SEEK Fellowship: MSU Broad Art Museum

Project: Shouldn’t You Be Working? 100 Years of Working from Home

Public Outreach/Research and Exhibition Fellowship

Research Area Expertise Sought: (including but not limited to) (history of) photography, interior design, home economics, digital art and humanities, gender studies, journalism

This is a co-curricular research fellowship opportunity open to doctoral students in good standing at Michigan State University

Dates: Winter/Spring 2023
Work Hours: 8hrs/week, Flexible
Work Environment: Virtual and In-Person
Credits Bearing: No
Fellowship Stipend: TBD, Depending on Scope of Work

About the Fellowship

The MSU Broad Art Museum is seeking graduate fellows to assist in the research and organization of the upcoming exhibition Shouldn’t You Be Working. 100 Years of Working from Home (June 10–December 17, 2023). The exhibition will examine the intersection of home, labor and digital technology and look at the home as an ever-changing site of labor. Not just since the pandemic, mobile phones, computers, and the internet have enabled an unprecedented variety of new labor practices, which are situated within the home: from white-collar home offices to self-made Instagramers and YouTubers to the hidden labor of coders and off-shore renderers to traditional domestic work by nannies, caretakers and homemakers.

Digitization has brought on previously unknown working conditions situated in the home. They oscillate between a new-found freedom and increased personal expression, and the threat of total digital surveillance and exploitation. The increasingly blurred boundaries between labor and leisure, now situated in the same spaces, compel us to ask one of today’s most ubiquitous questions: are we living at the office or has the office moved into our homes?

Exhibition description: 

The exhibition contrasts images from the museum’s extensive photographic collection on traditional domestic labor, including photos by Walker Evans, Ewing Galloway, Dorothea Lange, Marion Post Wolcott, and Arthur Rothstein, with current digital and photographic work. Laid out in a darkened gallery space, images documenting MSU’s School of Home Economics’ teachings in house management and interior decoration set the foundation for explorations by contemporary artists and architects in our light-filled main gallery.

Fellowship description: 

The graduate fellow will work closely with the exhibition curator and other museum departments to create interpretative content in support of the exhibition; this includes:

  • designing and implementing a public, MSU-wide photo competition in preparation of the exhibition
  • developing and implementing programmatic outreach content for the exhibition
  • coordinating with partners across MSU, including the School of Journalism, the Broad Art Museum’s Communications department and the museum’s Education department
  • researching and curating a small display in the Education Wing at the Broad Art Museum with the competition entries

We are seeking a graduate student with a research focus and expertise in (but not limited to) (history of) photography, interior design, home economics, digital art, gender studies or journalism. In consultation with the exhibition curator, the graduate fellow will work on a self-directed documentary project, which is intended to complement the exhibition and may be exhibited in the museum’s education wing. This work will primarily be conducted independently, but there will be regular team meetings with exhibition curators, other departments at the museum and fellows to share research and exhibition/project updates.

How to Apply:

These fellowships will begin March 1, 2023, and continue through the spring semester at MSU, in advance of the exhibition’s opening on June 10, 2023. We expect all work related to the fellowship to be complete no later than April 30, 2023. Interested applicants should submit the following materials to Associate Curator Teresa Fankhaenel (fankhaen@msu.edu) by 11:59 p.m. on Friday, February 17, 2023. Late submissions will not be reviewed. Applications should consist of the following components:

  • One page statement describing applicant’s interest in project, area of expertise/study, and potential contribution
  • CV/resume, including reference contact information
  • A short (no longer than one page) writing sample

Any questions about the fellowship can be directed to Curatorial Assistant Dalina A. Perdomo Alvarez (perdomo1@msu.edu).