Internship Opportunities

Current Openings

 

Mellon Humanities Postdoctoral Fellow

Gender in Michigan’s Copper Country: Redefining the Keweenaw’s Industrial Frontier

The National Park Service (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, Mellon Humanities Fellows will complete original research projects, and develop new interpretive and educational programming, helping the agency connect more people to places that matter by incorporating new sources and perspectives into its storytelling.

The Mellon Humanities Postdoctoral Fellowship Program is a signature element of the National Park Service's commemoration of the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, during which the Park Service will join with other agencies and all Americans to celebrate and contemplate the meaning of the Declaration of Independence and its relevance to our lives today. As the steward of our nation's parks, heritage sites, and special places, NPS is committed to learning from the complex and challenging histories contained within them, building toward a future of freedom and possibility for all Americans.

This opportunity is generously supported by a generous grant from the Mellon Foundation through the National Park Foundation (NPF). The project is administered via a three-way agreement among NPS, National Park Foundation (NPF), and American Conservation Experience (ACE).

Job Title:

National Park Service Mellon Humanities Postdoctoral Fellow: Gender in Michigan's Copper Country: Redefining the Keweenaw's Industrial Frontier

Employer:

American Conservation Experience (ACE)

Department:

EPIC Program, National Park Service (NPS) Division

Location:

Keweenaw National Historical Park, Calumet, Michigan. On-site preferred, with the possibility of remote with periodic research trips and park-based work.

Status:

Temporary, Full-time, Exempt

Term:

Position is fully funded through August 31, 2026

Start Date:

On or about January 27, 2025

Host Description:

This Fellowship is placed with Keweenaw National Historical Park (NHP), headquartered in Calumet, Michigan. The Keweenaw's mines, mills, and smelters were the center of the copper mining world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In addition to stories of industrial growth and technological innovation, the park contains important resources and histories associated with immigration, ethnicity, corporate paternalism, and urban development.

The park's interpretive themes address four broad topics: mining processes; labor, management, and economics; peoples' lives and immigration; and natural history. The lives of men and women are key elements of each of these themes, but to date, only limited research has been undertaken into the role that gender and sexuality have had in Keweenaw history. This project will center gender (and gender non-conformity) as an analytical tool for understanding park themes more fully, and to help the park share more new, more relevant, and more meaningful stories of how people have navigated life in the Keweenaw over time.

Keweenaw NHP is a partnership park, where the NPS works with a legislated partner, the Keweenaw NHP Advisory Commission, to fulfill its purpose and mission. Together, the NPS and Commission work with 22 formal, non-federal partners throughout the historic copper mining range to preserve and interpret a variety of historic sites, including mines, historic homes, commercial districts, museums and archives, and more.

ACE is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing rewarding environmental service opportunities for young adults and emerging professionals of all backgrounds to explore and improve public lands while gaining practical professional experience. The EPIC NPS Division works alongside the National Park Service across the United States, from Alaska to Puerto Rico, to support the NPS in its mission to "preserve unimpaired the natural and cultural resources and values of the National Park System for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations" while providing career promoting individual placement opportunities.

Position Description:

Each NPS Mellon Humanities Postdoctoral Fellow will complete work in four areas. Fellows will (1) perform project-based research; (2) share research results; (3) produce and substantially contribute to interpretive and educational products; and (4) pursue career-focused work.

1) Project-Based Research: The Mellon Fellow placed at Keweenaw NHP will conduct research into the history of gender and sexuality in Michigan's historic copper mining district as it grew from a frontier mining camp in the 1860s to a cosmopolitan and diverse copper producing district at the turn of the 20th century. To date, histories of the area have not explored concepts of masculinity, femininity, and gender as they relate to industrial history. Local archives and museum collections will be important sources of information; travel to regional repositories is likely. Part of this background research will include visits to the park's formal partners to learn how they interpret gender and where it is reflected in their collections. This research will result in a written report.

