[Matthew K. Gold (he/him)]

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Neil Fraistat <fraistat@umd.edu>
Date: Thu, Jun 30, 2016 at 3:53 PM
Subject: [Centernet] UMD Postdocs in DH & African American History and
Culture
To: centernet <centernet@lists.digitalhumanities.org>

Please help spread the word about these Postdocs in DH & African American
History and Culture at U Maryland! With apologies for crossposting.–Neil
Overview

The University of Maryland is offering two Postdoctoral positions in the
fields of Digital Humanities and African American History and Culture.
Eligible candidates will have completed a doctoral program in African
American Studies, Art History, United States Labor History, United States
or Global Migration Studies, Digital Media, Historical and Cultural
Visualization, or a related field in the past five years. These are
full-time, professional-track faculty appointments for two years connected
to our Andrew W. Mellon-funded initiative “Synergies among Digital
Humanities and African American History and Culture” (AADHum). The 12-month
salary for these positions is $70,000, including full benefits. Additional
funding is available for conference travel and professional development.

The AADHum postdocs in the fields of Digital Humanities and African
American History and Culture provide exciting opportunities to contribute
to a major interdisciplinary initiative at one of the nation’s
highest-ranked public research universities, as well as to gain skills and
knowledge related to emerging, innovative areas of research and teaching.
Through these positions, the AADHum initiative seeks to advance and expand
the fields of digital humanities and African American history and cultural
studies, and to develop and diversify the pipeline for the next generation
of scholars and professionals who foster engagement at this intersection.

Roles & Responsibilities

With supervision and guidance provided by the leadership of the AADHum
initiative, the postdocs will work closely with faculty and researchers in
their field of expertise, for example, with the Center for Global Migration
Studies, or with the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual
Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora. Postdocs
will each participate in and help coordinate the Digital Humanities
Incubator training sessions for faculty and students; provide mentorship
and research leadership to graduate assistants working in support of the
project; and design a two-semester course sequence that engages first-year
students with research questions involving African American labor,
migration, and artistic expression that are tractable to digital tools and
methods. These questions will be pursued through use of our testbed
collections, including onsite, hands-on work at the Center for Global
Migration Studies, the Driskell Center, and the George Meany Memorial
AFL-CIO Archive.

The ideal candidates will have both relevant academic training as well as
experience with content management and digital humanities project
development. Postdocs will be expected to continue to develop their ongoing
research within a field of study compatible with the AADHum initiative.
Opportunities to lead, engage, or collaborate in workshops, seminars,
presentations, and publications will be strongly encouraged and supported.

Qualifications

*Required:*

● Ph.D., or equivalent terminal degree in African American Studies,
Art History, United States Labor History, United States or Global Migration
Studies, Digital Media, Historical and Cultural Visualization, Cultural
Studies or a related field

● Terminal degree conferred May 2011 or later, and before start date
for this position

● Demonstrable strong scholarly research focus on African American
history and culture

● Practical understanding of the research process and research data
lifecycle

● Experience or familiarity with using digital media as part of
teaching or research

● Strong organizational and documentation skills

● Ability to engage with people in new settings as well as excellent
interpersonal and communication skills

● Willingness to participate in teaching and training initiatives
related to the postdoc or area of research

*Desired:*

● Excellent skills in project management, workflow design and
management, teaching and outreach, communication and collaboration with
faculty members

● Experience designing and implementing databases for scholarly
projects

● Experience coordinating and promoting programs and/or services

● Working knowledge of various content management systems

● Familiarity with markup and metadata standards associated with
Digital Humanities projects
Local Guidance and Professional Development Support

Postdocs will work in close collaboration with faculty and staff from the
Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH) and the Arts and
Humanities Center for Synergy, the two core centers for the AADHum
initiative. One of the premier digital humanities centers in the world,
MITH will provide mentoring in best practices for data curation, data
modeling, project development, and training, along with working knowledge
of advanced methods and tools for data analytics. Launched in late 2013,
the Center for Synergy has already been recognized as on the cutting edge
of public humanities, successfully conceptualizing and building
collaborative projects between Arts and Humanities scholars, other
disciplines and external communities. The center received one of the first
NEH Humanities in the Public Square grants for its *Baltimore Stories* project,
in which humanists work alongside citizens to examine the roles of
narratives in the life of a major American city. The Center for Synergy
will provide mentoring in best practices for developing vibrant
intellectual communities, both in the form of innovative curriculum and in
the form of engaging public programming, from the micro-level of reading
groups to the macro-level of a national conference.

Opportunities for archival work in the rich research collections at the
University of Maryland will also be key components of the postdoc
experience. The archives of the David C. Driskell Collection document the
creation and curation of the largest academic holdings of African American
art and art from the African diaspora. The George Meany Memorial AFL-CIO
archives are the official repository for records of the American Federation
of Labor (AFL), selected records of the Congress of Industrial
Organizations (CIO), and the merged American Federation of Labor and
Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO).

To apply, please send a letter of application, CV, and contact information
for three references to aadhum-postdocs@umd.edu. For best consideration,
applications should be submitted no later than July 22, 2016. Review will
continue until the position is filled. Start date to be negotiated, but no
later thanFebruary 1, 2017. For complete information about the position,
please visit: http://go.umd.edu/AADHumPostDocs*.*

The University and Community

Founded in 1856, University of Maryland, College Park is the flagship
institution in the University System of Maryland. Our 1,250-acre College
Park campus is just minutes away from Washington, D.C., and the nexus of
the nation’s legislative, executive, and judicial centers of power. This
unique proximity to business and technology leaders, federal departments
and agencies, and a myriad of research entities, embassies, think tanks,
cultural centers, and non-profit organizations is simply unparalleled.
Synergistic opportunities for our faculty and students abound and are
virtually limitless in the nation’s capital and surrounding areas. Now part
of the Big Ten, the University is committed to attracting and retaining
outstanding and diverse faculty and staff that will enhance our stature of
preeminence in our three missions of teaching, scholarship, and full
engagement in our community, the State of Maryland, and in the world.
Diversity

The University of Maryland, College Park, an equal opportunity/affirmative
action employer, complies with all applicable federal and state laws and
regulations regarding nondiscrimination and affirmative action; all
qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment. The
University is committed to a policy of equal opportunity for all persons
and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex,
national origin, physical or mental disability, protected veteran status,
age, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, creed, marital
status, political affiliation, personal appearance, or on the basis of
rights secured by the First Amendment, in all aspects of employment,
educational programs and activities, and admissions.

—
Neil Fraistat
Professor of English & Director
Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH)
University of Maryland
301-405-5896 or 301-314-7111 (fax)
http://www.mith.umd.edu/
Twitter: @fraistat

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