GLC Newsletter, December 14

December 14, 2015

Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition

Yale University, New Haven, CT

Newsletter for December 14, 2015

Hi Everyone,

See below this week’s GLC e-newsletter. For more information about our events, programs, and resources, please also visit our website at glc.yale.edu and follow us on Facebook. Feel free to pass this information along to friends and colleagues. Happy Holidays.

Best regards,

David Spatz

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In this newsletter:

  1. GLC 2016-2017 Funding Opportunities
  • 2016-17 Four-month and one-month Postdoctoral Fellowships (due 2/15)
  • 2016-17 Human Trafficking and Modern Day Slavery Fellowship (due 2/15)
  1. Programs and Events
  • Lapidus Center Fellowships - Deadline extended (12/20)
  • Stanton-Horton Award for Excellence in National Park Service History
  • Abolitionism and the Underground Railroad summer seminar at Colgate
  1. In the News
  • Residents weigh in on plans to memorialize Lumpkin’s Slave Jail
  • Why the slavery tour at Carnton Plantation matters
  • Obama: ‘Scars of’ slavery ‘still with us today’

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GLC Fellowship Opportunities

GLC One-month and Four-month Postdoctoral Fellowships

Location: New Haven, CT

APPLY HERE: http://apply.interfolio.com/32913

Closes: Feb 15, 2016 at 11:59 PM Eastern Time

The GLC offers a limited number of postdoctoral fellowships designed to support both established and younger scholars in researching projects that can be linked to the aims of the center. Four-month and one-month fellowships are available for the academic year.

The Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University invites applications for its 2016-2017 Fellowship Program. The Center seeks to promote a better understanding of all aspects of the institution of slavery from the earliest times to the present. We especially welcome proposals that will utilize the special collections of the Yale University Libraries or other research collections of the New England area, and explicitly engage issues of slavery, resistance, abolition, and their legacies. Scholars from all disciplines are encouraged to apply. To support both established and younger scholars in researching projects that can be linked to the aims of the Center, the GLC offers two types of residential fellowships:

Qualifications

One-month Fellowships

The Gilder Lehrman Center will award several one-month fellowships between September 2016 and May 2017. Please specify your preference for residency in your application. The one-month fellowships are designed for scholars who are working on short-term projects including articles, book chapters, or other research endeavors. The one-month fellowship provides support of $3,500, plus library privileges and office space.

Four-month Fellowships

The Gilder Lehrman Center will award two four-month fellowships, one in the fall semester (from September to December 2016), and one in the spring semester (from either January to April 2017 or February to May 2017). Please specify your preference for residency in your application. The four-month fellowships are designed for scholars who are working on short-term projects including articles, book chapters, or other research endeavors. The four-month fellowship provides support of $14,000, plus health insurance (if requested), library privileges, and office space.

Application Instructions

Fellowship Requirements

Applicants MUST have received the Ph.D. prior to the beginning of their appointment. Both established and younger scholars are invited to apply. Fellows will be expected to participate in the intellectual life of the GLC and the larger Yale community, and to acknowledge the support of the GLC and the MacMillan Center in publications and lectures that stem from research conducted during the fellowship term. All fellows will be expected to offer one public lecture during their tenure at Yale.

Application Information

To apply to the Gilder Lehrman Center Fellowship Program, you are required to submit the following materials via Interfolio:

  • Cover Letter
  • Curriculum Vitae (CV),
  • Two letters of recommendation
  • Three to five page statement regarding intended research project (research statement)

A complete application, including letters of recommendation, must be uploaded to the Interfolio website at http://apply.interfolio.com/32913 by February 15, 2016. No late applications will be accepted.

For additional information, please email gilder.lehrman.center@yale.edu.

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GLC Human Trafficking and Modern Day Slavery Fellowship

Location: New Haven, CT

APPLY HERE: http://apply.interfolio.com/33005

Closes: Feb 15, 2016 at 11:59 PM Eastern Time (GMT-5 hours)

The Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition (GLC), part of the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale University, invites applications for residential fellowships from scholars and public intellectuals to study the fundamental origins and circumstances surrounding debt bondage, forced labor, human trafficking, and other forms of modern day slavery. Traditional academics as well as writers/researchers without academic institutional affiliation are encouraged to apply. The Center is offering up to two fellowships in 2016-17.

