American Anthropological Association Short-term Internship Summer 2017

The AAA is collaborating with the Center for Folklife and Heritage during the Smithsonian’s Folklife Festival June 29 – July 4; July 6 -9 2017. The AAA will be hosting three interactive workshops on the diverse experiences of migration and displacement.

These workshop events are part of the AAA’s Public Education Initiative on Human Migration.

The AAA would like to recruit graduate and undergraduate students to serve as workshop facilitators, workshop assistant, and social media interns. I believe this will be an excellent opportunity for students to use their anthropological knowledge outside the classroom and gain experience working within a large public setting. This internship is best suited for students in anthropology and sociology; however, we encourage students who are studying ethnomusicology, cultural studies, language studies, and other related disciplines to apply.

Interns will work three hours a day on a rotating shift. Interns are expected to work through the ten days of the Festival during the last week of June and the first week of July, including weekends and the July Fourth holiday. The interns should be comfortable working outdoors in high heat and humidity, in a fast-paced environment among large crowds of people. The festival hours are 11 am to 5 pm. Interns will receive a modest stipend for participating in this event.

Please circulate this message among your faculty, students, and anthropology clubs. Students interested in applying for this internship should send an electronic copy of their resume, unofficial copy of transcripts, and cover letter to lwalker@americananthro.org.

MSMC Practicum – Invitation to Preservation Maryland Open House 4/27

Hello students of the Museum Scholarship and Material Culture program,

You are invited to an Open House this Thursday, April 27, 2017 from 5-7pm in the Maryland Room in Hornbake Library. Come join fellow MSMC student Jen Wachtel and Special Collections in recognizing the contributions of Preservation Maryland, the second-oldest statewide preservation organization in the United States, to the Historic Preservation collections. Students who are considering how to design their MSMC practicum, looking to compare practicum projects,  and/or interested  historic preservation are strongly encouraged to attend this free event.
Remarks will be at 6pm. Students, faculty, staff, and members of the public are most welcome. Light refreshments will be served. Please see the attached announcement for the Preservation Maryland Open House. Contact jw23@umd.edu for more information.
I’m looking forward to seeing some of my former classmates there!
Optional: Register on Eventbrite

Small Museum Association Meeting: Panel and Networking Reception!

Small Museum Association meeting @ University Marriott Conference Center, February 19-21 [Registration Fee]  Check out the website for registration details:  www.smallmuseum.org

This conference traditionally attracts 200-250 staff and volunteers from small museums across the mid-Atlantic region.  Many participants are associated with Maryland museums.

Conference theme:  All Hands on Deck

Monday, February 20, panel discussion of the role of internships in museums:  “Making Use of ‘All Hands,’ including interns”  3:45-5:30 [Room to be assigned]

Following the panel discussion students in the Certificate Program and graduates are invited to a reception to promote professional networking.  This part of the program is sponsored by the UMd Certificate in Museum Scholarship and Material Culture Program and the  Alumni organization. Open to public.

Please Share With Your Networks!

Call for Papers: 10th Int’l Conference on the Inclusive Museum

We are pleased to announce the Call for Papers for the Tenth International Conference on the Inclusive Museum, held 15–17 September 2017 at the University of Manchester in Manchester, UK.

Founded in 2008, the International Conference on the Inclusive Museum brings together a community of museum practitioners, researchers, and thinkers. The key question addressed by the conference: How can the institution of the museum become more inclusive? In this time of fundamental social change, what is the role of the museum, both as a creature of that change, and perhaps also as an agent of change?

We invite proposals for paper presentations, workshops/interactive sessions, posters/exhibits, colloquia, virtual posters, or virtual lightning talks. The conference features research addressing the annual themes and the 2017 Special Focus: “Diaspora, Integration and Museums.”

For more information regarding the conference, use the links below to explore our conference website.

The Inclusive Museum Conference Call for Papers

 

Small Museum Association Scholarships

Small Museum Association Scholarships 

33rd Annual Conference

February 19-21, 2017

The annual Small Museum Association conference attracts more than 250 museum professionals, board members, and volunteers from a wide variety of small museums. They attend sessions on topics ranging from collections and education to staffing and board issues. We offer a large Museum Resource Hall and plenty of informal networking opportunities for you to talk with (and get ideas from!) other small museum professionals and volunteers.

This year, the SMA conference will offer sessions that address the theme “All Hands on Deck.” Speakers will explore how professional staff, board members and volunteers work together to make small museums thrive.

SMA offers over scholarships each year through the generosity of past conference organizers and attendees as well as several partner organizations. All scholarships cover the cost of conference registration as well as hotel stay and most meals. Anyone affiliated with a museum, library, historical society, or related graduate study program (e.g. Museum Studies, Public History, Library and Information Studies, Historic Preservation) is eligible for the SMA Scholarships. This includes full-time or part-time employees, board members, students, interns, and volunteers.

All application materials must be submitted by November 13, 2016.

For more information go to: http://www.smallmuseum.org/Awards

 The Small Museum Association Annual Conference will be held at the: 

Marriott Hotel & Conference Center

3501 University Boulevard East

Hyattsville, MD 20783

This Thursday: Exhibit Opening at College Park Aviation Museum

You are Invited to the Exhibit Opening

for

Over Here & Over There: College Park and Prince George’s County in World War I

CPAviationPic

at the College Park Aviation Museum

Thursday, March 24
6 – 8 p.m.  – FREE
Drop in to be one of the first to see the exhibit and enjoy light refreshments.

