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U.S. History Scene Virtual Summer 2022 Programs

Historical Writing and Research Editorial Team

U.S. History Scene, a multimedia history education project, is currently seeking undergraduate and graduate applicants for its Summer 2022 Historical Writing and Research Editorial Program. Summer editors will gain valuable writing and publishing skills through the process of writing, submitting, and editing original multimedia research articles, book reviews, and classroom lesson plans.

All student editorial team members will work one-on-one with our Editorial Board to gain experience in primary source research, editing, and publishing. We will assist you in applying for stipends or university credit, and we partner with universities around the United States to ensure that you are compensated for your public history work. All summer programs can be performed via telecommuting from your home and you set your own deadlines and hours with the Editorial Board.

To apply: Interested graduate students and advanced undergraduates should submit a resume/CV and a writing sample on our Google Form application by May 1, 2022. Applicants are also asked to pitch a list of five original topics they would like to work on; these topics are not binding but help us understand applicants’ research interests. Special consideration will be given to students working on underrepresented historical perspectives.

Pop Culture & Digital History Editorial Team

U.S. History Scene, a multimedia history education project, announces its Summer 2022 Pop Culture & Digital History Editorial Team. The Pop Culture Editors will delve into the nuances of American Pop Culture digital materials, primary sources, and material culture in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Possible finished products might include a podcast or curated digital exhibit. The editors will work one-on-one with our co-founder Prof. Barnes and the editorial board to gain experience in creating digital source databases, integrating multimedia (like historical songs, theater programs, films, etc.), and in methods of promoting public history resources to a variety of audiences.

To apply: Interested graduate students can apply via our Google Form Application by May 1, 2022.

Postponed: Bancroft Library-U.S. History Scene Fellowship in Digital History

The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley and U.S. History Scene are pleased to announce competitions for a new fellowship: The Bancroft Library-U.S. History Scene Fellowship in Digital History.

The aim of this fellowship program is to familiarize scholars with emerging digital technologies and digital archival collections, including the digital publication of original scholarly research. The fellowship will introduce history graduate students to specialized skills, methods, and professional networks for conducting digital research using online digital primary source collections at the Bancroft Library, aimed at innovating K-12 history education and curriculum development.

Eligibility for Awards:

The fellowship is designed to support qualified doctoral students in the humanities or social sciences from any recognized institution of higher education in the United States.

Size of Awards:

The fellowship will include a stipend of $1500 to support 6-8 weeks of research and writing to be paid by the Bancroft Library at U.C. Berkeley directly to the fellow. Residency at the Bancroft Library is not required.

Scope of Eligible Projects:

Fellows will advance digital research practices with primary sources housed at Bancroft Library, identify new sources that should undergo digitization for public access, and receive peer-reviewed digital publishing training through U.S. History Scene for public education. The fellowships will result in digital publication of articles and curriculum plans related to their research topics to be presented on the Bancroft Library and U.S. History Scene websites. This is a virtual fellowship, allowing scholars a flexible schedule through telecommuting to participate (although residency at the Bancroft Library is welcomed). To accommodate this flexibility, primary sources will be digitized and sent to researchers directly from the Bancroft Library for their research use.

Topics that fellows might explore include:

  • Native American life and culture
  • Pacific exploration, maritime history, and empire
  • Mapping and settling the West
  • Missions and cross-cultural exchange
  • The Gold Rush
  • Overland trails
  • Mormons in the U.S. West
  • Mexican-American War, Civil War, & Reconstruction in California
  • Native and African American Slavery in the Early American West
  • Formation of National Parks
  • The U.S. home front during World War I & II
  • Organized Labor & Unionization
  • Environmental History / Natural Disasters
  • Railroads and Transportation History
  • Water, Oil, and Mining
  • Land Grant Acts
  • The Great Depression & Dust Storms
  • The Great Migration
  • Major social movements of the 20th century: Civil Rights, Black Power, Chicano Movements, Feminism & the Women’s Movement, Disability Rights, GLBT Rights
  • The West in the Cold War
  • Chinese Exclusion
  • Japanese Internment
  • Role of military & the federal government
  • Mass Culture in the U.S. West
  • Frontier & Western Mythology

Applying for Awards

This application is currently closed. Check back soon for more information. 

Postponed, 2018: U.S. History Scene-UVA Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship in Indigenous Arts, Historical Writing, and Digital Curation

Background

Founded in 2011 by historians trained at Harvard University, U.S. History Scene is a multimedia history education website composed of historians and educators at over fifty universities dedicated to providing students and teachers with easy access to premier digital resources, live digital curriculum, and cutting-edge history scholarship. Our goal is to use innovative open source technology to democratize learning, narrow the achievement gap by helping history students realize their intellectual potential, and master United States history in a way that is relevant and intuitive. We bring you the best of the archives (without the dust!).

