Curatorial Postdoctoral Fellowships, University of Notre Dame Photography

University of Notre Dame • Notre Dame, IN

3d • Onsite

About The Position

The Raclin Murphy Museum of Art at the University of Notre Dame, with funding from Lilly Endowment, Inc., is offering 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. This specific fellowship is for the Photographs area. The fellowships are for two years with a possible one-year extension, requiring residence at the University. The Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, which opened a new building in December 2023, holds over 32,000 objects and serves a campus of approximately 10,000 students and 1,500 faculty, along with surrounding communities. The photography collection, comprising about 10,000 objects, is the largest segment of the museum's collection and is frequently requested for classroom study. The fellow will work closely with a curator on cataloging, researching, and interpreting the permanent photography collection, updating attribution, subject, and dating of works, and recording provenance, exhibition history, and bibliography. This information will be registered in the museum's digital records and database, and used for exhibition labels and publications. A key goal is to organize the collection for better use and future expansion, anticipating a new Works on Paper center. The fellow will also assist with new acquisitions, contribute to the museum's digitization project (Marble), and potentially support campus classes. They will help select and write entries for a new selected works catalogue and are encouraged to pursue their own research interests, publishing in scholarly journals or presenting at conferences. The fellow will also assist curators in preparing collections for the new Works on Paper Study Room.

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

• Cataloguing, researching, and interpreting the Museum's important and in-demand permanent collection of photographs.
• Reviewing and studying the entire photography collection, affirming or updating the attribution, subject, and dating of the works.
• Recording details of provenance, exhibition history, and bibliography.
• Registering refined information as digital records within the institution and the University database.
• Using cataloging information for ongoing exhibition labels and publications, including a new collection catalogue.
• Organizing storage of the collection for better use and future expansion.
• Assisting in researching and processing new acquisitions.
• Considering purposeful expansion of the collection.
• Assisting in supporting campus classes on a limited basis.
• Gaining understanding of collections care, exhibition support, and publication through relationships with museum staff.
• Helping to select objects to research and write select entries for a new selected works catalogue.
• Identifying works or themes in the collections that correspond to their own research interests for publication or conference presentations.
• Assisting curators in preparing collections for the new Works on Paper Study Room.
• Examining works and describing media and subject matter; updating attributions; measuring.
• Compiling bibliographies, exhibition histories, provenance, and historic scholarly opinions.
• Updating records in the museum’s collections management database.
• Conducting in-depth research on selected works in the portfolio.
• Meeting with faculty and students to connect them with the collection upon request.
• Being 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