January 2023 Public Humanities Newsletter
A monthly newsletter from Humanities for All, an initiative of the National Humanities Alliance.
In This Newsletter:
If you haven’t already, please consider subscribing to our Substack (for free!) so that you receive the newsletter in your email inbox and don’t miss any news in the future. If you have any questions or would like to connect about the newsletter, please email Humanities for All Project Director Michelle May-Curry (mmaycurry@nhalliance.org).
Celebrating one year of the Public Humanities Newsletter
Every month we are so pleased to send national public humanities news directly to your inbox. It’s been one year since the launch of Public Humanities Newsletter, and our readership has grown to over 1,200 subscribers!
If you are interested in having your initiatives spotlighted in the newsletter, we encourage you to submit items to share. Also, if you have benefitted from the existence of this newsletter (whether by successfully securing a posted position, attending an advertised event, or by making connections with spotlighted projects), we would love to hear about it! Similarly, if there is a type of public humanities news that is missing from this newsletter that you would like for us to share, we would be grateful to improve upon the curated information we provide.
Calls for proposals
Cultural and Community Resilience program
Proposals due January 12, 2023
The Cultural and Community Resilience program from the National Endowment for the Humanities supports community-based efforts to mitigate climate change and COVID-19 pandemic impacts, safeguard cultural resources, and foster cultural resilience through identifying, documenting, and/or collecting cultural heritage and community experience. The program prioritizes projects from disadvantaged communities in the United States or its jurisdictions, and NEH encourages applications that employ inclusive methodologies. Optional draft due December 1, 2022 with a final deadline of January 12, 2023.
NetWorkLab
The University of Connecticut’s Greenhouse Studios has announced NetWorkLab, a new professional development opportunity for project managers in the digital humanities and allied fields aimed at improving remote collaboration and facilitation skills. The program is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Institutes for Advanced Topics in the Digital Humanities program. Drawing on the experience of Greenhouse Studios in leading diverse teams of collaborators in online environments, starting in Fall 2023 NetWorkLab will bring together a cohort of 24 participants to learn a suite of remote project management skills and methods.
Caribbean Digital Scholarship Collective
Proposals due January 31, 2022
The Caribbean Digital Scholarship Collective invites applications for its inaugural Mellon Foundation-funded, week-long residential digital humanities institute, to be held at the University of Miami in June 2023. The Caribbean Digital Scholarship Summer Institute will be held annually for three summers and welcomes applications from all scholars and teachers working within Caribbean studies. This includes: full- and part-time college and university faculty, independent scholars, librarians, archivists, and graduate students. Learn more and apply by January 31, 2023 here.
Upcoming Events
NEH Summer Seminar, “Reading, Writing, and Teaching the Rust Belt: Co-Creating Regional Humanities Ecosystems”
June 4–18, 2023 | Cleveland, Ohio (Ursuline College)
Join the Rust Belt Humanities Lab at Ursuline College for a National Endowment for the Humanities 2023 Summer Seminar for Higher Education Faculty. The Rust Belt is often overlooked as “flyover” country and part of a dead, industrial past. Through the act of storytelling, the two week summer seminar for 25 college-level educators will pull the Rust Belt into the dynamic present. Participants will create lesson plans suitable for use in undergraduate humanities courses and focus on the importance of regional storytelling in fostering a sense of place. Learn more about the project and apply to participate here.
Foundations & Applications of Humanities Analytics course
January 17–May 11, 2023 | virtual
Foundations & Applications of Humanities Analytics is a new 17-week free online course offered through the Santa Fe Institute's Complexity Explorer platform that covers the foundations of quantitative text analysis and digital humanities techniques through video lectures and regular homework assignments. The target student is a doctoral student in the humanities, but the course has also had students at different career stages, as well as faculty members, successfully complete the course. Students who successfully complete the online course are eligible for an in-person workshop in Santa Fe during July 2023. Learn more and register for the course here.
