
































Microsoft Word - Shunmugan_publish.doc


 
Rise Up, Organize, Protest: The Politics of Internships during the 21st 
Century  
 
Review by Natalia Shunmugan 
 
Call Me Intern (2019). Directors Nathalie Berger and Lee Hyde. The Video Project.  
 

Article 23 of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that: 
Everyone without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work. 
Everyone who works has the right to just and favorable remuneration. 

 
This was David Hyde’s final statement to the press, at the conclusion of the 
documentary Call Me Intern by Nathalie Berger and David Hyde (2019). Three interns 
had the courage to speak up about their working conditions, rather than just “keeping 
their heads down” and then stepping into a salaried position after their time of unpaid 
labor. Their actions led to the creation of the Global Intern Coalition with protests and 
strikes each February 20th, which encourages interns to know their rights, know the law, 
and know what remuneration they are entitled to. Although being paid for one’s work is 
a key driver of these protests (which has the support of the European Parliament), the 
documentary exposes far more.  
 
David Hyde (United Nations, Geneva), Kyle Grant (Warner Music, NYC) and Marisa 
Adam (Obama’s re-election campaign, Chicago), highlight the normative unfair labor 
practices across many organizations, which hire interns to work without pay. It is 
expected that interns are able to support themselves, that they are able to provide for 
their own accommodation, transport, food, visas, and medical insurance costs for 
periods ranging from 3 months upwards. A more traditional understanding of an 
internship is that it is an opportunity to get a foot in the door, a stepping-stone to jump-
starting their careers. David, Kyle and Marisa’s experiences expose the vectors of race, 
class and privilege which form the backbone of internships, and intersect with themes 
such as inter-generational inequality, low social mobility, and the growing global social 
and geographical divide. These interns highlight the urgent need to change the way 
internships are awarded by making them paid opportunities that are truly open to all – a 
‘democratization’ of internships – which would change the power dynamics around 
policy making. It could mean that there would no longer be photos of Paul Ryan and the 
White House interns – who are all white – except for one Asian man, going viral on 
Twitter. These key issues lend themselves well to an anthropological analysis that looks 
at the interplay of power and politics.   
 



“If you can get people to work for free, why wouldn’t you?” is the question raised by 
white, middle-aged, middle-class men during the documentary. These attributes alone 
opened many doors for them, without too much effort. And then there is Andersen 
Cooper, son of Gloria Vanderbilt, ridiculing interns for wanting to be paid for their work. 
Kyle and Marisa are African-American, and both have had negative experiences during 
their internships. Kyle’s internship was terminated within two months of starting at 
Warner Music, whilst Marisa was downgraded from intern to a “volunteer opportunity” 
within three months of her starting with Obama’s re-election campaign. Not only was 
Marisa the only African-American female in her office, but her reports to HR of sexual 
harassment fell on deaf ears. Kyle had to deal with homelessness and slept at a shelter 
during his internship, making the point that he’s both “unpaid and homeless,” and that 
“you feel one side of America during working hours, and outside there’s another.”  Both 
these interns did not conveniently find a place at the internship table, and their journeys 
are fraught with obstacles. Foucault argues that power is contested (1980), and there is 
a shift in the narrative when Kyle becomes the named plaintiff in a class action lawsuit 
brought by the unpaid interns against Warner Music; and Marisa writes letters to Obama 
about her harassment and goes on a seventeen day hunger strike – a sharp change 
from “not rocking the boat,” and just getting on with things.  
 

Shore and Wright (1966) argue that concepts such as “family” and “society” are treated 
as ideological and political concepts, but “policy” is still treated as though it were 
politically and ideologically neutral. Indeed, a shift in policy making is needed – but for 
this to occur, the internship process needs to be democratized, and people need to be 
paid for their work. The documentary makes clear that if internships are only accessible 
to people who are able to support themselves because they are from wealthy families - 
“what happens is that you only have well-off white people making the policies.” You end 
up with a small group of people who are increasingly disconnected from society, 
creating policy, and reproducing power relations (Foucault 1980), which will contribute 
to even greater social and geographical divides across the globe.  
 
As anthropologists, we should not be afraid to “plunge into the vexed issues of modern 
societies” (Eriksen 2006), and tackle issues of human rights and unfair labor practices. 
The documentary shows that change will not come from the top down, and that young 
people need to organize themselves and fight back. The response from the UN, one of 
the most powerful organizations in the world was: “Geneva is expensive – unless you 
planned things well. We’d love to pay our interns but we can’t. There’s a general 
assembly resolution which prohibits us from paying you.” This reaction should not be 
surprising: power has many layers and privilege replicates and favors those already 
privileged. The documentary calls for internships to be opened to “100% of the 
population”; and that people should not be “disqualified by being born to the wrong 
parents.” Indeed, internships should not be accessible to the privileged few – there is 
too much at stake. Policy is key to shaping global power relations, and forcing change 
will mean that modern power constructs can be challenged and the world re-shaped. 
 
This film provides a powerful insight into what it means to be an intern in the 21st 
century. It highlights the fiercely competitive nature of internships, who has access to 



them, and who gets left behind. Although all three protagonists were successfully 
awarded an internship, the reality of what that internship looked like and meant, was 
very different. In anthropology, film is sometimes seen as a way to convey a snapshot 
or a quick view of a culture. Rarely is ethnographic film perceived to be a ‘game-
changer’ which influences the theoretical debates in our discipline. Although this is not 
an “ethnographic film,” this documentary challenges that assumption, and lays bare the 
power structures governing access. Being multi-sited, it does not present a frozen 
moment in time which locks the protagonists into an “ethnographic present” (Fabian, 
2002); but is dynamic, and has led to a global mobilization of interns, with the formation 
of a coalition for intern rights. The documentary lays bare the different inter-generational 
approaches to the work culture, and show how that is rapidly changing seen through the 
eyes of Millennials. It is an important film for so many reasons, and everyone should 
see it. However, it will be especially interesting to anthropologists who want to 
understand the construction and replication of power, as well as how power is contested 
and challenged. It documents impressions, perspectives and realities of an intern 
culture that is in the process of defining itself.       
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 



 
Bibliography 
 
Chris Shore, Susan Wright. 1996. Introduction, In Chris Shore, Susan Wright, eds., 
Anthropology of Policy: Perspectives on Governance and Power. Oxford: Routledge. 
 
Johannes Fabian. (2002 [1983]) Time and the Other: How Anthropology Makes its 
Object. New York: Columbia University Press. 
 
Michel Foucault. 1980. Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings 
1972-1977. Toronto: Harvester Press. 
 
Thomas Hylland Eriksen. 2006. Engaging Anthropology: The Case for a Public 
Presence. Oxford: Berg. 
 
 
 
Natalia Shunmugan holds a PhD in Social and Cultural Anthropology from the University of 
Oxford. Besides working in industry, she has worked for the World Health Organization in 
Geneva, focusing on regulatory policy. There she was part of the WHO strategy team looking to 
develop and implement, regulatory pathways for licensing vaccines in developing countries. She 
currently heads up Global Regulatory Intelligence and Policy here at Ultragenyx 
Pharmaceutical. She is also fortunate to wear her anthropology hat at the Richmond Museum 
for History and Culture, where she is assisting the museum in designing an exhibit on Women’s 
Progress. That work focuses on subaltern voices, and recovering Native American and African-
American narratives, which have been obfuscated and hidden. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
© 2020 Natalia Shunmugan 


