Research and Internship Opportunities

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The Humanities Institute is offering an important internship opportunity in its Bronx Foodways Oral Histories Project, a multi-year effort to collect and record personal food narratives from a wide and diverse network of Bronx community gardeners and urban farmers. Their stories and cultural traditions around growing and preparing food will be archived and made accessible to the local community and the wider public.

Internship Opportunity: To coordinate the Bronx Foodways Oral Histories Project, the Humanities Institute is pleased to offer a Mellon Summer Internship for a currently-enrolled graduate student with basic knowledge of Oral History, its methodologies and Oral History Best Practices.

Job Description:

The successful candidate will be a graduate student with some practical experience in Oral History methodologies and a basic understanding of or interest in Food Studies and community.

Under the supervision of the Director and Program Manager of the Humanities Institute, the Mellon Summer Intern will work with NYBG staff and the Bronx Green-Up team to produce, conduct and video record one-on-one oral history interviews outdoors, at community gardens and urban farms. The interviews and all their components (audio, transcriptions, photos) will be edited and curated by the Mellon Summer Intern and shared publicly on an accessible community archive. Elements from collections in the LuEsther T. Mertz Library may be used for additional historical context.

The candidate should have demonstrated experience with community-based projects involving communities from diverse cultural backgrounds. Strong interpersonal skills will come into play in recruiting subjects for interviews and dealing with potentially sensitive cultural information. The required background in oral history methodologies may include coursework, or a degree in food studies, anthropology, or sociology.

Eligibility: Graduate students who at the time of application are actively enrolled in a masters or doctoral program and have some oral histories experience. Students from diverse backgrounds, ethnicities and underrepresented communities are strongly encouraged to apply.

Period of Internship: Four to five months (480 hours total). This summer internship runs in the period from mid-May to mid-October, 2023, and can be planned to fit the candidate’s individual scheduling needs, in consultation with the Director of the Humanities Institute.

Stipend: $11,000 (eleven thousand US dollars)

How to apply:

The application must be submitted electronically by March 24, 2023, to:

Humanities Institute Secured FileShare

Applications should include: 

• Cover Letter outlining your interest in this Oral History internship position
• Curriculum vitae of education, professional experience.
• Copy of Graduate transcripts (electronic copies will be accepted).
• A letter of recommendation (optional) to be sent by the recommenders directly to hifellows@nybg.org

Deadline:

The deadline for all job application materials is March 24, 2023, 6 p.m. (EST)

Any questions related to the position should be directed to hifellows@nybg.org

NYBG is committed to an inclusive, diverse, equitable, and accessible work environment and further recognizes that diversity in the workforce fosters excellence in its mission of advocating for the plants of the world. Leveraging the strong foundation of existing policies and practices, NYBG will advance inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility through a number of institutional initiatives. Its aspiration is to continue to cultivate a workforce and institution that is as diverse as the communities it serves and the audiences it engages.

NYBG is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.

NYBG does not discriminate in its employment practices due to an applicant’s race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, national origin, and veteran or disability status. Underrepresented communities, Black, Indigenous, persons of color, women, veterans, and individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply.

Applications are now closed.

Internship Description:

The Urban Foodways Internship Program is offered by the Humanities Institute and funded by the Mellon Foundation.

Throughout the course of the Internship, students from Bronx Community College, Hostos Community College and Lehman College will develop skills in research, horticulture, community development, public engagement, professional development, and food sovereignty. With hands-on horticulture, skill-building in land stewardship, special sessions with scientists and archivists, work in community gardens, and career development opportunities with professionals and entrepreneurs, the internship provides a broad perspective on Horticulture, Food Studies and Food Justice. Additionally, interns will spend research time and work at the African American Garden: The Caribbean Experience and develop their individual plant-based study project with the support of the NYBG Library and Herbarium.

