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An Urban Humanities Initiative
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    • Graduate Fellowships – AY 2022-2023 – Divided City Sumner StudioLab   

    We are looking to fill the positions of two graduate fellows in community engagement for AY 2022/23. We are soliciting applications for two fellowships: one for a graduate student in the humanities and one for a graduate student in Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. The fellows will help set up the Divided City Sumner StudioLab, a year-long series of public events and programming based at Sumner High School in the Ville neighborhood. The Sumner StudioLab and these fellowships are supported by the Divided City Initiative with funding from the Mellon Foundation. Applications are due to this Box folder by September 2, 2022. More details below:

    About the project:  

    Funded by Mellon’s Divided City Initiative, the Sumner StudioLab is a collaboration between WashU’s Center for the Humanities and Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts in partnership with the Sumner Recovery Board and 4theVille. The first high school for African American students west of the Mississippi, Sumner High School is currently implementing a Sumner Recovery Plan that reimagines both high school curricular offerings and community connections to the school in response to threats of school closure.  

    Designed in conjunction with the Sumner Recovery Plan, the goal of the Sumner StudioLab is to deepen understandings of Sumner High School as a physical and cultural site through a shared focus on historic preservation and neighborhood community. Through workshops, internships, listening sessions, and courses, the Sumner Studiolab brings together WashU students, Sumner High students, and Ville residents in a Community Hub to collaboratively design and dialogue on Sumner’s historic legacies and promising futures.  

    Based at Sumner High School in a community hub, the project seeks to engage and collaborate with community organizations, Ville residents, and the broader Sumner community. The Studiolab team includes co-organizers Matt Bernstine (associate director, Sam Fox’s Office for Socially Engaged Practice), Laura Perry (assistant director for research and public engagement, Center for the Humanities), and Michael Allen (senior lecturer, Sam Fox and president, National Building Arts Center). In Fall 2022, Michael Allen will teach the StudioLab course “Historic Preservation, Memory and Community” (cross-listed in Sam Fox and American Culture Studies) to be followed by a second course in Spring 2023 also based at Sumner High School. Other members of the team will include teaching assistants as well as Sumner High School student interns and a community advisory board. The graduate fellows will work closely with this team and will be supervised by Matt Bernstine and Laura Perry.  

    The fellowship compensation is $20,000 for the academic year. The fellow is expected to work up to 10 hours per week during the fall and spring semester (until June 2023). The fellow is also expected to arrange transportation to Sumner High School (many meetings and events will be held off campus), which is roughly ~15 minutes by car from WashU’s Danforth Campus. Some events may be held on weekday evenings (as possible) to allow for greater community participation. We also anticipate some (remote) work may be requested during breaks as needed.    

    To apply:  

    Please submit a statement of interest of no more than 500 words as well as your CV to this Box folder by September 2, 2022. Applicants who advance to the interview stage will be notified by September 8, 2022. Contact Matt Bernstine and Laura Perry with questions.