Iona Baker, Research Project and Data Officer at Nottingham Trent University
Published: 24 August 2025
'The analytical mindset I gained from the MSc in Gender History comes to the fore when I work with data relating the research environment, but also in the everyday contexts of deciding how to best approach projects and in evaluating their outcomes. The course, from which I graduated in 2016, developed muscles in my mind which I am pleased to say I can still exercise routinely.'
There is no typical day in my current role as a Research Project and Data Officer at NTU. I have regular tasks related data reporting, researcher communications, and secretariat support to research governance committees. Much of what I do, though, revolves around events and initiatives to promote best practice in research and create an environment in which are well supported in their work. A perk for me is gaining knowledge of what is in the research pipeline from being adjacent to discussions between academics.
The analytical mindset I gained from the MSc in Gender History comes to the fore when I work with data relating the research environment, but also in the everyday contexts of deciding how to best approach projects and in evaluating their outcomes. The course, from which I graduated in 2016, developed muscles in my mind which I am pleased to say I can still exercise routinely. My extended experience of being in higher education also gives me a useful familiarity with academic needs, structures, and processes working at a university.
The course expanded the disciplinary parameters of what is usually included in a History degree. Our seminars were led by academics from English Literature, the School of Modern Languages and Cultures as well as the History Department. As a result, I felt equipped with a wider range of theoretical tools. It felt challenging to have to very quickly critically engage with new concepts, theories, and arguments sufficiently to critically engage with them in a seminar or essay, but I grew in academic confidence doing so. The dissertation felt like the culmination of the course even though I chose to research Jeanne de Navarre as a childless queen of England which was quite outside of any we had covered in seminars. By the time to begin it came round, the required word count no longer seemed so intimidating. The MSc in Gender History is a course to enjoy, and the completion of it is to be valued in and of itself, whatever you plan to do afterwards.
First published: 24 August 2025