomes:  one is to give the CIH more capacity to pursue public outreach and community engagement. The grad student will help to build new partnerships and raise the profile of the CIH both within the university community and beyond. The second major outcome is providing further professional development opportunities to graduate students, with a particular emphasis on transferable skills like relationship-building, communications, event management, and project coordination. 

In 2025-2026, with the assistance of a new internship program established by the Faculty of Graduate Studies (FGS), we were able to start this initiative early. We hired History doctoral student Andrew Goodwin, who worked under the direction of the CIH manager to support the activities of the Calgary Atlas Project. Andrew coordinated with the various bookstores that stock the maps, and assisted with the planning and the coordination of the various events that took place during the display of the maps at the Lougheed House’s Mapping History exhibition, which highlighted the art of the Calgary Atlas Project. Having Andrew take on many tasks and responsibilities associated with the Atlas project was invaluable, and he in turn got some first-hand experience with the work that goes into planning and executing a museum exhibition.