Spring 2009 Internships
Jewish Women's Archive Internship
Deadline: April 10, 2009
Brookline, Massachusetts
The Jewish Women's Archive (JWA) is looking for interns who have a keen interest in history and the stories of American Jewish women, want to learn from a dedicated and creative staff what makes a dynamic non-profit tick, and like working with new technologies to build interactive, online tools. All interns will also have the opportunity to work on organization-wide projects such as blogging and creating podcasts. Each summer intern will work within a specific department.
Outreach Intern: Help broaden the reach of the JWA by working with the film, education, and development departments to market JWA's documentary, "Making Trouble" on Jewish comedians, identify new audiences for educational materials and programming, and expand JWA's community and network of supporters.
Summer Archives/Records Management Intern: Work with JWA's digital archivist on improving the management of their 21st-century online archive.
Summer Web Intern: Work with JWA's technology team on projects to increase their Web site's efficiency and enhance recognition by search engines. Knowledge of XHTML, CSS, and at least one programming language (JavaScript, PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby, Java) required.
Qualifications: Competence with Word, Excel, etc. online and library research skills, strong writing ability, ability to communicate via email and telephone, willingness to do wide range of tasks and learn new computer skills and software applications, curiosity, flexibility, enthusiasm, and a sense of humor.
Please Note: Internships at the Jewish Women's Archive are unpaid. (Interns may be able to receive funding or course credit for their work at JWA through their colleges and universities.) Summer interns work in-office for a minimum of 24 hours/week for at least eight weeks between June 1 and August 15.
How to Apply: Submit a cover letter, resume, contact information for two references, and a writing sample (five pages or less). For the web internship, send a coding sample to: internships@jwa.org. If you do not have access to email, you may send your package to the address below. (Candidates applying for financial support from another source should let us know the date that a response is required.) Internships are open to all, regardless of religion, race, or gender.
Apply to: Internships/Jewish Women's Archive, 138 Harvard St., Brookline, MA 02472.
International Information Center Archives for the Women's Movement
Deadline: April 18, 2009
Amsterdam, Netherlands
The International Information Centre and Archives for the Women's Movement (IIAV) is both a repository for historical material and a dynamic activist organization. IIAV's mission is to increase the availability of information and knowledge about women and to promote research about women's history, lives and experiences. The center serves the needs of academic researchers, school teachers, the women's movement and women's organizations (particularly in the Netherlands), women's information facilities (particularly internationally), and black, migrant and refugee women. The library and archives are housed in a former church (the Gerardus Majella), and are open to the public. Staff members are fluent in English.
Women's History Archives Intern: The intern will describe a collection in the archive that is in English. The intern must have knowledge of gender studies and familiarity with working in EAD.
Sex and Gender in Islam Intern: The intern will help compile a manual on sex and gender in Islam, both in Europe and in Asia for a video project IIAV is developing on this theme. This is an important learning process that involves studying the relevant literature, writing it up in a style that is fit for training purposes, and devising some training exercises. The intern must have knowledge of gender studies.
Contact Person: Saskia Wieringa, secr@iiav.nl, Address: Obiplein 4, 1094 rb, Amsterdam, 1, NL
Emily Dickenson Museum
Amherst, MA
This Praxis opportunity will enable a student to engage in hands-on museum research, linking the family archives with the garden renovation. Intern will engage with such questions as: What descriptions of the garden appear in correspondence and diaries and can those pieces of evidence inform the Cultural Landscape Report and future garden recreation? Is there documentation on how the family viewed or used the garden and can those pieces of evidence better inform a garden narrative for visitors? Check Web site for the deadlines and updates.
Frank Newhall Look Memorial Park
Deadline: April 20, 2009
Florence, MA
Look Memorial Park is a private, non-profit city park located in Florence, Massachusetts. This 157-acre park hosts tens of thousands of visitors each year who take advantage of the park's attractions and activities. The land for the park was donated by Fanny Look to the city of Northampton, Massachusetts and opened on July 4, 1930 as a gift in memory of her late husband, Frank Newhall Look. Look Memorial Park is a premier entertainment destination for Western Massachusetts, Northern Connecticut, and Southern Vermont residents. Currently, park attractions include a scenic miniature train, tennis courts, walking trails, an outdoor concert pavilion, picnic sites, event pavilions, a state-of-the-art banquet facility, a mini-golf course, bumper boats, and a paddle boat ride. The park administration would like to more formally document the rich and varied history of Look Park. In the future, they would like to offer visitors and the community thoughtful insight into this history, thus broadening the experience of visitors and further deepening the community's understanding of this wonderful Western Massachusetts resource.
