Pathways to working in actual historical research -- without a history degree?

by EquivalentSuggestion

A brief rundown on my career situation:

  • I have a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science/Artificial Intelligence
  • I'm 28 years old
  • I've been working as programmer since I graduated.
    • It's not fulfilling for me. I want to expand humanity's knowledge through research and philosophizing.

A brief rundown on my obsession with historic research:

  • I've been doing my own personal historical research since I was a teenager; perusing archives, preserving information, making discoveries, writing about it, citing sources...
  • It's practically an addiction -- I can spend 16 hours a day doing this every day. I have had to force myself not to do it because it interferes with my job and my sleep
  • I don't get much joy out of just reading books on history, I prefer to use the books to garner insights on a topic
  • Usually this is on more modern, or obscure topics, simply because that's where the discoveries are. For example, the history of electronic music, video games, or the local history of places in the country I live in

So, the question -- given my situation, what are the ways for getting myself into a position where I can specifically do historic research as a job?

I've had these ideas:

  • Offer my programming skills to an archive or a research library, for their web interfaces, or in the task of digital history. Negotiate a transition to a researcher position.
  • Attempt to negotiate with a university into doing a masters in digital history, using my computer science degree as leverage
  • Start again doing a BA (not ideal due to the student loan...)

Thanks everyone.

Wewatta

 If you want to be a good archaeologist, you gotta get out of the library!

you dont need a degree to study history, just the passion you seem to have. My advice would be to start your own website to document the insights you find. I did:

https://www.wewattarow.com

only four posts as of yet, but I have great new insights coming and I am looking into voxel art to really add depth and uniqueness to the unique posts I have already.

I work in the food service industry, but my passion, my passion is with Wewatta Row. Good luck fellow Digger, may your days be filled with discovery and your discoveries be wonderous!✌😉

caffarelli

You'd be a good match for a academic library tech services position in coding. I work at a midsize university library and we have 3 full-time non-librarian (so no masters) developers. It wouldn't be historical research, but you'd get free academic library privileges for your personal research, and usually free or discount tuition, which could get you qualified to do the work you want in a few years. You do not need to do another BA to go into a history masters program or a library science program. I've idly looked into doing a history MA (I have the MSLIS) and usually if you have no history experience they have you do some undergrad prereqs before you get to take the big girl history classes.

Jobs you want are on Code4Lib. There are non-American jobs here. Many of these are going to require the MSLIS, but many will not. This is the sort of job you would qualify for. The main caveat is that the pay for these library developer jobs is not at all competitive with the industry at large, and they are not tenure track, most people go into it specifically because they want to work in an academic library environment. But if you want to transition to academia, you definitely have a solid path into it.

Teshi

If you're interested, I strongly suggest pursuing a Masters to get the training you need to do good quality history (I mean, you can teach yourself but it helps to have some training). Look around at your local university programs and talk to them. Can you take classes as a non-degree student that would get you started and prove your humanities chops (many programs offer this).

You do not necessarily need a BA in history to do a history MA.

Given you're interested in the history of technology (sorta), you may want to look into a History and Philosophy of Science program, which may be more open to someone with a scientific background. Digital history would not be a stretch at all. Ask the departments, show them your best work, tell them your proposed focus and discuss with a professor you'd like to work with. They'll take you way more seriously than you're imagining.