XClose

UCL Institute of the Americas

Home
Menu

Laura Ellyn Smith

Laura was a United States Studies: History and Politics MA student in the years 2014-2015.

Photograph of Laura Ellyn Smith volunteering on National Voter Registration Day, US, 2016
My first journal article, Through the Eyes of the Enemy: Why Henry Clay Lost the Presidential Election of 1844 through the Lens of The Daily Argus of Portland, Maine, was published in Maine History, in the spring of 2016 and in 2017 I had two book reviews published in scholarly journals in the U.K. and the U.S.

I have had the opportunity to present my work at numerous conferences, most recently the New England Historical Association conference. On the day of the 2016 presidential election I had an op-ed published in The Daily Princetonian and have recently had a blog post discussing the imperial presidency published on the National Council for Public History's History@Work site. Simultaneous to pursuing my PhD in U.S. History to 1877, I have actively maintained my interest in U.S. politics, as seen in the photograph of me volunteering on National Voter Registration Day.

The classes I took while undertaking my MA at UCL have been especially helpful as I pursue my career in academia. UCL classes gave me the opportunity to embark on original research and create my own essay questions on a topic of the class that was of particular interest to me. This freedom has meant that in comparison to the majority of fellow graduate students in the U.S., I have a greater scope of original work from which I can demonstrate a depth of knowledge on certain topics. I also have the opportunity to further benefit from this original work through its potential for submission to scholarly journals or as material for conference presentations. This breadth of original research will give me something unique to offer when I enter the job market.