Archival Intern: Responsible for helping tell this engaging story. Interns will perform the following duties: review and organize historical photos, papers, letters and original documents that reside in the informal Park Administration Archives, interview present and former park employees, patrons and trustees, gather and document additional historical information that can be added to the archives, recommend ongoing steps to better manage and display archival materials, brainstorm with park staff on appropriate ways to share this history, and work closely with current park trustees and administration on developing additional archival-related projects.
During this internship, the intern will be asked to attend all staff meetings, report on their archival project progress and complete a final report on what has been accomplished throughout the internship. This position will directly report to the park's development coordinator.
Contact Person: David Brown, Development Coordinator, Look Memorial Park, 300 N. Main Street, Florence, MA 01062.
Sophia Smith Collection Internships
Deadline: April 10, 2009
Location: SSC, Alumnae Gym, on-campus
Dates: May 9–Sept 1, 2009
SSC/Archives Summer Web Assistant: Full or part-time intern with strong computer skills and web design experience to help maintain the SSC web site and build their digital collections. Prepare web exhibits, do photo research in the collections for images, scan images and documents, help maintain the digital images database. Learn the basics of organizing and describing collections and answering researchers' requests. Option to continue internship through academic year at 8–10 hrs per week.
Requirements: Extensive personal computing experience, strong familiarity with Windows and web browsers; thorough knowledge of HTML and experience with web page design; scanning and PhotoShop or similar. An interest in history, women's history, or American studies is desirable.
Contact: Margaret Jessup, 585-2985 for full requirements/experience. To apply send cover letter and resume to mjessup@smith.edu.
The Black Women's Health Imperative
Deadline: June 01, 2009
Location: Washington, D.C.
Desired Class Level: Junior
Duration: Summer
The Black Women's Health Imperative works at local and national levels to promote the physical, mental and spiritual health and wellbeing of African American women and to bring their voices to ongoing health policy debates. From its headquarters in Washington, D.C., BWHI promotes health policy, education, research, knowledge, and leadership development to save and extend the lives of Black women. BWHI also works with local affiliates and other health coalitions to develop community-based strategies to affect individual and social change.
Archives Assistant: Preserving black women's history: Will work with officers and staff of the Black Women's Health Initiative in Washington, D.C., to prepare the organization's records for transfer to the Sophia Smith Collection. The SSC will provide the intern with basic instruction in records management, including identification of records of historical value, historical background on the Black Women's Health Imperative, ongoing supervision and consultation via phone and email through the course of the internship.
Responsibilities: The intern's responsibilities will consist of: surveying existing non-current records at BWHI headquarters to identify those of historical value, organizing, identifying, and packing records of archival value, including creating box lists, arranging for transfer of records to Smith College, including assisting a driver in loading materials to the extent that time allows, locating significant archival materials not at headquarters and devising plans to acquire and integrate them into BWHI records.
Qualifications: Students interested in women's history and women's health, women of color organizing, and archival work are encouraged to apply. Organizational and communication skills and attention to detail are essential. The ability to lift cartons weighing 30 pounds is a requirement for this position.
Contact Person: Eleanor Hinton-Hoytt ehintonhoytt@blackwomenshealth.org
Study of Women & Gender/Sophia Smith Collection Internships
Paid internships are available for the summer and academic year in the Sophia Smith Collection archives. Application deadlines vary; priority is given to SWG majors. Interns work with archivists and learn the multiple facets of archival work in Smith's internationally-recognized repository of women's history sources.
The intern will learn how manuscript collections are acquired and prepared for research, the basics of organizing and describing collections and she may write about a particular collection for the SSC newsletter or help prepare an exhibit. The internships focus on helping prepare recent SSC acquisitions of special interest to SWG for future use in classes. Past internships have included processing the papers of Joan Biren, lesbian feminist activist, member of the Furies, and photographer; the records of grassroots organizations working for social justice; and collections documenting women's health activism among women of color.
The first three SWG/SSC internships were awarded to Erin Molly AC '09 (for summer '08, fall '08); Alyssa Pluss '09 (for spring '09); and Anna Eisen '11 (for summer '09).