The Fellow's work will involve updating and refining the park's interpretive themes and proposing products for interpreting their findings. The Fellow will work with the park's mentorship team to develop these products, which may include online content, exhibits, and educational plans. The Fellow will also speak to public history undergraduate and graduate students as part of the park's Public History Internship program with the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Should the research warrant, the Fellow will also identify potential National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) nominations and updates to existing NRHP documentation.

2) Sharing Research Results: The Fellow will be expected to share their research findings with park and partner staff through formal presentation(s), followed by public offerings of the presentation content in a format to be determined with mentors and other park staff members. The Fellow will be encouraged to seek opportunities for publication of their research findings in professional journals and to develop interpretive media content based on their research for park creation and distribution. This might include social media posts, web-based content or print media as well as in-person sharing in the form of tours, lectures, or brief gallery talks. It is also anticipated that the research will be shared more formally through future exhibition content and/or ancillary educational programs.

The Fellow will be expected to develop and sustain connections with program-provided mentors and host staff, associated NPS staff, members of their Fellowship cohort, and other Fellows across the tenure of the program. In addition to being provided mentorship and support themselves, the Fellow will have the opportunity to mentor others and to enrich staff knowledge by organizing events such as virtual speaker series and presentations. The Fellow will participate with their cohort and other Fellows in a virtual conference for NPS staff and partners to provide updates about their research. The Fellow will be responsible for tracking and reporting accomplishments and for supplying copies of interpretive, educational, and research products to their host and to the National Coordinator.

3) Interpretive and Educational Products: The Fellow will work with mentors and a park-based support team to identify interpretive and educational engagements with their research as public history, public archaeology, critical museology, or some combination of those practices. Examples of potential interpretation and educational outcomes of this Fellowship opportunity include advising and co-creating narrative and object-centered storylines for interpretive exhibits; co-developing multi-modal expressions of park themes and topics; engaging with park partners to develop site-specific visitor programming; and developing content for and facilitating public programs for learners of all ages. The Fellow will actively participate in shaping and ensuring park narratives are historically accurate, and intellectually and affectively engaging for a wide range of users, especially underserved and historically disadvantaged persons and cohorts.

4) Career-focused Research and Products: In consultation with their mentors, the Fellow will carry out a career-centered project. About 20 percent of the Fellowship will be dedicated to this scholarly work that advances the Fellow's career path. The Fellow will be supported by a multidisciplinary team that draws on local, regional, and agency-wide expertise. In addition to NPS staff, the Fellow will have an external mentor whose work examines and explicates the themes and historic importance of the site, its social history, and its multicultural present.

Essential Responsibilities and Tasks:

• Work with mentors to identify and implement research practices that support public history and critical museology.
  
• Conduct original research into the intersections of gender and industrialization, immigration, and urbanization in a frontier mining district, and place this history in regional and national context.
  
• Produce a conceptual outline identifying potential material resources that support and illustrate analysis of the historical processes and intersections noted above for internal review and discussion.
  
• Co-lead a public engagement process with those research and programming processes, to enact public history, public archaeology, and critical museology.

Required Experience and Qualifications:

• Must be a PhD in any field of the humanities or humanistic social sciences. Scholars who received or will receive their PhD between December 15, 2019, and December 15, 2024, are eligible to apply. For more information on the NPS Mellon Humanities Postdoctoral Fellow program, please refer to Mellon Humanities Postdoctoral Fellowship Program (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)
  
• Subject matter expertise in gender and sexuality, labor history, women's history, historical and industrial archaeology, public history, or anthropology of modern societies.
  
• Excellent research, writing, and communication skills.
  
• Ability to work independently and as a collaborator in a team.
  
• Skill in project planning and management, and the desire and ability to engage multiple, concurrent, and variable tasks as a matter of course.
  
• Personal time management skills necessary to accomplish tasks and meet deadlines in collaboration with a large interdisciplinary team.
  
• Selective factors include merit of scholarship, commitment to the public humanities, and capacity to complete research and project implementation successfully.

Other Requirements:

• Must be a US citizen or Permanent Resident, as required to comply with U.S. government contracts.
  
• Must have a valid US driver's license.
  
• Must be proficient in English.
  
