About this opportunity
We are seeking candidates for a collaborative team of graduate researchers to work on public programming related to Mindscapes, an international cultural program organized by the Wellcome Trust, that aims to support a transformation in how we understand, address and talk about mental health.
Here in New York City, local cultural partners include the Brooklyn Museum, New York Public Library, The Center for Urban Pedagogy, the Laundromat Project, and the Center for the Humanities at the Graduate Center, CUNY.
This research team will assist Curatorial Research Fellow Rebecca Hayes Jacobs in the development of Mindscapes public programming at the Center and with our partner organizations beginning in spring 2022.
Deadline to Apply: November 30, 2021, 11:59 PM.
What We Are Researching:
We are seeking a multidisciplinary team of researchers with an interest in public scholarship. This project seeks to engage with communities across the city through public programming that addresses contemporary challenges to mental health and well-being. The team will work together to design and deliver public programming that aims to:
- Redefine what mental health and well-being actually means by asking broad, open questions that aren't limited by current frameworks
- Learn how communities define their own mental health needs today, possibly outside of clinical definitions and current programs as they exist
- Make connections between civic spaces and physical infrastructure and mental health, well-being and healing
- Help better conceptualize collective recovery and collective healing
- Engage with representatives from arts and cultural organizations, as well as policy, science, design, advocacy and government agencies
- Revisit relevant sites and specific histories in New York, including through research in archives and collections
- Investigate connections with other key Mindscapes cities (Berlin, Bengaluru, Kigali and Tokyo)
Qualified candidates will:
- Have research experience and interests that intersect with the main themes of the projects listed above
- Be a current graduate student at The Graduate Center, CUNY
- Be available for regular on-site research at locations around New York City and for occasional in-person meetings at The Graduate Center (with COVID precautions in place)
- Be available to work on public programming that does not align with an academic calendar
- Report directly to Rebecca Hayes Jacobs, the Wellcome Trust Mental Health Curatorial Research Fellow at the Graduate Center
Compensation: $5,000, for 100 hours
*For CUNY Students: Before applying, please contact the office of financial aid at your campus to ensure that you are eligible to receive this funding without it adversely impacting your existing financial aid package. In your email to them, please include the fellowship amount, the semester you would receive it, and your EMPL ID, which you can find in CUNYFirst under Student Center.
To Apply:
Interested candidates should send a cover letter (addressed to Dr.
Jacobs) and brief resumé highlighting relevant experience and areas of
interest to [email protected]. Please include
“Mindscapes Research Assistant Application” in the subject of the
email. Please submit applications by 11:59 PM, November 30, 2021.
Interviews will take place by arrangement and the position will begin
immediately thereafter. Research hours will be completed by mid-summer
2022.
About Mindscapes:
Mindscapes is an international cultural program that aims to support a transformation in how we understand, address and talk about mental health.
Combining diverse perspectives and expertise, the program—including artist residencies, a documentary, exhibitions and events—will be staged in a number of cities around the world. Our work will culminate in 2022.
Mindscapes brings together cultural projects, communities, policy and research, and is informed and inspired by Wellcome's mental health program.
About The Center for the Humanities:
The Center for the Humanities at The Graduate Center, CUNY encourages
collaborative and creative work in the humanities at CUNY and across
the city through public research projects, seminars, publications and
public events. Free and open to the public, our programs aim to inspire
sustained, engaged conversation and to forge an open and diverse
intellectual community.
Read more about Mindscapes convening and Working Group here, and you can view the full Mindscapes convening report here.
For an example of how a graduate student research team and creative practitioner can collaborate on a project, see the methodology employed to produce the film Dis-Ease, by the Graduate Center’s 2018 Wellcome Artist in Residence, Mariam Ghani:
