11.27.06
Looking for a Few Good… Interns
I’m in the teeny baby-steps early stages of work on the next nonfiction book, whose working title is Straight: A History of Men, Women, and ‘Sex’. Having been through this before with Virgin, I have a bit better idea of what this first stage should look like now than I did a few years ago, and am attempting, therefore, to correct for the errors of the past by not making the same mistakes twice.
Hence I am looking for a couple of good research interns, one for spring and one for summer 2007. If this interests you, let me know! If you know someone who might be interested, please feel free to pass this along.
Independent Scholar/Writer Seeking Research Interns
Writer and historian Hanne Blank, author of several books including the unprecedented new history Virgin: The Untouched History (Bloomsbury, March 2007), is looking for two research interns, one for Spring 2007 and one for Summer 2007. Interns will be working with Blank on research for her next nonfiction book, a history of heterosexuality and heteronormativity in the West. Past research interns have worked an average of 5-10 hours per week. Hours are generally flexible.
Applicants should have: excellent research skills (library and Internet), understanding of bibliographic form, regular (at least daily) computer/Internet access, available access to at least one research library, and excellent written and verbal skills. Candidates also should be good at working unsupervised, making judgment calls about information quality, comfortable working on issues of human sexuality, and reliable communicators. Foreign language skills are a big plus, particularly German, French, and Latin.
These internships are unpaid, but I happily extend ongoing support (including letters of recommendation) to my interns and former interns. Some former research interns who have worked for me are now employed by Elsevier, NYU Press, National Public Radio, and other prestigious businesses in the information and publishing sector; others are excelling in graduate school.
Applicants may be either local (Baltimore, MD) or long-distance, with a slight preference for local applicants.
To apply, please send a letter indicating your interest to hanne at-sign hanneblank dot com. Please describe your skills and background, the reasons you are interested in this internship, and be sure to indicate whether you are applying for the Spring or Summer internships.
I promise there’ll be substantive and entertaining content in this blog again someday soon. Between trying to recover from the health stuff I’ve been dealing with, and trying to get going with this new project, I fear I haven’t had a whole lot of entertaining stuff to relate, nor have I been feeling terribly chatty.
A handful of recommendations, though: Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory read by Eric Idle, available unabridged on CD from Harper Children’s Audio; Patrick Leigh Fermor’s A Time of Gifts; the album Guest Host by Stew; and the ultra-sexxay new open-source research tool Zotero (Firefox 2.0 and up only, sorry, IE-heads…).