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Digital Humanities Lab interns 2025/26

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Each year we ask our interns to write a post reflecting on their time working in the DH Lab. Here is Rachael’s:

I’m Rachael, a second-year Classical studies and English student, reaching the end of my internship at the Digital Humanities Lab. This has been one of the most valuable experiences that I have undertaken during my time in Exeter so far, not just because I have learned a huge variety of new digital skills and increased my passion for preservation, but because of the wonderful team and fellow interns that have made this opportunity so fun.

During my time at the Lab, I have worked on all sorts of projects, tackling digitisation in formats that I never would have thought that I could work with before. I now feel experienced in handling many types of materials: posters, books, tapes, postcards, negatives and more. From taking photos of every conceivable angle of a traffic cone in Reed Hall resulting in a photogrammetry model, to multicoloured 3D printing and creating RTI models of my own jewellery, I have found that no two days or projects at DH ever look the same. The internship is very dynamic, and I found that I could tailor it according to my interests, which I really valued.

I particularly enjoyed gaining photography experience through working on more extended projects in term 2, including doing digitisation work on the Valor Ecclesiasticus project. It has been really exciting to take part in a project with a clear goal: making the ‘Tudor Domesday Book’ more widely accessible. Working with Dr. Charlotte Tupman and the rest of the DH team on this has felt really rewarding and has certainly taught me a lot about photography, editing and resilience! I have found that the experiences in DH that I have valued most have been those that have included working with others: whether that was using GIS to Georeference arial imagery of Northern Chile or contributing to digitising the Theo Brown Archive, which is full of interesting folklore and stories.

It makes me really proud to realise that I have learned so much in a year about digital preservation and the techniques that go into it. The DH team have been so supportive of all of the interns and have helped develop my confidence in working with technology and knowing how to troubleshoot it! They are also highly understanding of the fact that interns are balancing this work alongside their degree, which I have been very grateful for. I have gained a deeper appreciation of heritage work through this internship, and I hope to use the skills that I have gained from it, both technical and interpersonal, to pursue further work in this field.

Digital Humanities Lab interns 2025/26

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Each year we ask our interns to write a post reflecting on their time working in the DH Lab. Here is Lachlan’s:

Hi, I’m Lachlan, and I’m a final year English student approaching the end of my internship. It seems like yesterday that I was starting my position here, but the incredible variety of experiences I have had at the DH lab has been invaluable. This internship has allowed me to cross borders that are usually more fixed in the humanities, stepping into the technological aspects of research such as digitisation, photography and 3D modelling techniques among others.

I have been able to try my hand at all kinds of skills on offer in the DH lab, from photogrammetry and RTI to 3D printing and podcast production.

At the same time, I have been able to tailor my work to my own interests. For example, since I study Japanese as part of my degree, I greatly enjoyed working on the Languages for All outreach programme, which aimed to introduce secondary school students across Devon to the benefits of studying a language in higher education.

My previous experience working in Exeter’s Special Collections and interest in archival work helped me when working with materials from the Arab and Islamic institute as well as the archaeology department, which were fascinating historical artefacts to photograph and digitise for future students.

I am extremely grateful for the support of the Digital Humanities team and their continued help with all the work that I have been involved in this past year. I cannot recommend this internship enough to any student who loves learning, experimenting and playing with new and unknown skills, and wants an experience that will set them up for a successful career in any HASS related field they want to work in!

Digital Humanities Lab interns 2025/26

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Each year we ask our interns to write a post reflecting on their time working in the DH Lab. Here is Emily’s:

Napoleon in front of the DH lab 

I’m Emily and I am a second-year Liberal Arts student studying International Relations and Philosophy. This year as an intern at the DH lab has sped by and I am very thankful for the opportunities it has given me. Overall, it has been an extremely rewarding experience. I have learned about and gained valuable first-hand experience using a diverse range of archiving and digitizing tools, made new friends and obtained a wealth of work experience. 

