ZIP Code Memory Project: Practices of Justice and Repair
The Institute for Religion, Culture and Public Life (IRCPL) and the Society of Fellows and Heyman Center for the Humanities (SOF/Heyman) invite applications from advanced graduate students throughout the university in support of the ZIP Code Memory Project: Practices of Justice and Repair at The Center for the Study of Social Difference (CSSD).
Led by Marianne Hirsch (Columbia) and Diana Taylor (NYU), The ZIP Code Memory Project seeks to find reparative ways to memorialize the devastating losses resulting from the COVID pandemic while also acknowledging its radically differential effects on different Upper New York City neighborhoods. In partnership with community, arts, religious, and academic organizations, and working across the ZIP Codes of Morningside Heights, Harlem, Washington Heights and the South Bronx, the ZCMP will gather with a group of scholars, artists, and activists to develop a series of humanities and arts practices that aim to build a sense of shared responsibility and belonging. ZCMP will comprise group meetings and discussions, reparative memory workshops, larger public roundtables and memorial events, the building of an interactive website, and a final exhibition. Additionally graduate student fellows will participate in the Humanities in Practice workshops and present during the Building Publics series in the spring.
Application
ZCMP Fellows will each work closely with one of the community, arts, or religious organizations participating in the project, as well as with a small group of participants selected by that organization.
Fellows receive a stipend of $4000. The fellowship is for 2021-2022, with the possibility of renewal.
Duties include:
- Assisting with event and workshop organization
- Liaising with workshop leaders and community groups about needs and goals
- Assisting in writing workshop description with the community group in mind, outlining aims and requirements.
- Attending all ZCMP community group activities and writing up summaries of each meeting
- Working with project organizers, workshop leaders, and other ZCMP Fellows to analyze the methods and the reparative/theoretical implications of the project
- Attending ZCMP team meetings and coordinating with other ZCMP Fellows
- Assisting in organizing materials for inclusion in the website
- Attending Humanities in Practice Workshops and presenting in the Building Publics series.
Applicants must be PhD students at Columbia University and possess the following qualifications:
- Commitment to publicly engaged scholarship
- Knowledge of Spanish and/or other neighborhood languages preferred
- Familiarity with the participant communities preferred
Applicants are required to submit the following:
Statement of Interest
750 words, including qualifications for the fellowship
Curriculum Vitae
Including languages spoken
References
Name and contact of three references
Fellows will participate in the activities organized by the ZIP Code Memorial Project and Humanities in Practice.
Please contact Marianne Hirsch ([email protected]) with any questions about the project.
Applications must be submitted as a single PDF document, containing Statement of Interest and CV. Label the file thus: Last Name, First Name—ZCMP Public Humanities Fellowship Send the application file as an attachment in an email to: [email protected]
All proposals must be submitted by May 24, 2021.
About the Institute for Religion, Culture and Public Life
The Institute for Religion, Culture and Public Life supports academic research, teaching, and scholarship on the study of religion, culture, and social difference at Columbia University. In addition, it convenes academic conferences, public forums, and collaborative programming to support and extend academic and scholarly understanding of these topics, and to disseminate and distribute such new understandings to broader publics and communities.
About the Center for the Study of Social Difference
The Center for the Study of Social Difference is an interdisciplinary research center supporting collaborative projects that address gender, race, sexuality, and other forms of inequality to foster ethical and progressive social change.
About the SOF/Heyman's Humanities in Practice Project
A key part of the SOF/Heyman's Public Humanities Initiative, the Humanities in Practice Projects are a space for students and faculty to imagine and develop experimental modes of engaged scholarship and pedagogy—work that spills out of disciplinary-bound methods and emerges from collective forms of knowledge production to interpret and question contemporary social and cultural concerns.