2012 Summer Graduate Research Assistants (from left) Abigail Holekamp (2012 Cummings Foundation Summer Graduate Research Assistant), Abigail Miller, Ryan Bond, and Michael Fauser.
US Holocaust Memorial Museum
The 2013 competition is closed.
The Museum’s Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies is pleased to invite applications for the Summer Graduate Research Assistant Program, designed for students accepted to or currently enrolled in a master’s (MA) degree program or in their first year of a PhD program. Students who have completed more than one year of doctoral work will not be considered.
The Center welcomes applications from students in all relevant academic disciplines, including history, political science, literature, Jewish studies, psychology, sociology, geography, and others.
Program Objective
The Summer Graduate Research Assistant Program acquaints promising MA-level and first-year PhD students with Holocaust studies by encouraging participation in the broad range of scholarly and publicly available educational programs offered by the Museum during the summer months.
Research assistant projects may include but are not limited to: (1) conducting research on Holocaust-specific and Holocaust-relevant courses in the United States, including assisting with statistical assessments of the state of the field; (2) facilitating projects related to the International Tracing Service digital collection at the Museum; and (3) supporting the research, annotation, contextualization, and editing required for advancing the Museum’s Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945 (vols. III–VI) and the archival source series Documenting Life and Destruction, especially for Jewish Responses to Persecution, 1933–1946 (vols. IV–V) and topical volumes like The Holocaust in Hungary.
In addition, assistants are expected to participate in a weekly training seminar led by Museum staff, which introduces them to key subjects, essential tools, useful methods, and approaches as well as career opportunities in Holocaust research. Each assistant will meet with a staff mentor who will assign weekly tasks and project goals and discuss the progress of these tasks and goals. Assistants are expected to familiarize themselves with relevant topics through assigned readings and to actively engage with Center staff.
Residency Requirements
Assistants are required to be in residence at the Museum for 12 consecutive weeks, arriving on June 3, 2013, and departing on August 23, 2013. The Center will provide a stipend of $2,500/month as well as an allowance to offset the cost of direct, economy-class travel to and from Washington, DC. Local awardees will not receive a travel allowance.
Eligibility
Applicants must be accepted to or enrolled in an MA program or in their first year in a PhD program at a North American college or university and have legal permission to work in the United States (i.e., US citizenship, US permanent residency, or proper authorization on a US student visa). The Center is unable to provide visa assistance for non-US citizens.
In addition to English, applicants are encouraged, but not required, to have fluency in one or more of the following languages: German, Russian, Polish, Romanian, Hebrew, Yiddish, French, Dutch, Hungarian, Slovakian, Italian, and/or Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian.
Application Materials and Guidelines
All applications must be submitted in English and must include:
- A résumé and a personal statement of no more than two single-spaced pages in length. The statement should explain the applicant’s interest in the Holocaust and World War II and how the assistantship might further encourage his or her studies in this area
- One letter of recommendation from a faculty member or dean at the applicant’s institution that speaks to the applicant’s qualifications. The letter must be signed and on institutional letterhead.
CONTACT
Please direct inquiries and applications to:
Jo-Ellyn Decker
Program Coordinator
Visiting Scholar Programs
Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SW
Washington, DC 20024-2126
(T) 202.314.7829
(F) 202.479.9726
SGRA@ushmm.org
Selection Results
The Center will notify all applicants of the selection results by February 2013.
This program is supported by the Albert Abramson Family Foundation.