As interns, we spend a significant portion of the first term trying out an array of digitizing techniques. This included, photographing playbills from the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum, creating photogrammetry and RTI models, recording VHS tapes and 3D printing.  I especially enjoyed creating photogrammetry models. Although it was challenging, it was also very rewarding to see a fully intact 3D model take shape from a series of photos that I had taken. It also gave me some insight into how online 3D models (such as those that you might see on a museum website) are made. 

My first attempt at photogrammetry (Stargazer – in front of Queen’s cafe)
My second attempt at photogrammetry – this time using a turntable (small figurine)
My first attempt at RTI (a necklace I brought in)
Digitising VHS tapes (Big Sur Folk Festival 1969)
My first attempt at 3D printing

In the second and third terms, I worked with a fellow intern on the DAME (Digital Archive of the Middle East) project. This involved the digitization of newspapers, posters, maps and collections of documents using the 150-megapixel camera set-up in Lab 1 as well as the digitization of negative and regular photographs and books using a scanner. I enjoyed working on this project because it gave me the chance to handle a lot of really interesting materials. I especially enjoyed working with the negatives, having come into the internship with a general love for photographs.  

Furthermore, as an International Relations student a lot of what we were digitizing was relevant to what I am studying. For example, I spent a few weeks photographing minutes of evidence heard at the Palestine Royal Commission and several additions of the Free Palestine magazine written by British-based activists in the 1960s. This was extremely interesting considering the escalation of and enduring Israeli-Palestinian conflict today. 

Overall, I had an amazing experience working as an intern at the DH lab. I would highly recommend it to any student looking to gain work experience and new skills. Even if it is not immediately obvious how this internship relates to your degree, as in my case, it can still provide invaluable experience in a flexible and friendly work environment. 

Digital Humanities Lab interns 2025/26

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Each year we ask our interns to write a post reflecting on their time working in the DH Lab. Here is Evelyn’s:

I’m Evelyn, a third-year English undergraduate student coming to the end of my second year as a Digital Humanities Intern at the University of Exeter. This year I have worked closely with the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum and their collection, and each week has been a new puzzle to solve.

One of my greatest challenges was working on the Raspberry Pi box, a project inherited from a previous intern, Ellen. The museum wanted a visitor survey system that would allow users to press a button to anonymously collect information about whether they were a student, international, local, or other British visitor. They also requested that the Pi would run headless, connected to physical buttons, in other words, running with no screens required. After brushing up on my originally rusty Python knowledge, I devised a system, wrote my own code, and created a working input-output system. Then I worked in OpenSCAD to design accurate side pieces that would both fit tightly but also still have wiggle space to be removed if needed. Plus, they needed little holes to keep the Pi cool and space for cables to move in and out. After a lot of trial and error, experimenting, learning, and finally succeeding, the Pi Box is now set up at the exit to the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum.

Outside of the box, I have digitised various board games, toys, and other wacky and wonderful items for the museum, each with its own challenges. For example, this Universal Studios Florida liquid toy, which proved especially challenging because of its transparency, and how still one needed to be to not disturb any of the liquid during filming and photography.

Then, while working on a 1970s Doctor Who board game, I used photogrammetry and Agisoft MetaShape to make a 3D model of the Dalek game pieces. Many of the pieces were damaged, so I wanted to create a 3D model so I could try and 3D print more pieces to complete the set and keep the better pieces in a virtual state so they can be explored and played with undamaged.

Finally, I was very pleased to try my hand at making a reel to show other students who may be interested in applying a glimpse into some of the projects I’ve worked on. Allowing me to share and reflect on my time within Digital Humanities.

This second year as an intern has really challenged me and forced me to swim out of my comfort zone but also excited me with new opportunities for growth. The work was much more independent, and I felt now I had a good grounding of skills I could start exploring and designing my own methods and workflows, but still with a great team of experts on hand whenever I needed it. Thank you, Digital Humanities, for having me back for a second year; this has been such a wonderful opportunity to turn my English degree into something more than just staring at books.

Digital Humanities Lab interns 2025/26

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Each year we ask our interns to write a post reflecting on their time working in the DH Lab. Here is Dorothea’s

My name is Dorothea, and I’m a third-year History student now coming to the end of my internship here at the Digital Humanities Lab. It’s been my dream since college to work in archives and records management, so when I saw an opportunity to learn all about digitisation and work with lots of archival collections in the process, I dived into it headfirst. It’s been an amazing experience.