Introduction to Oral History Workshop
March 3, 2023 | virtual
The Oral History Center of The Bancroft Library at University of California, Berkeley has announced that applications are open for the 2023 Introductory Workshop and Advanced Institute. The Introduction to Oral History Workshop will focus on the “nuts-and-bolts” of oral history, including methodology and ethics, practice, and recording. The one-week advanced institute on the methodology, theory, and practice of oral history will take place from August 7–11, 2023 via Zoom. The institute is designed for graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, university faculty, independent scholars, and museum and community-based historians who are engaged in oral history work. The goal of the institute is to strengthen the ability of its participants to conduct research-focused interviews and to consider special characteristics of interviews as historical evidence in a rigorous academic environment. Applications are now being accepted on a rolling basis but spots fill up quickly. Learn more and apply here.
Publication and Project News
Recently on the Humanities for All website:
On the Humanities for All blog, Gioia Woods of Northern Arizona University wrote about the Maus Project, a weekly public humanities seminar that brought together students, faculty, and the community to learn about the graphic memoir, censorship, and the power of literature.
“France in the Times of COVID-19: The Public Humanities as a Vaccine for Coexistence” is a new article by Araceli Hernández-Laroche examining the role of the public humanities in France during COVID-19 for self-preservation, coping with isolation, understanding an upended world, creating a sense of connection and belonging, and cultivating empathy for others. The pandemic accelerated the need for libraries, galleries, bookstores, museums, concert halls, opera houses, theaters, cinemas, and nightclubs, as well as places of dialogue like cafés and bistros. Dialogue and the cocreation of physical and virtual communities were needed as the spread of false information relating to science, vaccines, and nation exacerbated pre-pandemic divisions in French culture.
“Stories from a Restored Prairie” is a new article by Meg Muthupandiyan describing an oral history project on the Friends of the Field Station of University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee at Waukesha. The Field Station’s team is working to document the history of the effort by curating a digital archive of photographs that capture 55 years of the Field Station’s history. The archive is housed in the UWM Library’s Digital Collections and accessible on their website. In conjunction with their efforts, Muthupandiyan’s piece describes some of the stories, footage, and images collected that will help keep the public memory of this land trust alive, and help support the work of those who are entrusted with the Field Station’s future.
Kids on the Street: Queer Kinship and Religion in San Francisco's Tenderloin is a new book from Duke University Press by Joseph Plaster, curator of public humanities and director of the Winston Tabb Special Collections Research Center at Yale University. Tracing the history of the downtown lodging house districts where marginally housed youth regularly lived beginning in the late 1800s, Plaster focuses on San Francisco’s Tenderloin from the 1950s to the present. He draws on archival, ethnographic, oral history, and public humanities research to outline the queer kinship networks, religious practices, performative storytelling, and migratory patterns that allowed these kids to foster social support and mutual aid.
“No Discipline Is Less Valuable Than Another” is an Inside Higher Ed opinion piece by Liz Angeli, associate professor of English at Marquette University, disputing the central argument of Fidel Tavárez’s November 17 opinion piece, “Humanities Majors Should Pay Lower Tuition.” Using findings from her research exploring how graduate education can better prepare humanities students for diverse career opportunities and public engagement, Angeli cites the need for increased funding for humanities scholarship to support public humanities research.
“Why Do We Need a Liberal Arts Capstone?” is an Inside Higher Ed opinion piece by David Droppa making the case for a required capstone project for all undergraduate liberal arts students. Droppa explores various types of engaged and public facing projects, as well as their benefits to students.
“Finding Etheridge Knight: A Case Study on a University’s Public Humanities Project” is a new article by Lisa Farley that outlines the learning outcomes from a public humanities project on Etheridge Knight that included a project centered on the poetry of community engaged learning at a private university. The project was run out of the university’s Center for Citizenship and Community, in partnership with the university’s library and English department, and was funded by a grant from the Council of Independent Colleges.
The Jewish Studies and Digital Humanities website out of the University of Luxembourg offers a single access point to news, events, and projects on the intersection of Jewish Studies and Digital Humanities. Check out their DHJewish Zotero bibliography and publicly accessible Google sheet that lists people working in DHJewish.
“5 Easy Ways to Aid a Scholar Working Without a University” is a new article in the Chronicle of Higher Education by Annie Berke exploring how faculty members can help “independent” researchers and public scholars outside of academia thrive.