This is an interdisciplinary fellowship program, based in history and the social sciences, which aims to promote innovative research on the origins and conditions that lead to contemporary slavery. In recent years many NGOs and other activists have worked very hard to provide data, to engage in intervention, and to raise public and governmental awareness on this international problem. At the GLC and at Yale, and at other cooperating institutions such as the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati we believe the issues of modern slavery would benefit from a more robust research base rooted in, but not necessarily limited to, historical analysis and interpretation.

Qualifications

The Fellow will be expected to be in full-time residence during the academic year beginning September 1, 2016. An earned doctorate in a relevant field or alternatively equivalent qualifications for research and teaching are expected for the successful candidate. In addition to working on his/her own research project, the Fellow is expected to teach one course related to his/her research and hold related office hours for students, and offer one public lecture or conduct a workshop. The Fellow is also expected to interact with students and faculty, contribute to the intellectual life of the Center, and participate in its collective activities and development. Ideally, the fellow will also complete a significant publication during his/her residency.

Application Instructions

Under the direction of Professor David W. Blight, the Center fosters an intellectual community at Yale through the interaction of students, faculty, and visiting scholars interested in the understanding of all aspects of the institution of slavery from the earliest times to the present. The Center organizes various activities, including lectures, speaker series, workshops, and conferences. For more information, visit glc.yale.edu.

Stipend and Resource Information
The successful fellow will receive an academic year stipend of $55,000 plus individual health insurance coverage. All Gilder Lehrman Center Fellows will have full access to the Yale University libraries and email. Normally, Fellows can expect shared office space, computer access and basic office supplies. Interested candidates, who have other sources of funding, may apply with a clear indication of their funding situation. All applicants should indicate clearly whether they are seeking full or partial funding. 

Applicants should apply through Interfolio and must include the following:

  1. Cover letter, including current e-mail address
  2. Current curriculum vitae, including publications
  3. A 1500-word description of the proposed research project. The description should include the background, nature, importance, specific objectives, and methodology of the proposed research project.
  4. Two letters of recommendation. Referees should discuss the candidate’s teaching ability as well as other points. Letters of reference can be uploaded directly by the referees through the online application site.
  5. An official university transcript (graduate level, if applicable).
  6. A summary of the proposed course (300-word max)

A complete application, including letters of recommendation, must be uploaded to the Interfolio website at http://apply.interfolio.com/33005 by February 15, 2016. No late applications will be accepted.

For additional information, please email gilder.lehrman.center@yale.edu.

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Programs and Events

Lapidus Center Fellowships - Deadline extended

The Lapidus Center for the Historical Analysis of Transatlantic Slavery of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, offers two long-term fellowships to assist scholars whose research on transatlantic slavery can benefit from extended access to the Schomburg Center’s resources.  Fellows will begin residence at the Center on September 1, 2016 and end on March 1, 2017. They will receive a $30,000 stipend. Deadline:  December 20, 2015.

The Lapidus Center also offers five short-term fellowships. The Fellowship Program is open to doctoral students, post-doctoral scholars, independent researchers, and artists studying the slave trade, slavery, abolition, and anti-slavery in the Atlantic World. Fellowships are awarded for continuous periods of three months at the Schomburg Center with a stipend of $6,000. Deadline: December 15, 2015.

For more information and to apply, click here

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Stanton-Horton Award for Excellence in National Park Service History

Deadline: January 1, 2016
 

The award recognizes excellence in historical projects for, by, and with the National Park Service and is intended to honor projects that make the NPS exemplary in promoting civic dialogue about and appreciation of American history. The award will be given to projects, parks, or programs and may include work by NPS staff, students, contractors, volunteers, institutions, or cooperators. Eligible projects may include the full spectrum of non-fiction media such as digital and internet efforts, museums, public exhibitions, outreach and public programs, and print media including brochures, handbooks, or monographs undertaken entirely within the agency or in collaboration with students, contractors, volunteers, or institutions. The historical project may pertain to a single national park unit or to the National Park Service system. The award will recognize the authors, designers, or curators of the project as well as park superintendents and other NPS managers who provide leadership on its behalf. The annual meeting registration of up to two NPS employees will be waived to allow recipients to attend the meeting and receive the award.\

Nominations for the award must include a 1,000-word description and overview of the project, two letters of recommendation from individuals or groups familiar with the project, and the names of NPS staff members associated with the work as well as their supervisors at the park or regional level. Nominations are encouraged to include information documenting the extent of the project’s public engagement, such as data about the numbers and demographics of the people who participated in onsite programs or may have visited online and engaged in the project beyond its physical presence. Nominations and supporting letters must be sent to the committee members listed below.

