Quick Summary
The Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies seeks to hire a creative and engaged professional to serve as Oral Historian for a two-year, grant-funded project designed to document local and national histories of community organizing, policy development, and political activism for transgender justice.
Text courtesy of the University of Minnesota Libraries
The Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies seeks to hire a creative and engaged professional to serve as Oral Historian for a two-year, grant-funded project designed to document local and national histories of community organizing, policy development, and political activism for transgender justice. This is a fixed-term position (2 years) and requires extensive domestic travel (approximately 20-40%) to hold meetings, conduct interviews, and attend conferences.
The Tretter Transgender Oral History Project (TTOHP) is an initiative of The Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies, an archival collection at the University of Minnesota Libraries department of Archives and Special Collections. Established in 2001, the Tretter Collection holds approximately 3,500 linear feet of material documenting GLBT histories from the Upper Midwest, the US, and the world. The TTOHP, which began in 2015, aims to document transgender lives and communities from the Upper Midwest and across the US, and to provide students, historians, and the interested public with a rich foundation of primary source material.
This position supports a second phase of the TTOHP. Phase One of the project focused on documenting individual life stories. Over the course of three years, Tretter staff recorded nearly 200 individual interviews. Streaming video and written transcripts of the majority of these interviews will be available on the University of Minnesota’s digital collections website. Phase Two focuses on documenting the work of justice-seeking organizations, activist strategy, and policy debates.
Required Qualifications
- A Bachelor’s Degree plus 5 years relevant experience, or a Master’s Degree plus 3 years relevant experience.
- Ability to meet deadlines and ensure successful completion of project deliverables.
- Experience working in archives, libraries, museums, or cultural heritage contexts, or a specialization in oral history interviewing or digital archival practice.
- Established commitment to supporting a diverse and inclusive environment.
- Familiarity and/or experience with the current and historical landscape of intersectional organizing and action for justice for transgender and gender non-conforming people.
Preferred Qualifications
- Knowledge of oral history professional practice, methodology, theory, and ethics.
- Experience with digital recording and editing technology, equipment, and software.
- Experience with or knowledge of best practices in archival description, digital preservation, audiovisual archives, and/or the digital humanities.
- Excellent communication skills.
- Ability to work both independently and collaboratively.
- Experience in program implementation and evaluation.
- Familiarity with digital tools, digital exhibits, web languages, and/or website design.
Responsibilities:
The Oral Historian will work closely with the Curator of the Tretter Collection to develop and complete Phase Two of this project, and will be responsible for a wide range of tasks—including planning and outreach, conducting interviews with members of pertinent organizations, and devising robust description and digital access strategies for the completed project.
This is a full time, 12 month, annual renewable position at the Academic Professional and Administrative appointment, with the classification of Library Program Specialist 1.
To learn more and apply, go to the University of Minnesota employment page and search for job ID: 327089
