There鈥檚 studying history, and then there鈥檚 doing history. Hillary MacKinlay has a knack for both.
Hillary is wrapping up one last elective this summer to complete her BA Honours in history. Not only has she written a 100-page honours thesis using primary research from the Nova Scotia Archives, she spends April till October guiding visitors through the exhibits at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic as a historical interpreter.
Diving into history
Interpreting the past is what Hillary loves to do. Her thesis, Halifax on the High Seas: The Pacific Whaling Journal of Thomas Colton Creighton, focuses on the journals of a 17-year-old boy from Halifax who set sail on the whaling ship Rose in 1843. He sailed across the Atlantic around the Cape of Good Hope, through the Indian Ocean to the Pacific, spent two years hunting whales, and sailed back around Cape Horn to Halifax. Part of the affluent Creighton family of Halifax, there wasn鈥檛 room for him in the family business, so he went to sea to learn how to be a captain.
Hillary studied Creighton鈥檚 journals intensively, considering shipboard relations, Thomas鈥檚 emerging identity and his relationship to the people he met on his voyage, particularly the indigenous people of the Cape Verde and Pacific Islands. 鈥淚 get really got caught up in this,鈥� she laughs, 鈥淢y parents will tell you, I can talk about this for hours. It鈥檚 like reading an adventure story.鈥�
No scholar has ever studied Creighton鈥檚 journals this closely. At the time, many believed that going to sea changed people permanently and made them unsuitable for life on land. Hillary was curious about what the journals would reveal about a boy who went to sea and grew to be a man on the voyage.
Her conclusion? 鈥淟ife at sea is more a continuation of life on land. Halifax society still had a strong influence on life aboard the ship, even on the other side of the world.鈥�
Finding her calling
Jerry Bannister, associate professor in the Department of History, describes his student in glowing terms. 鈥淪he鈥檚 a really rare and wonderful combination of different kinds of intelligence, academic ability, and modesty. She鈥檚 one of the very best students I鈥檝e ever taught, and she鈥檚 doing really exciting cutting edge research at a graduate level already.鈥�
A recipient of both a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Graduate Scholarship and a Killam Scholarship, Hillary will go on to MA studies in September, continuing her work with Dr. Bannister.
Hillary also seems to have found her professional calling. Her job at the Maritime Museum lets her put her knowledge of and passion for Maritime history to work. She鈥檚 part of a growing number of students consciously combining study with work experience.
鈥淚 find there are things I learn at school that help me at work, and things I learn at work that help me at school. It gives you hope that you can do something you love when you leave school. There is work out there in history.鈥�
Ocean stories
Born and raised in Truro, Hillary jokes that even in her spare time she ends up reading about whaling. She manages to fit in a few episodes of Downton Abbey and her favourite sci-fi show, Stargate, and she鈥檚 an avid runner.
Hillary muses that her humanities degree has given her real-life skills she uses every day at work. 鈥淲e are taught how our skills apply at school, but not how well they apply in real life. I鈥檝e learned how to analyze situations as well as texts, how to make a strong argument and express your ideas and yourself.鈥� She shares her enthusiasm for history with hundreds of people at the museum every year. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot to the stories in the museum that can鈥檛 fit on the wall.鈥�
The last word goes to Dr. Bannister, who knows students like Hillary are the future of post-secondary education.
鈥淔irst, oceans research takes place in different faculties, and it doesn鈥檛 have to be environmental or scientific. Oceans have human and cultural activity; people live and work there. Second, all students should see their professional training as concurrent with their degree. Employers want this skill set, and students need to be proactive. Hillary鈥檚 story represents everything that鈥檚 good about Dal.鈥