Nominations and supporting letters may be submitted either by ground mail or electronically. Electronic nominations should be sent by e-mail to the three committee members listed below. Please indicate “2016 Stanton-Horton Award” in the subject line.

If submitting electronically, please send a copy of any supporting materials, such as DVDs, photos, or publications, via ground mail to the three committee members listed below.

Selection will be made by the OAH Stanton-Horton Award for Excellence in National Park Service History Committee by February 2016, at which time the award recipient will be provided with details regarding the OAH Annual Meeting and awards presentation. The award will be presented at the 2016 OAH Annual Meeting in Providence, Rhode Island, April 7–10.

Stanton-Horton Award for Excellence in National Park Service History Committee

David H. Glassberg (Committee Chair)
University of Massachusetts
Department of History
Herter Hall
161 Presidents Drive
Amherst MA 01003-9312
glassberg@history.umass.edu

Eola L. Dance
c/o Blackwater Natural Wildlife Refuge
2145 Key Wallace Drive
Cambridge MD 21613
eola_dance@nps.gov

Dwight T. Pitcaithley
804 Canterbury Arc
Las Cruces NM 88005
Affiliation: New Mexico State University
dwightp@nmsu.edu

Deadline: January 1, 2016

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Abolitionism and the Underground Railroad summer seminar at Colgate

Colgate University will host a three-week summer seminar from July 10-29, 2016 on Abolitionism and the Underground Railroad (UGRR) in America from the colonial days until the Civil War. Directed by Graham Hodges, the George Dorland Langdon, Jr. Professor of History and Africa Studies at Colgate, this seminar offers admission to at least thirteen schoolteachers and up to three graduate students intending to make a career in secondary school teaching.  The seminar is located on one of the most beautiful campuses in the United States in a welcoming small college town and is within several hours of major attractions throughout the Northeast. Participants will read the latest scholarship on the UGRR and abolitionism and study relevant primary sources. Guest lecturers include Ed Baptist, David Blight, Stacey Robertson and Judith Wellman. There will be excursions to the Harriet Tubman Home and William Seward home in Auburn; the Women’s National Freedom Center in Seneca Falls, the Rush Rhees Library at the University of rochester, and Frederick Douglass’ grave and other sites in Rochester. The group will also travel to Troy and Albany, New York to visit the home of Stephen Myers, the Albany Hall of Records. Interested applicants should consult the website at http://colgate.edu/academics/departments-and-programs/history/abolitionism-and-underground-railroad or email the director at ghodges@colgate.edu.

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In the News

Residents weigh in on plans to memorialize Lumpkin’s Slave Jail

December 13, 2015 10:30 pm

By NED OLIVER

Richmond Times-Dispatch

As the city wraps up the public engagement portion of its effort to develop a plan to memorialize Lumpkin’s Slave Jail, advocates have continued their calls for a broader approach to recognizing Richmond’s role in the slave trade.

The Defenders for Freedom, Justice and Equality announced late last week that 10 local, state and national groups are backing their proposal for a 9-acre memorial garden and the creation of a historic district in Shockoe Bottom.

Among those groups are the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Preservation Virginia, the Richmond Branch NAACP and the Richmond Crusade for Voters.

Read more: http://www.richmond.com/news/local/article_d2f75024-2961-5adf-9cce-e9f1ed50091e.html

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Why the slavery tour at Carnton Plantation matters

By EMILY R. WEST

Franklin (TN) Home Page

December 9, 2015

Growing up in the South, I don’t remember learning about slavery in particular until my high school AP American history class.

We studied the Civil War at length my junior year - its causes, its complexities, and its moments that helped form the state and society we live in now. The teacher at the time explained for the first time what it was really about, and it felt like it was undoing much of what I learned in middle and elementary school.

I am not pointing fingers to blame anyone or my public education for my lack of knowledge on this topic. I’m simply telling you how it was.

One hundred and fifty years ago this week, the 13th Amendment of the Constitution was finally ratified, forbidding slavery in the United States. I scarcely remember learning about that.

Read more: http://franklinhomepage.com/why-the-slavery-tour-at-carnton-plantation-matters-cms-22935#.Vm7Qp0bnKiw

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Obama: ‘Scars of’ slavery ‘still with us today’

The Washington Post

December 9, 2015 12:08 PM EST

At a ceremony at the Capitol, President Obama spoke marking the 150th anniversary of the ratification of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which formally ended slavery in the U.S. in 1865. (Associated Press)

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/national/obama-scars-of-slavery-still-with-us-today/2015/12/09/387134f4-9e9d-11e5-9ad2-568d814bbf3b_video.html

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