Interns will have access to many of the Garden’s resources and facilities, including:

• The Edible Academy, a 5-acre, state-of-the-art educational facility where children, families, teachers, and the general public learn about growing and preparing vegetables, fruit, and herbs and develop a lifelong interest in gardening, nutrition awareness, and the environmental stewardship.
• The African American Garden: The Caribbean Experience, a garden-area consisting of eight garden beds filled with around 100 plant varieties that document Afro-Caribbean food and farming histories, paying homage to ancestral knowledge passed down through families and communities.
• As the community gardening outreach program of NYBG, Bronx Green-Up provides horticulture education, training, and technical assistance to Bronx residents, community gardeners, urban farmers, local schools, and community organizations. The program also works with community gardens and urban farms, growing and distributing fresh fruits and vegetables throughout the Bronx.
• The LuEsther T. Mertz Library, the largest botanical library in the U.S., with books, manuscripts, correspondence, photographs, reports, and paintings spanning nine centuries. The library provides the highest-quality resources and services to meet the needs of the Garden’s diverse research, instructional and outreach programs including the Garden’s research staff, botanists and horticulturists as well as scientific, scholarly, and artistic communities worldwide and the public at large.
• The William & Lynda Steere Herbarium, the largest herbarium in the Western Hemisphere, and a priceless collection of more than 7 million preserved specimens of flowering plants, conifers, ferns, mosses, liverworts, and algae, as well as fungi and lichens.

Eligibility: Undergraduate students from Bronx Community College, Hostos Community College and Lehman College with a minimum 3.0 GPA.

Duration of Internship: Tuesday, June 6–Sunday, August 6, 2023

Hours: 9 a.m.–4 p.m.

Dates: Tuesdays–Fridays and select weekends

Compensation: $18/hour

Deadline: The deadline for all application material is April 14, 2023, 6 p.m. (EST)

Any questions related to the position should be directed to sshoaib@nybg.org

NYBG is committed to an inclusive, diverse, equitable, and accessible work environment and further recognizes that diversity in the workforce fosters excellence in its mission of advocating for the plants of the world. Leveraging the strong foundation of existing policies and practices, NYBG will advance inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility through a number of institutional initiatives. Its aspiration is to continue to cultivate a workforce and institution that is as diverse as the communities it serves and the audiences it engages.

NYBG is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.

NYBG does not discriminate in its employment practices due to an applicant’s race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, national origin, and veteran or disability status. Underrepresented communities, Black, Indigenous, persons of color, women, veterans, and individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply.

Applications are now closed.

The New York Botanical Garden’s Humanities Institute, sponsored by the Mellon Foundation, offers a Visiting Scholarship for an established researcher in the field of Food Humanities, a rich interdisciplinary and humanistic area of research that explores Food Culture and Food Justice with special focus on the Bronx, NY. The selected scholar, researcher, or artist-researcher may work on a thesis, book chapter, article for publication, (digital) exhibition, or art work, accessing and using the renowned historical collections in the Mertz Library, Steere Herbarium, as well as the African American Garden and Bronx Green-Up Community Food Hubs in the borough of the Bronx.

The application period runs from March 25–May 31, 2023. The selected Fellow will receive a $8,000 grant for a 3-week to 1-month term during the summer or autumn of 2023, as most convenient to their own schedule. The Visiting Scholar will meet with members of the advisory committee and NYBG staff to discuss progress and obtain guidance for accessing the Garden’s collections. At the end of the term, the Visiting Scholar is required to give a presentation about their research and/or food humanities related art work, or (digital) exhibition.

Application Guidelines

The Mellon Visiting Scholarship is available to scholars, researchers and/or artists with a special research project, who are U.S. citizens or scholars currently authorized to work in the U.S. with a relationship to the Bronx, NY.