Explore the development of aircraft, discover how the first military pilots influenced aviation during and after WWI and learn about the role of Prince George’s County and its residents during the war.

Post-Symposium Thoughts

Symposium on Museum Scholarship and Material Culture of Prince George’s County: Starting the Conversation

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Dr. Judith Freidenberg gives opening remarks at the Symposium

This past Tuesday, Dec. 8th, the MSMC Certificate held a symposium to discuss ways in which the University of Maryland and museum and cultural organizations in Prince George’s County can better collaborate. It was well attended with over 35 participants representing over 20 museums and cultural organizations in the county.

The following notes provide a summary of topics discussed and key points made by speakers and attendees, followed by a reflection of the event by one of the Certificate students.

Use - IMG_20151208_171427_385Dr. Judith Freidenberg, Director of the Museum Scholarship and Material Culture Graduate Certificate program at the University of Maryland opened the evening with remarks about the purpose of the symposium. She highlighted the importance of creating stronger links between the University and the cultural and museum organizations in the county, especially for the Museum Certificate students who are preparing to enter the field as new professionals. Dr. Freidenberg also explained that this will be a conversation about “how to best work collectively to address common issues and problems.”

Four speakers addressed symposium participants beginning with Dean Gregory Ball of the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences at the University of Maryland. Dean Ball spoke of his support of this event, having grown up in Prince George’s County and fondly remembering museum experiences.

Dean Ball said,“universities and museums are significant cultural institutions which can change the conversation” and incorporate new methods into museums and academia.

Susan Pearl, Historian with the Prince George’s County Historical Society gave a brief history of the county, drawing on the rich cultural outlets since its founding. Cities like Upper Marlboro, Bladensburg, Piscataway, and College Park have had a long history of theater, art, musical performance, and exhibits which continue to thrive today.

Use - IMG_20151208_172540_657The rich history and culture in the County that Mrs. Pearl described was echoed by John Peter Thompson, Chair of the Prince George’s County Historic Preservation Commission. He spoke about the county’s over 500 historic sites which provide opportunities to explore many aspects of the county’s cultures and history. He spoke highly of the resources at the Prince George’s Historical Society library open to anyone and located in the Greenbelt Library building with special collections pertaining to the county and beyond.

Aaron Marcavitch, Director of Maryland Milestones, described the importance of “Heritage areas” as cultural landscapes created to preserve the meaning of these spaces without owning or restricting the land. He engaged participants to consider the benefits of making tourism work for the small and sometimes remote museums and organizations in the county.

Think about local museums and organizations as an alternative form of recreation to mainstream tourist locations in Washington, DC., he exhorted.

The speakers set the tone for the conversations that happened around each table of symposium participants. Issues discussed included:

  • How to better represent the diversity of the County’s history?
  • Addressing the transient population within the county
  • Engaging stakeholders – getting people to care about and invest in cultural organizations
  • Leveraging County projects like new construction and transportation outlets to get better signage for smaller museums
  • How to better work with the public schools
  • Uniting museum “Friends Groups” to discuss shared challenges
  • Acknowledging what museum staff don’t know in order to address gaps
  • Creating new ways to track visitors
  • Better awareness of home school opportunities – bulletin boards, parent groups, brochures, as field trip sites
  • Use social media to connect with broader audiences outside of the museum spaces

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Once groups shared their conversations about common issues, Dr. Freidenberg asked

“What are your organizations are good at? How can we use these successes to help each other?”

Some responses included:

Then the discussion led to ideas about improving communication and resource access between the University of Maryland, College Park and the County museums and organizations. Comments included:

  • How to connect students with organizations for class projects and internships
    • The Prince George’s Historical Society reported 5 graduate students working on projects through word-of-mouth references
  • Can county organizations have access to University library resources?
  • Two-way sharing between individual organizations and the Museum Certificate program via website (umdmuseumcert.wordpress.com).
    • Announce events, internships, write a guest post about an important topic, or contribute an exhibit review, etc.
  • Contact the Museum Certificate program about hosting the Certificate’s graduate class on a tour of your museum, or hosting a graduate student for their practicum project.

 

Reflection from a Student

Sarah Janesko
Masters of Applied Anthropology Student
Museum Scholarship and Material Culture Certificate student
Class of 2016

This event was successful in bringing people together in a single room to talk about relevant issues. It was successful because everyone who attended cares about their organization and community. It was successful because participants were not afraid to talk about what is lacking in their organizations, and about what goes right.

There is a lot to be said for the presence of University faculty, a dean, students and local museum and material cultural professionals starting a conversation together in one room. However, big issues were discussed that can’t be easily solved in 2 or 3 hours. Getting to “success” in the long-term will involve action by all parties to continue the conversation.

It felt similar to our seminars as part of the Certificate program. Students discuss scholarship issues around the classroom table and then visit museums and talk to the directors and curators about how they handle community partnership, collections management, accessibility, diversity and many other issues. Understanding how different museums implement the scholarship in their daily work and programs is critical to reproducing those successes elsewhere.

Hopefully, this is what the Symposium has started with the museums in Prince George’s County – thinking about 1) what programs, initiatives and goals were successful, and 2) the ways to receive help from and 3) give help to other museums and organizations working toward similar goals.

Has your school, organization, museum, historical society had luck with partnerships like this? What made them successful in the long-run?