January Spotlight: Public humanities at Texas Christian University
Last month, Humanities for All published a new project profile. Notes on Creating Livable Black Futures is a public humanities project directed by Texas Christian University (TCU) professor Stacie McCormick in collaboration with the Afiya Center, a Black reproductive justice organization serving black womxn and girls in Dallas, Texas. Through story circles, programming, and engaged research that opens up space to imagine and enact livable black futures, a Texas-based team of scholars, doulas, and community organizers are working to support birthing people in healing from medical trauma.
This project is supported by a Mellon/ACLS Scholars and Society fellowship and feeds into McCormick’s work to develop public humanities training infrastructure for TCU graduate students in the form of a certificate program in public humanities and community-engaged scholarship. In support of this work, Humanities for All project director Michelle May-Curry will be traveling to TCU this month to be in conversation with students and faculty participating in TCU’s symposium on the “Future of Graduate Studies: Public Humanities, The Job Market, and Moving from Theory to Practice.”
If you’re interested in further conversations about building and sustaining public humanities scholarly training infrastructure, stay tuned this month for the release of Humanities for All’s first report, Approaches to Training in the Public Humanities. This introductory resource provides data and examples of higher ed efforts to train students and faculty in public humanities methodologies, including publicly engaged degree granting departments, majors, minors, certificates, course pathways, internships, and faculty training programs.
Employment and funding opportunities
Maryland Humanities seeks a Program Officer of Partnerships. This individual will be responsible for serving as a connector and convener of the humanities sector in Maryland, and will be tasked with the management and overall administration of the Museum on Main Street.
Dartmouth College invites applications for a Postgraduate Fellow to work with the Dartmouth Digital History Initiative (DDHI), a project that connects oral history and the digital humanities. Since its launch in 2019, the DDHI team has successfully developed prototype digital tools and methods for encoding and visualizing data drawn from oral history archives. In 2023, the DDHI will embark on a new two-year collaboration with the Oral History Metadata Synchronizer (OHMS), a platform for managing and accessing digital oral history collections. As project manager for this collaboration, the DDHI Postgraduate Fellow will be in residence at Dartmouth College and will join a team of historians, archivists, and digital humanists from Dartmouth and the University of Kentucky (the home of OHMS). Review of applications begins on January 3, 2023 and continues until the position is filled.
The University of Colorado Museum of Natural History invites applications to fill the position of Anthropology Collections Manager. The Collections Manager works collaboratively with the anthropology curator(s), other Collections Manager, and collections staff and contributes to the knowledge of the natural world and human history through research, teaching, and public education—as well as together serving as the stewards for the collections for future generations. Apply by January 8, 2022.
The soon-to-launch Daniel Patrick Moynihan Center at the City College of New York (CCNY) invites applications for the inaugural cohort of the Moynihan Public Scholars Fellowship. The fellowship takes inspiration from Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s celebrated career, which traversed the academy, government, and the media. In his spirit, Moynihan Public Scholars will be chosen from among academic researchers, public service practitioners, and writers or journalists with a demonstrated ability for blending critical thought, political engagement, and popular communication. Moynihan Public Scholars will receive unrestricted awards of up to $100,000 and will spend one year at CCNY writing, teaching, and engaging in public conversations on critical issues in public affairs. The inaugural Fellowship term will commence September 2023. Apply by January 12, 2023.
The Council of American Overseas Research Centers National Endowment for the Humanities Research Fellowship provides the opportunity for humanities scholars to spend significant time in one country with an Overseas Research Center (ORC) as a research base. Applicants must propose four to six consecutive months of research in an American ORC (including libraries, museums, archives, and field sites) in one of the following countries: Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Cyprus, Georgia, Indonesia, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Nepal, Pakistan, Senegal, Sri Lanka or Tunisia. Apply by January 19, 2023.
The Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences and the Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis invites applications for two interdisciplinary residential postdoctoral fellowships in the Center’s seminar for academic year 2023–2024 on “Repairing the Past,” directed by Professors Jochen Hellbeck and Kristin O’Brassill-Kulfan from the Rutgers department of history. They are particularly interested in applications from scholar-practitioners who work inside and outside the traditional academy, and applicants whose work blends theory, method, and practice related to contested memory and historical redress. Apply by January 20, 2023.
