(CLOSED) Feminist Press Archive Intern

FALL 2020

About the Feminist Press

The Feminist Press publishes books that ignite movements and social transformation. Celebrating our legacy, we lift up insurgent and marginalized voices from around the world to build a more just future.

Founded in 1970, we began as a crucial publishing component of second wave feminism, reprinting feminist classics by writers such as Zora Neale Hurston and Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and providing much-needed texts for the developing field of womenā€™s studies with books by Barbara Smith and Grace Paley. Since then, we have published feminist literature from around the world, by best-selling authors such as Shahrnush Parsipur, Ruth Kluger, and Ama Ata Aidoo, as well as North American writers of diverse race and class experiences, such as Paule Marshall and Rahna Reiko Rizzuto.

We have become the vanguard for books on contemporary feminist issues of equality and gender identity, with authors as various as Dr. Brittney Cooper, Sarah Schulman, Michelle Tea, and Juli Delgado Lopera.

Internship Overview

We are seeking an Archive Intern to help the Feminist Press manage, preserve, and ensure broader access to our archival material for 150 hours in the 2020 Fall semester.

The Archive Intern will report to the Feminist Press executive director, and coordinate with board, staff, and other key stakeholders internally and externally.

Roles and Responsibilities

Our Archive Intern will work with the Feminist Press team to examine our archival program, document-retention policy and protocols, conduct an archival needs assessment, and draft a proposal and plan for further development with some follow-up solutions and recommendations for how to make FPā€™s archives more accessible. The assessment will pinpoint strengths, challenges, recommend solutions, set priorities, and help guide our archival program moving forward. This role will help us fulfill our strategic priority to ensure that document retention and archival practices are in place by the end of 2021.

During the internship, the intern will also research and compile a list of potential donor, educational, and organizational partners to help support our digital and physical archival program to include in the final report.

Key tasks include:

  • Digitizing paper collections
  • Describing archival materials and updating existing finding tools
  • Liaising with our archival partners
  • Accessioning materials such as publications, photographs, and ephemera
  • Cataloging archival material and archival inventory management
  • Researching Feminist Press history
  • Drafting a needs-assessment report and recommended plan

Knowledge, Experience, and Skills Required

  • Current doctoral students in the humanities and/or the social sciences
  • Training and experience in empirical research and archival methods, quantitative and/or qualitative
  • Proficiency in Microsoft Office and comfort in using other technology, such as video conferencing
  • Excellent organizational, administrative, verbal, and written communications skills
  • Experience in video- and audio-collection cataloging, digitization and preservationā€‹, metadata management, processing special collections, and/or cataloging books and periodicals is a plus
  • Some grant, development, and proposal-writing experience would be helpful
  • Ability to be proactive, self-directed, and flexible in a rapidly changing environment, with a ā€œcan doā€ attitude
  • Proven ability to multitask, prioritize, and manage time effectively while demonstrating good follow up and follow through
  • Knowledge of and strong interest in intersectional feminism, social justice, literary fiction, activist nonfiction, and feminist childrenā€™s books
  • Must develop internal and external rapport with all levels of FP stakeholders
  • Must be a team player who is capable of handling sensitive, critical information, and is open to receiving feedback and directions
  • Must be detailed-oriented and diligent about ensuring that all aspects of their daily activities are handled with accuracy
  • Willingness to travel to our archive at Brown University for a site visit
  • To apply, send a one- to two-page writing sample required, along with three references

The Feminist Press is an equal employment opportunity organization and does not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment on the basis of sex, race, age, creed, ethnicity, disability, marital or parenting status, sexual orientation, or gender identity. We actively seek to maintain a diverse staff.

This internship is administered and funded through the PublicsLab at The Graduate Center, CUNY. The PublicsLab will compensate 150 hours of work with a $5000 stipend.

The application for this position is #6028 on GC Connect. For more information about GC Connect, please click here. Applications will be accepted until 17 April 2020. If you have questions, please direct them to PublicsLab director Dr. Stacy Hartman at shartman2@gc.cuny.edu.