Application will be accepted through: May 31, 2023

Award Announced: end of June, 2023

Application Requirements
Applicants are required to fill out the form below and upload the following items to NYBG’s secure ShareFile link:

• Bio/Resume
• Preliminary Proposal—up to 250 words. A concise statement of your proposed research at NYBG, or artistic project.
• Publication or Work Samples—articles or books and/or samples of your artistic work created within the last five years.
• Two recommendations

For more information please email NYBG-Humanities Institute at hifellows@nybg.org

NYBG is committed to an inclusive, diverse, equitable, and accessible work environment and further recognizes that diversity in the workforce fosters excellence in its mission of advocating for the plants of the world. Leveraging the strong foundation of existing policies and practices, NYBG will advance inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility through a number of institutional initiatives. Its aspiration is to continue to cultivate a workforce and institution that is as diverse as the communities it serves and the audiences it engages.

NYBG is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. NYBG does not discriminate in its employment practices due to an applicant’s race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, national origin, and veteran or disability status. Underrepresented communities, Black, Indigenous, persons of color, women, veterans, and individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply.

Applications are now closed.

The Humanities Institute at the New York Botanical Garden is pleased to offer a full-time residential Mellon Research Fellowship in the field of Food Humanities during the academic year 2023–24 for Pre- and Post-Doctoral students. Candidates are invited to submit a proposal for independent research in topics related to the Food Humanities with special focus on the multi-cultural communities in and around the Bronx, New York, including but not limited to, histories of food and urban agriculture, food justice and food security in the Bronx, Indigenous food traditions, and history of community gardens and urban farms.

Recipients will have access to the collections of the LuEsther T. Mertz Library, the William and Lynda Steere Herbarium, and living collections of the New York Botanical Garden’s 250-acre landscape, situated in the Bronx, in addition to important libraries and research centers in New York City.

The Humanities Institute is committed to an inclusive, diverse, equitable, and accessible academic environment and further recognizes that diversity in our fellowship student body fosters excellence in programmatic and research initiatives.

The Fellowship participants supports, through actions and conduct, the Humanities Institute Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility (IDEA) initiatives and helps to build and maintain an inclusive organization culture throughout the program.

Eligibility: Current Ph.D. candidates and recent post-doctoral researchers (no more than 5 years since graduation date at time of application), who are U.S. citizens or international scholars currently authorized to work in the U.S. Students from diverse backgrounds and underrepresented communities are strongly encouraged to apply.

Tenure of Fellowship: Nine months (September 11, 2023 to June 11, 2024). Deferral of this Research Fellowship is not permitted. Fellowships at NYBG’s Humanities Institute are awards that place great emphasis on the exchange of ideas among fellows and the spirit of community within the larger institution. Fellows are expected to devote themselves fully to their research, and not take any other research or teaching responsibilities during their tenure. They are requested to give a presentation about their work, and fully participate in the Humanities Institute’s seminar programs and activities.

Fellowship award:

$50,000 (fifty thousand US dollars)

How to apply:

The application, to be written in English, must be submitted electronically to the form below by November 15, 2022.

Applications should include:

• The Fellowship Application Form (see below)
• Project proposal, consisting of a 2–3 page (max. 1000 words) statement that provides an overview of the project you plan to research with a tentative schedule of work to be accomplished, an explanation of its significance in the field, and manner in which it will contribute to new scholarship in the Food Humanities.
• Personal Statement of Contributions to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion while at NYBG.
• Complete curriculum vitae of education, professional experience, awards, and publications.
• Copy of Graduate transcripts (unofficial electronic copies will be accepted), uploaded to the form.
• Three Letters of recommendation (PDF), submitted directly from the recommender here: Humanities Institute Secured Fileshare

The Deadline for all application material, including transcripts and letters of recommendation, is November 15, 2022, 6 pm (EST). Late applications will not be accepted. Awards will be announced in January 2023.

Housing: Fellows are responsible for their own housing arrangements; suggestions are provided.

Health Insurance: A comprehensive Health Benefit package (coverage begins 6 weeks after arrival) is offered in addition to the fellowship stipend.

Any questions related to the Mellon Fellowship should be directed to hifellows@nybg.org