Inheritance Baltimore > Opportunities

Inheritance Baltimore is in the process of hiring staff, faculty, and undergraduate and graduate students for new and existing projects. All open positions and calls for proposals will be listed on this page.

Current Openings

Inheritance Baltimore Graduate Fellowships and Assistantships Fall 2023 – Spring 2024

Inheritance Baltimore: Humanities and Arts Education for Black Liberation is a joint programming and research effort to preserve Black archival resources, curate Black arts and public heritage, and expand local infrastructure for freedom education. We are delighted to announce the availability of nine new fellowships and teaching assistantships for graduate students at Johns Hopkins and local partner institutions for the academic year 2023-2024. In these roles, fellows will join a dynamic cohort that brings together distinguished faculty and postdoctoral fellows in History, Sociology, English, Africana Studies, and Museums & Society; emerging and established professionals in cultural heritage stewardship and community engagement; elders- and artists-in-residence; and an array of community partners.  

Specifically, the 2023-24 graduate student fellows and assistants will contribute to the Billie Holiday Center for Liberation Arts “Baltimore Africana Archives” initiative within Inheritance Baltimore, dedicated to historical recovery and the belief that the arts and humanities have a central role to play in the continued revitalization of Baltimore. We are committed to expanding the ethical dimensions of the relationship between the university and the city, neighborhoods and communities, with special interest in the way that history and the musical, performing, visual, and literary arts help to define and convey our goals of civil rights, the remediation of bigotry, and reparations for historic injustice.  

These positions are intended to deepen and extend graduate student training, help participants explore professional prospects within and beyond academia, and build an interdisciplinary network of colleagues in African American history, sociology, arts, culture, cultural heritage stewardship, and related fields. Please see below for fellowship and assistantship descriptions and application information.  

Graduate Teaching Assistantships – Applied Learning 

  • Two positions (one per semester)
  • Teaching assistants support instructors in humanities and humanistic social science courses that will expand the course offerings of the Center Africana Studies and attract interdisciplinary student interest in socially relevant, place-based learning. 
  • Sample courses: Arts and Social Justice, Antiracism 101 
  • Open to JHU students in any field in humanities or social sciences. 
  • Rate per semester is $15,000.00.

Johns Hopkins-Morgan State University Graduate Teaching Fellowships 

  • One teaching fellow from JHU and two fellows from Morgan State University per academic year.  
  • Fellows will enroll in a one-credit pedagogy seminar “Teaching with Collections and Objects” in fall 2023.
  • Fellows will collaborate with faculty mentors to develop a syllabus and co-teach one course in spring 2024; these courses will incorporate archival materials and artifacts from local collections. 
  • Fellows will also serve as advisors to JHU undergraduate recipients of the Dean’s Undergraduate Research Awards for summer of 2024. Managed by Dr. Joseph Plaster, Sheridan Libraries 
  • Open to JHU and MSU graduate students in any field in the humanities or social sciences whose research can be supported by local collections and archival research.
  • Fellowship award is $20,000 for the academic year. 

Johns Hopkins-HBCU Graduate Assistantships for Programming and Digital Publishing  

  • Three part-time positions open for academic year ’23-’24 one for a JHU graduate student and two for graduate students at a Historically Black College or University (HBCU) in Maryland. 
  • Approximately 10 hours/week. 
  • Assistants support the planning of meetings bringing together Maryland libraries, museums, archives, community organizations, and others who collect and preserve local Black history. 
  • Assistants will also support the creation and publication of a book anthology describing signature artifacts related to African American history and culture in Maryland, and the creation of a digital portal for local organizations. 
  • Open to MA and PhD students at JHU, Morgan State University, Coppin State University, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, and Bowie State University. 
  • Each assistantship provides a stipend of $15,000 per year. 

Off-site work may be possible for some aspects of each role but incumbents should be prepared to spend significant time in Baltimore. 

Required qualifications: 

  • Research in one or more of the following areas: nineteenth-, twentieth- and twenty-first-century African American history, literature, sociology, politics, or arts and culture; Baltimore history; Black cultural heritage stewardship; reparative archives
  • For the publishing fellowship: experience with or interest in the public humanities and community engagement 
  • For the teaching assistantships and fellowships: experience with or interest in active learning, experiential learning, teaching with artifacts, archival research
  • Demonstrated cultural competency and experience with Africana / African American communities

To apply, please submit the following by Monday, February 27th, 2023 to [email protected]

  • A letter of interest (no more than 2 pages) with a description of your research, teaching, public humanities, and/or community engagement interests and experience; your thoughts about the particular fellowship you are applying for; and information about your availability to work during the time period in question. 
  • A CV including the names of two faculty referees. 
  • A 5-page sample of academic or public writing, which may represent a complete short piece or an extract. 

Current Calls for Proposals

Dean’s Undergraduate Research Awards (DURA)

Sponsored by the Tabb Center with co-sponsorship from the Alexander Grass Humanities Institute, Inheritance Baltimore, the Singleton Center for the Study of Premodern Europe, Bill Tyler, and the Virginia Fox Stern Center for the History of the Book in the Renaissance.

Next deadline: April 4, 2023

The Dean’s Undergraduate Research Awards, or DURAs, are available for undergraduates working on independent research projects that draw on primary source materials in the rare book, manuscript, and archival collections of the Sheridan Libraries. These collections span 5,000 years of rare and unique objects and texts, from ancient cuneiform tablets and Egyptian papyri to 20th-century African American photography and U.S. suffrage movement records.

Each award, in the amount of $3500, supports research conducted from May 2023-April 2024 and the development of projects based on this research, e.g. an academic essay, online exhibition, film, digital humanities project, or other deliverable. (See “Recent DURA Projects” below for examples of past student research projects.) Applicants should submit a proposal and one letter of recommendation by April 4, 2023. Eligible research repositories include University Archives, Special Collections, the Institute for the History of Medicine in East Baltimore, The George Peabody Library, and the John Work Garrett Library at Evergreen Museum & Library.

A fellowship award of $3500 will be given to each recipient, which is intended to be used as a cost-of-living stipend but can be utilized for additional research expenses. Fellows will receive half of the award at the beginning of the project and the other half at completion.

Please visit the DURA page for full application instructions.