Southern Asia Digital Projects Fellow

Division/Department: Research and Learning Division, University of Chicago Library

Fellowship Coordinator: Laura Ring, Southern Asian Studies Librarian

The Southern Asia Digital Projects Fellow will provide support for a Library project to digitize, preserve, and make accessible the rich collection of color slides from the Hanna Papanek Photograph Collection. Hanna Papanek, 1927-2017, was a distinguished anthropologist and feminist noted for her groundbreaking work on women, labor, and family status production. She lived and traveled for extended periods of time in Pakistan in the 1950s, and Indonesia in the 1970s, conducting fieldwork that gave rise to her path-breaking work on the role of female seclusion (purdah) in enhancing family status. The Hanna Papanek Photograph Collection, gifted to the Library and held in the Special Collections Research Center, consists of approximately 8,000 color slides documenting Papanek’s fieldwork and travels in the region.

The Fellow is responsible for research, management, and curatorial support of the project, with earlier phases focused principally on collection inventory, investigation of web platforms and tools, and investigation of privacy rights and other ethical considerations for digitized images. Later phases will focus on collection description, metadata enhancement, and the development of a web exhibit to accompany the collection’s official launch. The fellow will develop skills and knowledge in the practice and principals of archival management, metadata creation, and digital curation. Fellows are expected to write a short reflection on their experience and to make a presentation to Library staff about their activities/project near the completion of their fellowship experience.

While initial appointment is for a single academic quarter, reappointment for additional quarters and/or summer term is anticipated for the successful fellow.

Specific activities may include:

Collection and review of existing slide-level metadata to prepare an inventory for digitization
Research and reporting on visual archive platforms and tools
Research and reporting on ethical issues for visual archives
Creation of collection-level archival description
Enhancement of existing metadata through the addition of subject headings/subject analysis
Development of a web exhibit, highlighting and providing contextual information for significant items from the collection
Communication with project partners and donors
Participation in meetings and activities relating to the Project

Qualifications:

Currently enrolled in a UChicago graduate program in good standing during the period of the fellowship
Proficiency with Microsoft Office tools
Excellent written and oral communication skills
Background/Concentration in South or Southeast Asian studies, Anthropology, or Gender studies preferred