History, by its very nature, broadens interest and feeds the historian’s desire to understand everything. For those who want to risk doing one, the University of Quebec at Montreal’s (UQAM) bachelor’s degree in history opens up many avenues outside the field of history proper. For my part, this path was that of community psychology. For the past five years, I have been a research officer at the Vitalité Laboratory and coordinator of the Chaire de recherche sur l’application des connaissances dans le domaine des jeunes et des familles en difficulté, both of which are based at UQAM. First, I would say that my training in history has prepared me to work in the field of research in psychology in that the historical method greatly helps develops critical thinking, methodological rigour as well as a great meticulousness. Moreover, the importance placed on the quality of the written and spoken language in history is a significant asset, regardless of the field of employment. Inevitably, the historian conceives things in a very special way: that of constantly putting the past into perspective. This feature allows him to quickly trace the causes and consequences of a given situation. Finally, the historian preserves the memory of things. This automatism proves to be very practical for those of us who coordinate several research projects concomitantly and who often have to go back a few years to find past information that has an impact on the present.
