About this position
Research Fellow
Amherst Campus
Full Time
JR6987
- Amherst has taken a leadership role among highly selective liberal
- arts colleges and universities in successfully diversifying the
- racial, socio-economic, and geographic profile of its student body.
- The College is similarly committed to enriching its educational
- experience and its culture through the diversity of its faculty,
- administration and staff.
Job Description:
- Amherst College invites applications for the position of Research
- Fellow at the Emily Dickinson Museum. The Research Fellow in
- Domestic Labor History is a fixed-term, 30-hour per week position.
- The expected salary range for this job opportunity is: $42.74 to
- $47.01 per hour.
- The salary offered will vary based on a number of factors,
- including but not limited to relevant education, training, and
- experience, tenure status, and other nondiscriminatory business
- considerations. Amherst College is pleased to provide a
- comprehensive, highly competitive benefits package that meets the
- needs of staff and faculty and their families. Click here for
- Benefits
- Information .
- The Research Fellow in Domestic Labor History will conduct original
- primary-source research to provide evidence for the Museum to
- document and interpret the domestic conditions that afforded Emily
- Dickinson the opportunity to compose a large body of poetic and
- epistolary work.
- Working with archival, manuscript, and material culture
- collections, the Fellow will examine records including
- correspondence, financial documents, census data, maps, employment
- records, newspapers, church records, artifacts, landscapes, the
- built environment, and other contemporaneous sources to identify
- and reconstruct the lives and labor of individual domestic workers
- associated with Dickinson family households and comparable homes in
- the region.
- The Fellow will investigate and analyze the social, economic, and
- cultural structures of nineteenth-century Amherst and New
- England-including systems of race, gender, class, ethnicity,
- immigration, and labor-that shaped the experiences, opportunities,
- and constraints of domestic workers. This work will situate
- individual biographies within broader regional contexts of domestic
- service, wage labor, household economies, and shifting social
- hierarchies. The Fellow will assess how visible and invisible labor
- within the home-including cooking, cleaning, laundry, caregiving,
- agricultural labor, animal husbandry, and other forms of household
- and homestead management-contributed to sustaining social, psychic,
- and material environments in which employers could pursue
- intellectual, professional, civic, and creative endeavors.
- The position requires critical attention to gaps and silences in
- the historical record and interpretive possibilities for
- representing individuals whose lives were often minimally
- documented. The Fellow will produce well-documented research
- findings and will work with the Senior Director of Programs to
- develop an interpretive framework from these findings. The Museum
- may incorporate research results into the visitor experience
- through interpretation, public programs, exhibitions, publications,
- and institutional scholarship, thereby advancing a fuller and more
- inclusive account of the historical conditions that supported
- Dickinson's authorship.
- This position advances the institution's commitment to inclusive,
- evidence-based scholarship and to expanding historical
- interpretation to more fully represent the lives and labor of
- individuals whose contributions have been understudied or
- marginalized in the historical record.
Summary of Responsibilities:
Research & Documentation
- Conduct rigorous primary-source research in local, regional, and national archives, including census records, employment records, correspondence, legal documents, newspapers, account books, church records, and genealogical sources.
- Prepare annotated bibliographies and source documentation for institutional archives.
Scholarly Writing & Dissemination
- Identify and reconstruct biographical narratives of individual domestic workers associated with relevant households.
- Produce written analytical research reports and interpretive briefs suitable for internal use, interpretive planning, digital content, and/or public programs.
- Present research results to staff and constituents and to the annual meeting of the Emily Dickinson International Society in July 2027.
Collaboration & Institutional Engagement
- Collaborate with an advisory committee of subject matter experts to determine research directions and work plans, identify resources, and assess progress.
- Periodically present findings to the advisory committee.
- Assist the Senior Director of Programs, Education Programs Manager, and Collections Manager in employing research results to develop museum materials and public programming.
Qualifications:
Required
- M.A. in History, American Studies, African American Studies, Women's & Gender Studies, Labor History, Public History, or a closely related field.
- 1 to 3 years of related experience.
- An equivalent combination of education/experience in lieu of the minimum education and related experience.
- Demonstrated experience conducting primary-source archival research.
- Demonstrated ability to analyze and interpret archival evidence to interpret how systems of race, gender, class, and ethnicity operated in specific historical settings.
- Excellent scholarly writing and communication skills.
- Ability to work both independently and collaboratively in a museum or public history setting.
- Ability to travel to access primary source material.
- Successful completion of required reference and background checks.
- An acceptable criminal offender records information (CORI) check.
Preferred
- Ph.D. in History, American Studies, African American Studies, Women's & Gender Studies, Labor History, Public History, or a closely related field.
- Research specialization in 19th-century American social or labor history.
- Experience with genealogical research methodologies.
- Familiarity with material culture and household studies.
- Experience translating scholarly research for public audiences.
- The Emily Dickinson Museum comprises two historic houses in the
- center of Amherst, Massachusetts, associated with the poet Emily
- Dickinson (1830-1886) and members of her immediate family during
- the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Homestead was the
- birthplace and home of the poet Emily Dickinson. The Evergreens,
- next door, was home to her brother Austin, his wife Susan, and
- their three children. The Emily Dickinson Museum welcomes 15,000
- visitors each year, as well as thousands of virtual and in-person
- program participants and students of all ages. It conducts an
- active program of restoration and preservation of the historic
- structures and grounds, and stewards a collection of 10,000
- Dickinson family objects. The Museum was created in 2003 when the
- two houses merged under the ownership of Amherst College. It is
- overseen by a separate Board of Governors and is responsible for
- its own operating, program, and capital funds. Its mission is to
- spark the imagination by amplifying Emily Dickinson's revolutionary
- poetic voice from the place she called home.
- Interested candidates are asked to submit a resume and cover letter
- online at https://amherst.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/Amherst_Jobs .
- Please be sure to upload all requested documents prior to
- clicking Submit. Applications cannot be revised once submitted.
- (Current employees and students should apply by clicking on the
- Jobs Hub icon from their Workday home screen.) Review of
- applications will begin immediately and will continue until the
- position is filled. Amherst College is committed to an inclusive
- hiring process and will provide reasonable accommodations for
- candidates throughout the application and interview process upon
- request.
- It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie
- detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment.
- An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal
- penalties and civil liability.
To apply, visit https://apptrkr.com/9830861 "">https://amherst.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Amherst_Jobs/job/Amherst-Campus/Research-Fellow_JR6987
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How to apply
- Read the full advert on the source site — it carries the authoritative terms.
- Prepare your SOP, CV, transcripts and referees before the deadline.
- Apply through the university's own portal. Never pay a fee to a third party.