The National Park Service (NPS), the National Park Foundation, and American Conservation Experience invite scholars who received their doctorate within the last five years to apply for a two-year NPS Mellon Humanities Postdoctoral Fellowship. The NPS Mellon Humanities Postdoctoral Fellowship Program places recent humanities PhDs with NPS sites and programs across the agency. In collaboration with NPS staff and partners, the incoming cohort of 15 fellows will contribute to planning and preparation for America at 250, an initiative inspired by the semiquincentennial of the Declaration of Independence. This event provides an opportunity for the NPS to tell a more inclusive story of the American past and present. The humanities research supported by this Fellowship will expand these efforts, encouraging creative approaches to documentation, interpretation, and outreach. The fellowships are open to the first 75 applicants per position or until January 30, 2023, whichever comes first.
The Medieval Institute at the University of Notre Dame invites applications for a two-year postdoctoral fellowship in public humanities. The fellow will devote the majority of the fellowship time to working closely with the Institute’s staff, especially its director of undergraduate studies and engagement, in the Institute’s outreach and engagement efforts directed at local schools as well as potential donors, alumni, and undergraduate majors and minors. The fellow will also work with the institute’s assistant director to prepare public humanities marketing and communications materials. The remainder of the fellow’s time may be devoted to research and/or teaching. Apply by February 1, 2023.
Georgetown University’s Center for Social Justice (CSJ) seeks a Director of Engaged Scholarship and Pedagogy (DoESP). The DoESP position oversees and leads the CSJ’s research and teaching pillars of work and accompanying portfolio of programming through applied pedagogies such as immersion, dialogue, community-engaged teaching, and community-based research. They also serve on the Center’s leadership team and have a visible and vocal presence on the University’s “Main Campus” as the CSJ supports the University’s commitment to engaged scholarship and pedagogies for social change. This role comes with an affiliated Assistant Research Professor or an Assistant Teaching Professor title with a 3-year renewable term.
University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Museum seeks a part-time Museum Educator to aid in teaching and programming related to the museum’s Unpacking the Past (UtP) program. UtP is a free multi-point program offered to 6th and 7th grade classes in Philadelphia Title I schools. During the school year, the educator will spend most days teaching classes to those who are participating in the UtP program—either in classrooms across the city or at the Penn Museum.
Washington College invites applications for a one-year Digital Justice Fellowship with the Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience. The Digital Justice Fellow, working closely with campus, community, and institutional partners, will implement new archival partnerships in the region, launch an interpretative planning process for the project’s website and digital archive, and conduct archival research for Chesapeake Heartland: An African American Humanities Project. This fellowship is funded through the American Council of Learned Societies Digital Justice program.
The University of Pennsylvania seeks a Curator of the Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing. The curator will guide the collection’s teaching and research services, collection strategies, and exhibition programs. The curator will engage in sustained outreach to faculty, students, community members, and research scholars on all areas of the Bates Center's extensive collections. Reporting to the University Archivist in Penn Libraries and working collaboratively with the Dean’s designee from the School of Nursing, and communities of students and scholars, the curator will develop public programs, outreach events, grant proposals, and collection policies to promote stewardship of the collections and scholarship about them.
University of the Arts is hiring a two-year Program Director of Museum Studies. The program director will oversee the MA in Museum Studies program and is responsible for providing leadership for the faculty and students in the program. The program also seeks someone who has the ability to build new creative partnerships with regional, national, and international museums and related centers to support the program, and also to potentially develop and deploy a new graduate program within the broad and expansive fields of museum studies.
The University of Southern Indiana invites applications for the position of Historic New Harmony Experience Coordinator. The Historic New Harmony Experience Coordinator develops strong community and public relations through management of educational experiences, visitor services and interactions with individuals and groups within the Historic New Harmony community.
Wake Forest University seeks a Manager of Operations and External Communications of their Historical Museum. The Wake Forest Historical Museum preserves, shares, and supports the early history of Wake Forest University before its 1956 move from its original home in the town of Wake Forest to Winston-Salem, NC. It includes the Calvin Jones House (c. 1820) and a 7,000-square-foot facility with large permanent exhibit spaces, auditorium, meeting space, offices, and archival space.
As always, check out the latest postings on the job boards for the National Council on Public History and the American Association for State and Local History, which provide lists of opportunities that might be of interest to those trained in the public humanities.