From the outset, I knew I wanted to learn how to digitise physical, audio-visual storage materials like VHS and cassette tapes. My most formative early experience with archives was as a researcher in college, finding out that an interview recorded on tape had been lost forever. With the skills I’ve gained from working with the library’s collection of VHS tapes, I feel confident in my ability to digitise and preserve any similar materials I may work with in the future.

The project I’m probably most proud of though, is my work on the Digital Archive of the Middle East (DAME) alongside my colleague Emily Pardo. We worked together to digitise a whole host of historical material held by the University’s Special Collections from and about the Middle East created throughout the twentieth century – from survey maps and posters to photographic negatives. A particular focus for me were the many ‘Free Palestine’ newspapers of the 70s and 80s held in the collection. I worked to not only photograph them, but to turn those photographs into searchable PDFs – which are now more accessible than ever on the DAME webpages.

I’m so thankful to everyone in the team, and to all my fellow interns for the wonderful experience I’ve had at the Digital Humanities Lab this year. I’ll never forget all the amazing skills I learnt, nor the exciting projects I worked on here, and I certainly won’t forget the warm memories I made in the process.

Digital Humanities Lab interns 2025/26

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Each year we ask our interns to write a post reflecting on their time working in the DH Lab. Here is Katie’s:

I’m Katie, a fourth year Classical Studies student just finishing up my internship at the DH Lab. The internship has been such a fulfilling experience, and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to become part of the team here. I love the flexibility of the job and the range of skills that I have been able to learn, from simple administrative tasks to working on really cool projects!

The training we received was really through and I felt as though there was opportunity for me to explore anything I was interested in. Some of my favourite training tasks were being able to do RTI on a necklace I have worn since I was young and actually being able to see details that I had never noticed before with technology I was never aware of until I came to the lab!

Another really fun opportunity was our photogrammetry training, where I made a model of the Mtepe boat in the foyer of the IAIS building. It was so interesting to see how each step of the process comes together for the final product, and learning what steps to take in order to improve the outcome for the future. For me it was realising that if I had taken more photos in different lighting conditions, I would have less gaps and a more balanced model overall – you can see the finished project here!

The main project that I have been a part of is digitisation as a part of the AHRC Rediscovering the Tudor Domesday, project. Digitising 6 huge volumes together with Rachel, another DH Intern, using Capture One and our 150 megapixel camera in Lab One has been such a valuable learning experience. As a Classics student, I already have a personal interest in conservation and access to archival material, so being able to contribute to this huge national project in the early stages has been great for developing my handling, photography, and general digitisation skills that I can hopefully develop further throughout my career.

The DH Lab has really been a great place to work this year, in such a balanced, supportive, and friendly environment too. I believe that there is something for everybody here and if I could do it all again I would because there is still so much to learn and always so many fantastic projects to work on. I have really valued my time here and I cannot thank the DH team enough for this opportunity and the fun I have had throughout!

Digital Humanities Lab interns 2025/26

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Each year we ask our interns to write a post reflecting on their time working in the DH Lab. Here is the first of this year’s from Holly:

When I first applied to this internship, I was drawn in by the opportunity to work with archival materials, especially when photographing historical collections, but I quickly became involved in so many areas of the lab. I’ve been able to work across a huge range of projects and learnt technical skills that I’ve used throughout my internship and as part of my studies.

One of the first projects I worked on involved digitising some playbills from the Exeter Theatre Royal. As someone who loves theatre, this was incredibly exciting. I loved handling these pieces of theatrical history and seeing the illustrations and typography up close. It was a brilliant introduction to the practical side of digitisation and to the care and attention involved in preserving archival materials.

Over the course of the year, I’ve had the chance to work on projects that were completely different from one another, which is one of the things I’ve enjoyed most about working at the DH Lab. Before Christmas, I was part of a project that used GIS to match historical aerial images to the modern landscape of the Atacama Desert in Chile. This allowed us to create a map where old photographs overlaid Google Earth imagery, allowing us to identify changes to archaeological sites over time.

Another area I’ve enjoyed exploring is 3D modelling and printing. I’ve been able to apply the skills I’ve learnt during my time at the lab directly to my coursework, submitting a video I created using equipment in the lab as part of an assessment.  I spoke about how 3D printing can be used to make tactile images, and how this could be used to make traditionally visual materials more accessible for disabled audiences. Before this internship, I never would have imagined myself voluntarily submitting a video essay, let alone enjoying recording it, but working in the labs gave me the skills and practice I needed to feel confident doing so.

Out of everything I’ve been involved in this year, my favourite project to work on was a reconstruction of what the Whitefriars Theatre may have looked like. Throughout this project, I collaborated with one of my lecturers, Pascale Aebischer, who created an initial diagram of the measurements of the theatre based on existing scholarship. I then turned this into a digital and 3D printed model that can now be used for teaching. The model helps to demonstrate how the theatre’s layout affects sightlines and, ultimately, the audience’s experience of a play. I’ve really appreciated how much flexibility we’ve had to pursue projects connected to our own interests.

Over the year I’ve gained practical experience in digitisation, GIS, and 3D modelling, but I’ve also gained confidence in trying different methods (and troubleshooting!). It’s strange to think how much has happened in such a short space of time. The variety of experiences has been incredible, and I’m very grateful to the DH team and my fellow interns for making it such an enjoyable year.

Digital Humanities Interns 2024/25

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Each year we ask our interns to write a post reflecting on their time working in the DH Lab. Here is Charlie’s post:

Being a DH intern has been one of the greatest opportunities I’ve ever had. It’s been my favourite job by far, always something new and exciting awaiting for me when I get in for my shift. I have been able to work on a range of projects from photography to audio editing. Coming from a photography background it was great to be able to use my skills in new ways and interact with the actual archival material. It is impossible to include all of the activities and great projects I’ve been involved with over the past nine months but here are some of the highlights.

To get us used to Lab 1, all of us interns began with the digitisation of Exeter theatre playbills. It helped me feel connected to the history of Exeter and I was excited to see this playbill advertising Henrik Ibsen’s play The Doll House which I studied for my international baccalaureate.

Using the same skills, I had the chance to photograph some of the Busy Bee collection. As an English literature student, it was wonderful to photograph these bound letters and as someone who still writes letters to people it led me to think about the importance of material culture and how special the written form is.

One of the great things about the Digital Humanities Lab in Exeter and Special Collections is their focus on Southwest archival material. I didn’t know about the mining culture and school that existed before taking photos of The Camborne School of Mines Magazine. I was able to go through the entire process of physical print to searchable PDF which as a student I know the value of. It’s fantastic to think I was behind a process which will allow future researchers to interact with them.

This internship came with lots of training in all parts of the digital humanities world. Having been a long-time fan of photography, it was great to see how photographic practices could be used in different ways to create 3D effects. I had never done photogrammetry or RTI before and I loved being able to experiment with new modes of creating photographs which are interactive and offer 3D applications.

Another great gem of the DH lab is the 3D printer and since being able to work with a 3D printer it is now one of my life goals to own my own. Using TinkerCad I was able to design and make two of my own creations including a Christmas tree decoration for DH as well as develop a column structure for a model of a globe I own. It was wonderful to see the real world (and fun) ways 3D printing can be used. When it came to open days, I loved talking visitors through the process of creating replicas of the votive of the lady, showing why the digital humanities is so important in maintaining culture and heritage. To see this get made into a greater project where I was able to create my own wax votive and be part of a widening tradition, seeing how each step came to be, felt incredibly special.

But my favourite project to be involved in was ‘Section 28 and its afterlives’. Working closely with Dr Chris Sandal-Wilson I edited interviews to create audio excerpts for the project’s website. Whilst this led to many hours being holed up in Lab 3 and becoming very familiar with Audacity, I loved listening to people’s experiences, and I loved the feeling of being part of something larger. I had never done audio editing before, but I was determined to learn as much as I could to create something that would continue on and have a legacy. It was great to then put my newly learned HTML skills to the test to put the audio excerpts on the website and be part of the decision-making process for the way the project moved forward. Whilst I’ve had a lot of fun, making and creating things for both me and as part of projects, this project brought home the value of the digital humanities and the important role it plays in maintaining and preserving history and culture.

