Jobs for a Tech-Savvy Historian/Teacher
February 18, 2008 9:38 PM   Subscribe

What are some good places to work in NYC for a tech-savvy medievalist who also has experience teaching history and politics to middle and high schoolers?

My best friend from college would like to move to New York, and as I live here already, I (rather selfishly) want to do everything I can to help him make that happen. Right now, as his first post-college job, he's in the middle of a year long teaching fellowship at a British school (and doing quite well with it). He's teaching history to 13-year-olds (last term it was WWI; this term it's the Middle East from the fall of the Ottoman Empire), and American Politics to 17-year-olds. So, he's looking at teaching jobs (at private schools, as he hasn't yet got credentials) and programs like the New York City Teaching Fellows and Teach for America.

But he's into many things besides teaching: at school (we went to an Ivy League college) he majored in medieval history, did tech support for other undergraduates, studied the similarities between the shift from oral culture to print and the shift from print to digital, and created websites and content management systems. He's the kind of person who comes up with ideas about how things work and then makes them work better based upon his ideas. He draws connections between things that are seemingly unconnected in such a way that both things seem more illuminated by the explanation.

At various points he's thought about studying law (a la Lawrence Lessig's Center for Internet and Society) or information studies (the field that has blossomed out of library sciences), and he's also thought about writing about the connections between history and current revolutions in technology for magazines in the vein of Wired.

Where in New York City would be a good place for him to work, besides the teaching possibilities mentioned above? I'd greatly appreciate any answers, and particularly those that are creative and non-obvious.
posted by ocherdraco to Work & Money (4 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Response by poster: Oh, hive mind, I had such faith in you. :)

Well, this just confirms the difficulty of finding cool things to do that really fit my friend's (very specific) abilities. No answer is its own result.

(Of course, if no one has answered because of how I wrote the question, well then—that's just my own damn fault.)

Thanks, folks.
posted by ocherdraco at 5:07 AM on February 19, 2008


Is this medievalist interested in religion?

He might apply for the "First Things" junior fellowship.

He could consider working in journalism. The job sites include Journalismjobs.com and MediaBistro.

Part of your salary is paid in glamour however...
posted by Jahaza at 6:12 AM on February 19, 2008


Is he interested in Museum work? Someplace like the Met or the Cloisters might be a good place to start. If he's interested in teaching on the college level, or even just wants a contact within the NYC academic scene whose focus is medieval history, I have a contact. Email or mefi mail me if you want the info.
posted by piratebowling at 7:29 AM on February 19, 2008


yeah. He could go to library school.
posted by rachelpapers at 9:21 AM on February 19, 2008


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