Internship Opportunity with Columbia University’s Guantánamo Public Memory Project – Summer 2012

Title: Research Resource Developer/Bibliographic Assistant – Summer 2012

About the Guantánamo Public Memory Project

“Guantánamo” has become an international symbol of torture, detention, national security, and conflict over America’s “War on Terror.”  After more than a decade of bitter struggle over whether and how to “close Guantánamo,” in 2011, nearly 200 prisoners remain at the US naval station, or GTMO.  The unique qualities of the site – its legal ambiguity, political isolation and geographic proximity, and architectures of confinement – have been used and reused for a wide range of people and purposes.  These include Cuban workers in exile after the Revolution; Haitian refugees with HIV, first welcomed as asylum seekers but then confined in tent cities as threats to public health; and the War on Terror’s “enemy combatants.”  GTMO and its residents have been inextricable, if often invisible, parts of America’s deepest policy conflicts: immigration, public health, human rights, and national security.


The Guantánamo Public Memory Project seeks to build public awareness of the century-long history of the US naval station at Guantánamo, Bay, Cuba, and foster dialogue on the future of this place and the policies it shapes.  The Project will collect stories, documents, photos, videos artwork, and oral testimonies from different perspectives and time periods throughout GTMO’s 100 year history.  It will bring that material to the public through a website, traveling exhibit, curriculum, public programs, and other media.  The Project will also invite diverse people to share their own stories of GTMO and engage in debate about the larger issues this site and others like it across the world raise.  It originated as a project of the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience, which currently serves on the Steering Committee for the Project.  The Project is now being developed by a growing collaboration of universities and organizations, coordinated from Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights as part of its Alliance for Historical Dialogue and Accountability.

 About the Position

The research resource developer will create a comprehensive on-line research resource on GTMO’s history, including books, scholarly and newspaper articles, images, videos, art, and ephemera.  The developer will work with the Project Director and a Project Collections Committee made up of archivists from universities around the country overseeing collections that contain relevant material:

  • work with Project Collections Committee to develop possible formats for bibliography and work with web designer to program/install format on website;
  • identify subject categories for bibliography;
  • identify archives containing material on Guantánamo and coordinate with them to link their relevant collections;
  • populate bibliography;
  • identify any material not currently archived and work with Project Collections Committee to identify appropriate archive to accession it.

Qualifications

  • Ability to commit at least 10 hours/week for at least one full semester
  • Graduate student in library science, archives, history, or related field
  • Background in one or more subject areas related to GTMO’s history, such as 19th/early 20th century American imperialism, Caribbean studies, refugee policy, military history, Cold War
  • Knowledge of Spanish or Haitian Creole a plus
  • Excellent organization skills and ability to work independently and creatively

How to Apply

Please send resume and cover letter to guantanamo@columbia.edu

The deadline for applications is April 15, 2012.