Digital Historian & Archivist

Washington College invites applications for a two-year grant-funded Digital Historian and Archivist position at the Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience. This position is partially funded through the American Council of Learned Societies Digital Justice program, which seeks to “diversify the digital domain, advance justice and equity in digital scholarly practice, and/or contribute to public understanding of racial and social justice issues.”

The Digital Historian and Archivist will work closely with campus and community partners to grow and manage the digital archive for Chesapeake Heartland: An African American Humanities Project, while participating in an interpretative planning process for the enhancement of the project’s website and interpretive tools.

Begun through a partnership with the National Museum of African American History and Culture, with funding from the Mellon Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, and others, the Chesapeake Heartland project has developed a robust digital archive and interactive website that preserve, interpret, and share materials related to African American history and culture on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay. This innovative project seeks to delineate the Chesapeake Bay watershed as a national heartland of African American history and culture spanning four centuries. The project has emphasized “community curation,” in which members of the general public collect, share, and interpret the histories of their own families and communities. In its next phase, we aim to incorporate institutional archival collections into the digital archive, as well as to create an interpretive framework that will contextualize digitized materials within four centuries of the African American experience.

The Digital Historian and Archivist will serve as a key digital strategist and architect for the project, helping to maintain, populate, design, and implement digital tools with which members of the public – including digital novices – can curate, interpret, and share their history. The Digital Historian and Archivist will focus on the following four specific functions:

1. Manage digitization, processing, and cataloguing efforts for the project;
2. Oversee the project website and help lead interpretive planning around its future development;
3. Serve as the Center’s primary liaison with specialized contractors in website and digital repository design;
4. Act as a supervisor and mentor for Washington College undergraduates, developing and implementing opportunities for students to participate in the project;
5. In collaboration with other Chesapeake Heartland participants, develop online exhibitions and interactive features that engage broad and diverse audiences;
6. Working closely with Starr Center staff, consult and assist with the Center’s other digital humanities projects, including the National Home Front Project – one of the nation’s largest comprehensive oral history projects centered on the American home front during World War II – as well as the Center’s own internal, online institutional archives.

Qualifications include:

• Professional experience in digital archiving is required.

• Strong knowledge of American and African American history is strongly preferred, as is teaching and mentoring experience.

• Professional background in one or more of the following is strongly sought: website design, public history, oral history, media production, and/or digital humanities.

About Washington College

Washington College is a small liberal-arts institution that emphasizes close student/faculty collaboration, civic engagement, and experiential learning. Established in 1782, it is the nation’s tenth-oldest college and the first one chartered in the newly independent United States. The college is located on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, a region rich in American history, approximately 90 minutes from Washington, Baltimore, and Philadelphia.

To Apply

Please submit a cover letter, resume, and contact information of three professional references through our online portal. Review of applications will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled.

EEO Statement & Title IX

Washington College values diversity within our student body, faculty, and staff, and strives to recruit, develop, and retain the most talented people. Washington College does not discriminate in employment on the bases of race, color, creed, religion, sex, sexual orientation, transgender status, gender identity, age, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected status in accordance with applicable federal, state and/or local laws. For information on Washington College’s Title IX compliance, please visit https://www.washcoll.edu/title-ix/ .

Other Information

Employment is contingent upon completion of a successful background check and establishment of identity and verification of employment eligibility as required by the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. It is the policy of Washington College to provide reasonable accommodations. If you require any accommodations to participate in any part of the hiring process, please contact hr@washcoll.edu.