Postdoctoral Fellow Latin American and Caribbean Studies. Haverford College

Project/Position Description

The Haverford College Libraries seek a two-year Postdoctoral Fellow in Data Curation for Latin American and Caribbean Studies to lead day-to-day programming and digitization efforts in collaboration with Grupo de Apoyo Mútuo (GAM), located in Guatemala City, Guatemala. As Guatemala’s earliest human rights organization, GAM has a unique set of textual, visual, and audio-video materials of significance to ongoing human rights trials, scholars of transitional justice in Latin America, and Guatemala’s historical memory. This project will be a post-custodial and cooperative project in which the Fellow will provide training and expert technical assistance with the digitization and data maintenance process, advising on best practices for the digital archiving of materials and provision of access to a local and global community. The Fellow will have the opportunity to work with Haverford College faculty, undergraduate assistants, the Libraries’ Digital Scholarship team and research staff, and Guatemalan partner organizations. The Fellow will be a resource to other faculty working in Latin American and Caribbean studies, and as interest and time permits may extend their model and collaborate with other active scholars.

Required skills/experience

• Fluent or near native command of Spanish.  
• Be legally permitted to work in the United States and/or Canada between 2017 and 2019
• Ph.D. in a related discipline such as History, Political Science, Anthropology, Sociology, Human Rights or Information Science.
• Previous experience with digitization or data curation.
• Willingness to travel internationally and to work directly with project partners.

Desired skills/experience

• Previous experience in project management.
• Previous experience working with non-governmental organizations in Latin America.
• Knowledge of Central American indigenous languages.  
• Familiarity with recent court trials for Genocide and crimes against humanity in Guatemala.
• Experience working with victim or witness testimony and the protection of sensitive information.

Roles and Duties

• The Fellow will act as a project manager with responsibilities for the planning, design and development of the digitization project.  
• The Fellow, in consultation with Haverford Digital Scholarship, will research best practices and experience from comparable partnerships in Latin America as well as current technological requirements and procedures for digitization, data management and preservation.
• The Fellow will develop expertise in current legal and political issues in Guatemala and the United States that may affect project stakeholders and ensure that the project meets partner requirements for security, access and visibility.  
• Teach a course relevant to the Fellow’s disciplinary interests and expertise.
• Organize a symposium related to the project and its subject matter. The Fellow will work collaboratively with librarians, faculty, and students on the symposium and have the additional support of the Senior Administrative Assistant to the Librarian of the College in handling logistical arrangements.
• Engage and consult with other faculty members working in Latin America and Caribbean studies.  The Fellow will participate in a rich intellectual community that includes Haverford, Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore, three closely-associated, elite Liberal Arts colleges.

Guidance and Professional Development

• The post-doctoral fellow will work under the supervision of Michael Zarafonetis, Coordinator of Digital Scholarship Research and Services, with support of Anita Isaacs who is the Benjamin R. Collins Professor of Social Sciences and a Professor of Political Science at Haverford College. Several other faculty involved in Latin American and Caribbean Studies will also be a resource.
• Digital Scholarship librarians will provide training in project management, digital curation, database design and other technical skills as needed.  The infrastructure for the project will be managed by the Digital Scholarship team of the Libraries in collaboration with Information and Instructional Technology Systems.
• Financial support for travel and for the symposium will come from the Libraries and through grants offered by the College such as the Center for Peace and Global Citizenship and the Distinguished Visitor Program.
• Haverford College is a uniquely collaborative academic environment, which provides an opportunity to design and carry out a substantial data curation project in a team-oriented environment. Throughout the duration of the Fellowship, including presentations on the project, organization of the culminating symposium, and supervising students, the Fellow will have the support of colleagues within the Haverford community.

Salary and Benefits

• Salary is $65,000 per year.
• Haverford College offers a robust benefits package which includes among other benefits generous contributions to retirement accounts, health benefits, 23 vacation days, 11 holidays, and a winter recess between December 25 and January 1, the latter is reviewed and determined annually.