The Manchester Centre for Youth Studies is an award-winning interdisciplinary research centre specialising in participatory, youth-informed research that positively influences the lives of young people. Staff in MCYS come from departments and disciplines across the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, including Sociology, Criminology, History, English, the Writing School, and the Manchester School of Art.

We use our expertise in participatory and creative research methods to explore areas such as identity and belonging; health and wellbeing; marginalisation and exclusion; migration and diversity; youth justice and youth language.

MCYS Interns might wish to work on directed tasks related to current research projects in the centre. Specific internships with directed tasks include:

1. Research Internship with Dr April Pudsey and the Classical Association Teaching Board. This internship gives you the opportunity to work with a range of official bodies involved in shaping education, publishing, research and creative and performing arts in the area of classics and ancient world studies. Through these projects, students will develop real world knowledge and skills in a at least one of a selection of activities that contribute toward one of the Classical Association Teaching Board objectives of democratising the study of the ancient world, informed by consideration of BAME, gender, sexuality, religious, ethnic identities and voices.  Students will be guided initially by CATB/CfA/WCC member (academic or practitioner) with responsibility for particular projects and areas and will be managed and overseen by Dr April Pudsey in MCYS. They will produce a specific piece of work for CATB, depending on the area and the requirements set from the start of the project. Their work will form an important part of a number of key strategies and events that members of CATB are actively engaged in at a national level (in conjunction with other bodies, such as Classics for All, the OCR examination board, the Manchester Classical Association and a number of schools and theatres). Activities currently include working with young people of primary and secondary school age, working with publishers, and in organisation of public and professional events.
2. Research Internship with Dr Chloé Germaine for the Games Imagining the Future Project, in association with the Manchester Metropolitan Game Centre.  During this internship you will play, analyse, and hack board games to explore climate change futures and imaginaries, and consider the value of games in climate action and education. Tasks will include writing entries for the ecogame ludography, and working with MMGC research assistants to develop and deliver game hacking workshops in schools.
3. Research Internship with Dr Benjamin Bowman on the Beehive Hackathon project. The BEEHIVE Hackathon! project is funded by a PSA research and innovation grant in 2023 and invites young people to participate in a creative, theatrical role-play event to imagine and devise responses to the climate emergency. The hackathon will be integrated with the PSA Conference in April 2023. As an intern you would be involved in the co-creation of the hackathon scenario and invited to participate in the event and roundtable at the conference.
4. Research Internship with Dr Jennifer Cromwell on games, education and history. This project examines the use of board games to support learning and teaching in ancient history, from primary school to university, with initial focus on Ancient Egypt. The role will support the following research activities: literature review on the use of board games to support humanities education (in key stage 2, 3, and higher education), research on board games on ancient Egypt, and supporting games sessions at MMU (playing and reflecting on the use of games played).

MCYS Interns are also free to develop their own small research project with the support of staff and experts.

Your independent research project can be developed in dialogue with existing work and with the support of our staff. Outcomes might include work such as:

• Blog series exploring the Issue for a public audience or a specific community
• A community outreach event
• Teaching materials for use in the classroom or community education
• A creative response/ interpretation of a topic of your choice
• A short video or film that explores a topic of your choice
• Co-produce an episode of the MCYS podcast
• A research paper or presentation (with opportunity to present at the MCYS seminar series)