U.S. History Scene’s 10,000 edited internet pages of historical content and research has been cited by the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Atlantic, Salon.com, GQ, Smithsonian Magazine, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Harvard University Press, California University Press, The Journal of African American History, Slate, The Daily Beast, Huffington Post, Clarity Films, PBS, CSPAN, MTV, Vice, Back Story Radio, The United States Census, The Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale; and an amicus brief to the Supreme Court of the United States.

In addition to providing resources for K-12 educators and students, students with different learning styles, and the general public, U.S. History Scene is invested in providing hands-on training in digital curation, digital history, public history, and writing and publishing for advanced undergraduate and graduate students.

The Mellon Indigenous Arts Initiative at the University of Virginia is a multi-year program dedicated to promoting and funding research on Indigenous arts of the Americas and Australia and providing object-based research opportunities for students from a broad range of backgrounds. With support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and Provost’s Office of UVA, the program funds visiting artists and scholars, faculty research, and internship opportunities for students working with Indigenous art in its material and intangible forms.

How it works

Interns will gain valuable writing and publishing skills through the process of designing, writing, submitting, and editing archival-based original multimedia exhibits on underrepresented topics in the field or on indigenous arts of the Americas and Australia. Students’ work may include (but is not limited to) selecting images and objects for presentation and writing their respective labels, producing introductory research articles to complement the exhibit, developing classroom lesson plans for teaching the objects, blog posts, and social media (twitter and instagram) posts to accompany the exhibit. The summer internship is an extension of your classroom research experiences, and a chance to build the professional skills necessary to work in academics, museums, public history, and cultural heritage institutions.

All interns will work one-on-one with our Director of Internships and editorial board to gain experience researching art objects, in conceiving a digital exhibit, selecting objects/music (depending on the project), primary source research, editing, and publishing. Students will have to think carefully about the intended audience, argument, exhibition layout, how to promote the online exhibition, and its possible relationship to the indigenous communities that made the artifacts. Internships can be performed via telecommute from your home university, and interns are expected to work a minimum of 300 hours this summer on their projects between 1 June 2018 and 17 August 2018.

The U.S. History Scene – UVA Andrew W. Mellon Fellow is also expected to attend the UVA Mellon museum practice workshops, held on Mondays in June and July 2019 at the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection. These workshops will address object handling, exhibit design, and curatorial practice topics. A syllabus for preparing for the workshops will be distributed before your fellowship begins.

Weekly check-in: By the Sunday before each week of the fellowship term, you are responsible for submitting the weekly fellowship to-do form. This includes a summary of the research questions to be answered for your exhibit, the collections (archival or material) that you will be working with (and contact information for the repositories holding those collections), the secondary sources you will consult, and a two-sentence summary on what you hope to accomplish this week. We will also meet by phone, Skype, or Google Hangout mid-week to discuss how the project is going and to troubleshoot practical or intellectual problems.

Final Assessment: The final part of your fellowship is to complete and submit a two-page statement assessing your fellowship with U.S. History Scene. What did your final project look like, and how did you incorporate the skills you learned during the workshops and during your fellowship project? What professional skills did you feel developed most over the summer? Which skills do you feel still need more development? How would you characterize your interactions with the USHS staff and editorial faculty? How do you see your exhibit and associated materials being used by public audiences in the future?

Eligibility

This fellowship opportunity is open to current undergraduate students registered at the University of Virginia. (Students graduating in May 2019 are ineligible.)

Per the UVA – Mellon Indigenous Arts Program requirements, applicants must be:

  • Interested in Indigenous studies OR Students who identify as African American, Hispanic American, American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders, and/or individuals with disabilities.
  • Maintain a GPA of 3.5 or above
  • Be available for a minimum of 300 hours over the period of 1 June to 17 August 2018
  • Commit to attending the UVA MIAP workshops every Monday in June and July in Charlottesville

How to Apply

The stipend for this fellowship is supported by the Mellon Indigenous Arts Program. This fellowship is available for either the Internship grant for underrepresented students, or the Indigenous Studies grant. Please contact Amanda Wagstaff, aw2pz@virginia.edu.

This fellowship carries a stipend of $3500.00 for the period 1 June – 17 August 2018.

Former Writers & Interns

Former writers and interns at U.S. History Scene have gone on to become Assistant Professors, Post Doctoral Scholars, and have won 5-year fully-funded fellowships at PhD programs at Harvard, Yale, U Penn, U Chicago, Stanford, and Northwestern, among others. They are widely published in top academic journals, newspapers, and magazines.