Curatorial Postdoctoral Fellowships, University of Notre Dame Photography

University of Notre Dame • Notre Dame, IN

2d • Onsite

About The Position

This Postdoctoral Fellow position is being managed through a separate application system. We are sharing here to increase visibility and accessibility. Apply here through August 17, 2026 if you are interested. With funding provided by a grant from Lilly Endowment, Inc., the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art at the University of Notre Dame invites applications for four postdoctoral research fellowships in its main curatorial areas: European and American Art before 1900, Indigenous Americas and Africa, International Modern and Contemporary Art, and Photographs. Fellows will be appointed for two years with the possibility of a one-year extension. Each fellow will work with a collection curator who will direct their research activity. Fellows are expected to be in residence at the University for the duration of the appointment, anticipated to run from September 28, 2026 through September 2028, in order to contribute to the community of scholars on campus. The Raclin Murphy Museum of Art opened its new building in December 2023. With a collection of over 32,000 objects, it serves a campus with about 10,000 students and 1,500 faculty, in addition to diverse communities in northwest Indiana and southwest Michigan. Its holdings are increasingly recognized nationally and internationally for their breadth and quality. The Lilly Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow for Photography will be responsible for cataloguing, researching, and interpreting the Museum's important and in-demand permanent collection. The portfolio comprises some 10,000 objects numerically the largest segment of the Museum collection. These objects represent the full spectrum of date, method, and style of this diverse medium. Significant acquisitions over the last ten years have strengthened the collection, making them among the most frequently requested works by University faculty for classroom study. The Fellow will participate in all the daily activities of an active curatorial department, with the collection at its center. This person will work with the curator to research the permanent collection and devise appropriate strategies for disseminating that research. The primary activity will be working with the curator to review and study the entire photography collection, affirming or updating the attribution, subject, and dating of the works. Details of provenance, exhibition history, and bibliography will also be recorded. This refined information will be registered as digital records within the institution, and for the University database. This information will also be used in ongoing exhibition labels, and publications like a new collection catalogue. In addition to the aforementioned, aside from rectifying the curatorial record an overriding goal of this project is to organize storage of the collection that allows for better use and future expansion of the collection in anticipation of new Works on Paper center at the Museum detailed below. The Fellow will assist in researching and processing new acquisitions, and consider purposeful expansion of the collection. The aforementioned cataloging efforts will contribute to the Museum's new database and ongoing collection digitization project, Marble. With increasing partnerships with various institutes and departments across campus, the fellow may be asked to assist in supporting these classes on a limited basis. Relationships across the museum staff will provide understanding of collections care, exhibition support, and publication. A chief initiative of the Museum’s strategic plan is to publish a new selected works catalogue. In consultation with the curator, the fellow will help select objects to research and write select entries. The Fellow will also be encouraged to identify works or themes in the collections that correspond to their own research interests and publish in scholarly journals or present at conferences. A new addition is planned for the Raclin Murphy Museum that will feature a dedicated Works on Paper Study Room intended to serve as a hub for the research and interdisciplinary study of the Museum’s collection of prints, drawings, and photographs from the fifteenth through twenty-first centuries. The Fellow will assist the curators in preparing collections for this new facility with a team of Museum staff.

Requirements

• PhD in art history (received within the last five years) from an accredited institution in the U.S. or Europe.
• Reading knowledge of at least two European languages.
• Command of the art historical canon.
• Familiarity with archival research.
• Interest in connoisseurship.
• Ability to communicate equally with multi-disciplinary academic and diverse general audiences with clarity and precision.
• Ability to work independently while coordinating efforts with staff in other departments.

Nice To Haves

• Experience working in museums with collections is desirable but not essential.
• Understanding of collections management databases a plus.
• Interest in and enthusiasm for museum work, with preference given to applicants intending to pursue a curatorial career.

Responsibilities

• Examine works and describe media, and subject matter; update attributions; measure.
• Compile bibliographies, exhibition histories, provenance, and historic scholarly opinions.
• Update records in the museum’s collections management database.
• Conduct in-depth research on selected works in the portfolio.
• Contribute as directed to the forthcoming selected works catalog.
• Upon request, meet with faculty and students to connect them with the collection.
• Be available for public programming (lectures, presentations, gallery talks, tours, panel discussions, etc.)

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree