HEI: University of Edinburgh
Host organisation: Cassiltoun housing association, Glasgow
Title of Internship: A Museum for Castlemilk
Duration of the internship: Part time, February-November, 2025
PhD project: Co-Labour with Fish and Fishing Communities: Writing Shaped Water Landscapes (It may still change)
Why did you decide to undertake an internship?
I decided to undertake an internship in my Y2 PhD studies because I wanted to explore how my research skills could operate beyond the academic context. While my doctoral work is my primary focus, I was interested in testing how my analytical, methodological, and project-based experience might translate into other professional environments.
I was also motivated by a desire to broaden my perspective. Doctoral research can be deeply immersive and sometimes isolating. Engaging in a different institutional setting allows me to step outside my own project, encounter different ways of working, and bring fresh insight back into my research.
At the same time, I saw this as an opportunity to expand my professional experience and strengthen my CV in a way that aligns with my long-term development.
What was your internship and what did you do?
My internship was part of “A Museum for Castlemilk”, a community-based heritage project.
My role focused on heritage documentation, digitisation, and community-based knowledge production.
First, I systematically organised and processed several hundred heritage items from community archaeological excavations conducted over twenty years ago, along with oral histories donated by local residents. This included digitising fragile paper archives and analogue audio recordings, as well as carrying out 3D scanning of selected sites (Figure 1) and artefacts (Figure 2) to support long-term preservation and accessibility.
In addition, for objects that lacked clear historical records, I collaborated with Castlemilk history group (Figure 3) to develop new narratives based on lived memory and personal experience. Through this process, community memories were treated as valuable historical sources, allowing everyday experiences to become part of Castlemilk’s heritage record (Figure 4).
These outcomes were ultimately presented to the public at the Glasgow City Open Day (Figure 5).
What aspects of the internship did you find most rewarding?
What I found most rewarding was the opportunity to slow down and work at the pace of the community rather than the pace of academic production. The residency created space for long-term conversations, trust-building, and repeated encounters, which allowed relationships to develop naturally over time.
I also valued the way the project challenged my assumptions about expertise and authorship. Working alongside the local history group shifted my understanding of who produces historical knowledge and how authority is shared. This experience has influenced how I now think about collaboration, responsibility, and care within research practice.
On a personal level, the residency offered a necessary change of perspective from my doctoral research. Stepping into a different institutional and social environment helped me return to my PhD with greater clarity, patience, and attentiveness to process rather than just outcomes.
Has the internship influenced your future plans at all?
Although it is still too early to say how this experience will shape my future plans, I have already felt the internship influencing my thinking in many ways. Through this residency, I discovered a genuine enjoyment in working with archives and contributing to community-based projects.
What are some of the skills you have picked up or improved through the internship?
The skills I gained during the internship were substantial. Coming from a very different cultural background, this experience greatly supported my understanding of Scottish social structures and cultural contexts. This understanding has directly informed changes in how I plan my PhD fieldwork. Like I now have a clearer sense of who to approach for support and how to navigate institutional and community networks more effectively. While this may be familiar knowledge to many, for me it represented the building of an entirely new social and study network.
In addition, I developed several practical skills, including archival cataloguing, establishing workflows for digital archives, and planning small-scale exhibitions.
Beyond these, participating in community activities in Castlemilk also introduced me to more embodied forms of learning, such as identifying local butterflies and edible plants, and making small herbal sachets designed to relieve stress.
Do you have any tips for researchers looking to do an internship
1.Be clear about why you want the internship
2.Think beyond academia
3.Pay attention to institutional emails and internal opportunities
4.Your PhD is the priority. Only take on an internship when you genuinely have the capacity to balance both.
5.Trust your learning ability and skill transfer
6. Protect your role and outcomes.
Where can people find out more?
Personal Website: https://yafeiwangcoming.cargo.site/
For information about Cassiltoun housing association, visit their facebbok (https://www.facebook.com/share/1Djpzmdhmo/?mibextid=wwXIfr).
CONNECT WITH Yafei (she/her)
Email: Yafei Wang
Instagram: @0_0_yafei