Great Migration Community History Project

Are you interested in a short-term community-engaged historical research project this winter? 

If so, apply for the  Great Migration History Project micro-internship. 

The Truth & Repair Project is working in partnership with the Program for Community-Engaged Scholarship (ProCES) on this Wintersession opportunity to support a limited number of undergraduate student research experiences. Truth & Repair: The History of Structural Racism in New Jersey is a grant-funded research study documenting the historical impacts of structural racism on the health and wellbeing of African American, Latine, and Indigenous communities in New Jersey. Truth & Repair partners with cultural institutions and organizations across the state to help preserve and produce the historical records needed to document these histories and inform recommendations for redressing the effects of structural racism on community health. 

Brief applications submitted in SAFE are due Sunday, December 8, 2024.

What opportunities are available?
Two remote project placements are available during Wintersession 2025. Please see the complete project description below for details about the opportunity and the partnering organization.  Given the short timeframe to conduct the projects, projects requiring Institutional Review Board review are NOT eligible for funding. Partner organizations may provide de-identified data on human subjects which would not require IRB review. 

What does the funding cover?

  • The funding can offset expenses incurred and may cover project or research-related expenses such as transportation, educational material development or translation, access to publications, and food.

What is the amount of the funding?

  • Participants can receive $325/week for 3 weeks total for the period. Total stipend is $1,125

  • Please note that half of the funds will be paid in early January 2025, and half will be paid upon submission and staff review of the final report in late February 2025. 

  • Stipends may be subject to tax and may be reported by the University to the Internal Revenue Service. See University guidelines 

What is the timeline?

  • Tuesday, November 12, 2024 application period will start.

  • Apply between November 12 and Sunday, December 8, 2024. The deadline to submit applications is midnight Sunday, December 8.

  • Candidates will be notified of a decision in mid-December 2024.

  • Projects should be conducted between January 6-24, 2025.

  • Final deliverables are due by February 1, 2025

What do I need to know about applying and reporting?

  • Submit your application proposals via the Student Activity Funding Engine (SAFE). To apply, search for “Great Migration History Project”

  • Use the following search criteria to find the opportunity: 

    • Activity: Undergraduate Internship

    • Time Period: Winter Break or Intersession Break

    • Project Duration: Less than 4 weeks.

TO APPLY:
In your SAFE application, please identify:

  1. Your learning goals and the expected impact of your work
  2. A statement of why this project interests you
  3. Any relevant experience, knowledge or skills that would help you perform the project activities
  4. In the "Supervisor of Internship" field, list Dr. Skyler Gordon, Project Manager
  5. In the “Anticipated Expenses” field, request $1,125, but you do not need to provide a breakdown of costs. For expense type “Other”, enter “Completion of project” in the description field).

Questions?

Contact Skyler Gordon, Project Manager, Truth & Repair, [email protected]; Tania Boster, Director, Program for Community-Engaged Scholarship (ProCES), [email protected] 

Winter 2025 Great Migration History Project Description

Truth & Repair: The History of Structural Racism in New Jersey is a grant-funded research study documenting the historical impacts of structural racism on the health and wellbeing of African American, Latine, and Indigenous communities in New Jersey. Truth & Repair partners with cultural institutions and organizations across the state to help preserve and produce the historical records needed to document these histories and inform recommendations for redressing the effects of structural racism on community health. 

Truth & Repair is seeking two (2) research assistants to help archivists at the New Jersey State Archives (NJSA) digitize the New Jersey South Black Migration Oral History Project, a collection of audio-recorded and transcribed oral history interviews of African American migrants who settled in New Jersey during the Great Migration of the early twentieth century. The staff at NJSA will oversee making the collection publicly available online. This is part of Archives’ initiative to preserve these historical accounts by converting analogue recordings to digital form, making them easily accessible for educational and research purposes. Through this project, the RAs will build skills in archival research, expand the history of African Americans in New Jersey, and safeguard the voices of some of New Jersey’s most marginalized and inspiring residents.

Requirements: Each RA is expected to work up to 20 hours/week. Travel to the NJSA is required (New Jersey State Archives (NJSA) address: 225 W State St, Trenton, NJ 08608). Tasks will include arranging the collection, scanning the transcriptions, digitizing the audiocassette tapes in real time, editing the transcriptions, and creating abstracts for each recording. In addition, the RAs will meet weekly with the project manager and keep a research log to document their progress and note details from the oral histories that relate to the themes of Truth & Repair. At the end of the assistantship, the RAs will submit a short report summarizing their work and key findings. If interested, they will have an opportunity to present their work at an end-of-summer conference held in late August.

Compensation: Each RA will receive an honorarium of $1,125 upon successful completion of the project.