Written by Alex Duffy
When I applied for NTC grant funding this past spring, the world had yet to be rocked by the COVID-19 health crisis. I had planned on completing an internship in Washington D.C., at a non-governmental organization I long aspired to work for. My plans for the semester and the summer were transformed within a matter of a week. Still, amid the chaos of moving back from my semester abroad in Barcelona, Spain, I was able to find new opportunities for the summer. This summer, I have been working as a research assistant in the Tulane History Department with Professor Elisabeth McMahon. I have also been interning with the New Orleans City Council in the Office of Councilmember Brossett. As this summer comes to a close, I cannot imagine it any differently. Although I would have enjoyed exploring a new city, I have cherished the way my positions this summer have deepened my connection with New Orleans. Though I have been working remotely from my house near campus, I have gotten to explore new worlds that I would never have if my plans had not changed.
As a research assistant, I am reviewing primary documents housed in the U.K. national archives slavery files series. Alongside Professor McMahon, I am working on compiling information about the slave trade in the Indian Ocean during the 19th century. The British files have helped illuminate the intricacies of piracy, the financial motivations underlying the British Anti-Slave Trade Squadron, and the African experience. I have learned about early globalization and have gained a better understanding of global systems today. This project has helped me draw parallels across time; I have a broader perspective on protests against police violence and systematic racism.
In my position with the New Orleans City Council, dismantling systems that perpetuate racism is one of my primary focuses. I assist Councilmember Brosset with recommendations for the fiscal year 2021 budget. I am a budget policy intern, and my summer-long project has been reviewing past city budgets and researching innovative budgeting to produce a comprehensive report of recommendations for the New Orleans budget this upcoming fiscal year. This position has surprised me at every moment–I have come to understand the vastness of the worlds housed within the local. I studied and interned abroad from May 2019 to March 2020, when I was sent home from my second study abroad semester, so I had begun to focus only on the immense complexity of global structures and systems. As a City Council intern, I have gained financial analysis skills and strengthened my ability to navigate the public sector. I have learned about the systems and events that have shaped New Orleans and better understand how the city has arrived at the place it is today. I am excited to be part of not only helping manage the unprecedented crisis caused by COVID-19 but also making radical recommendations for change like broad-scale divestment from the police and an increase in social services.
I feel lucky to have had these two opportunities this summer and know that both experiences will guide my final academic pursuits and search for a career after graduating this May. I have been asked to continue my work as a research assistant for the school year and look forward to further developing my research, which I believe will help guide my senior writing assignments and personal study. Having previously worked in the public sector on a federal level with a very international focus, I am glad to have had the chance to experience work on the local level. In the future, I will synthesize my internship experiences as an undergraduate to be a leader; I have realized that I want to fight for innovative solutions to problems at whatever level I choose to work.
Thanks to the grant funding provided by Newcomb-Tulane College, I was able to pay for a portion of my housing costs for the summer, financial burden, and helped make this entire experience possible. These positions were as incredibly transformative, and I look forward to applying all I have learned this summer in my future endeavors.
NTC Grant Report Summer 2020 – Alex Duffy
Research Assistant to Elisabeth McMahon in the Tulane Department of History
Intern with the New Orleans City Council, Office of Councilmember Brossett