This internship would never have been as good as it has been without the constant support and friendship from the amazing Digital Humanities team and my fellow interns. I will not only miss the work, I will miss banding together to listen to Cornish farmers from reel-to-reel tapes, hanging out in the breakout space over coffee even if we weren’t scheduled to work and sharing photos of when our photogrammetry processes didn’t go quite right. It’s sad to leave but I know there will be a new band of interns who get the fantastic chance to work as part of the best internship scheme!

Digital Humanities Interns 2024/25

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Each year we ask our interns to write a post reflecting on their time working in the DH Lab. Here is Evelyn’s post:

I’m Evelyn, and I’m a second-year English student coming towards the end of my internship. It has been so much fun. I’ve always wanted a way to connect my passion for English and Computer Science together and I think I’ve finally found my answer. I’ve never real understood cameras and photography, and so that was a big learning curve to start but now I feel I understand it all a lot better, and now have confidence in my photography.

My biggest project was probably digitising some old coins using RTI. I’ve loved revealing all the little indents and scratches. Then I used HTML code to put my work as a webpage on the Exeter RTI website! This was challenging but a lot of fun. Also, I’ve now experimented with Audacity and editing old reel-to-reel tapes to try and reveal the voices behind the distortion. Translating Hertz and Decibel graphs to find the exact frequency of the distortion to start removing it.

I’ve also got to explore using code to create 3D models and managed to create a shark which I successfully 3D printed.

Finally, I loved getting a glimpse into the VR Shakespeare project. This was my first time using VR and I thought it was mesmerising and something I really want to explore more in the future. Thank-you very much DH.

Digital Humanities interns 2024/25

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Each year we ask our interns to write a post reflecting on their time working in the DH Lab. Here is Sam’s post:

Hey, I’m Sam Harvey, and I’m a third year History and Archaeology student. I could not have imagined how much fun I would have had on this internship, it was an incredible experience, and I am certainly going to miss it when I graduate.

In this role, I have been taught how to use many different digitisation techniques, including photogrammetry and the making of 3D models, Reflectance Transformation Imaging (or RTI), 3D printing and more. The DH Team allow you to specialise into doing the techniques or working with the material that you find interesting or fun, which makes this internship very enjoyable. I personally specialised into working with documents that needed to be scanned and digitised, and artefacts from archaeology teaching packs that needed to be turned into 3D or RTI models, using photogrammetry or RTI respectively. 

There are also many different types of materials that I worked on, including artefacts, reel-to-reel tapes, posters, paintings, postcards, photographs, and more. I, along with my fellow interns, have been a part of many different projects throughout the course of the internship, and it was exciting because we never really knew what we were going to do each shift.

I particularly enjoyed working with the collection of playbills from the Theatre Royal in Exeter, as I had always wanted to handle old documents and artefacts, and some of these playbills had the most amazing illustrations on them.

I also really enjoyed working with the archaeology teaching packs, and I produced photogrammetry models of many different artefacts such as metal, pottery, baskets, fibres, bone and antler. Below is one of my nicest models, which is of a piece of antler that has been sliced in half, and you can see it still has a high amount of detail to it. 

I also made RTI models of many of the artefacts, such as the one below, which is of a strand of fibre from the teaching pack on basketry. I was also encouraged to experiment and make models of my own objects, so I made RTI models of some coins I had.

If I ever needed help with these techniques, I never felt too nervous to ask a member of the DH team for help, because they are so understanding, supportive and more than happy to help. Working on the desk was also useful, as it gave me more time to work on these techniques and it allowed me to build my confidence and my ability to help people with queries they had.

Again, I am really going to miss this internship, and I highly encourage anyone with an interest in history, archaeology or preservation to apply for the position, because you won’t regret it! I certainly didn’t!