• Must pass a federal background check; Fellowship is also contingent upon a successful security background check with the NPS.
  
• Must be willing to abide by ACE Policy and Federal Drug Free workplace policies and laws. ACE reserves the right to drug test at any time.
  
• Must be willing to abide by a requirement to acknowledge The Mellon Foundation, the National Park Service, the National Park Foundation, and American Conservation Experience, in any publications generated by this project.
  
• Must be willing to abide by federal policy that research results, publications, films, videos, artistic or similar endeavors resulting from the fellowship, other than the specifically career-focused work, will become the property of the United States, and as such, will be in the public domain and not subject to copyright laws.
  
• Consent to being photographed and to the release of such photographic images.
  

Physical Demands, Work Environment, and Working Conditions:

• Physical Demands: Requires frequent sitting, standing, walking, using hands to handle or feel, reaching with hands and arms, talks and hears with or without assistive personnel and/or devices. Manual dexterity required for use of computer keyboard/mouse and other office equipment with or without reasonable accommodations. May be occasionally required to stoop, kneel, climb stairs, and/or crouch (all physical demands are required with or without reasonable accommodations). The National Park Service host will provide reasonable accommodations, if needed, to meet task assignments.
  
• Vision Requirements: Requires close, distance, peripheral and depth perception vision as well as the ability to focus. The National Park Service host will provide reasonable accommodations, if needed, to meet task assignments.
  
• Environmental: Mainly indoor, office environment conditions; indoor air quality is good, and temperature is controlled. This is describing both provided office spaces and home office spaces.
  
• Noise Environment: Moderate noise such as in a business office with equipment and light traffic. This is describing both provided office spaces and home office spaces.
  
• Travel: This position requires domestic travel as needed for program duties.
  

Salary & Benefits:

Compensation:
Starting annualized salary $67,600 with annualized Cost of Living Adjustment to $70,304 after 1 year (40 hours/week for 52-weeks). Paid bi-weekly, a two-week pay period.

Medical/Health Benefits:
ACE offers competitive medical and ancillary plans (health, mental health, dental, vision, flexible spending accounts, and other supplemental benefits). Fellows are also eligible to participate in ACE's 403b retirement plan, which includes a 1% employer contribution for participating, contributing staff.

Holidays, Vacation, and Sick Time:
As a Fellow, you will be eligible to accrue up to 80 hours of paid vacation time annually during your first two years of continuous employment. Additionally, ACE observes 13 paid annual holidays and provides 10 days (or 80 hours) of paid sick time annually.

Additional Benefits:
Outdoor Perks - As an ACE Fellow, you will be eligible to receive pro deals which include deep discounts on outdoor gear providing 30 - 50% off retail prices on 100s of established outdoor gear brands.

To Apply:

Please submit:

1. a cover letter stating interest and vision for the fellowship (letters may include a summary of the dissertation, a statement of personal research interests and plans, discussion of past engagement with public humanities, discussion of willingness to participate fully in NPS research and education programs);

2. comprehensive curriculum vitae;

3. writing sample accessible to the general public;

4. confirmation of Ph.D. award by December 15, 2024; and

5. names and contact information for 3 professional references.

Deadline to apply:

The deadline to apply is Friday October 18, 2024, or until 75 applications have been received.

American Conservation Experience provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability or genetics. In addition to federal law requirements, American Conservation Experience complies with applicable state and local laws governing non-discrimination in employment in every location in which the company has facilities.

 

Youth Empowerment Stewards (YES)

The intern works with the interpretation and education team to add important resources to the parks interpretive tools by creating activities for learners of all ages and abilities that are designed using multiple learning styles and universal design techniques. The activities focus on park interpretive themes and complement ideas and concepts that visitors will discover while visiting the park and heritage areas.

Canidates must be between 18-24 years of age or a max of 35 for military veterans, identify has having a disability or have a personal connection to the disability community, and they must be U.S. Citizens or eligible to work within the U.S. Please share this opportunity with your networks. More information about the position and how to apply is found on the Conservation Legacy Jobs website.