Project Coordinator - Human Bridges

Project Coordinator — Human Bridges

Independent Media Institute 

Remote· Part-Time/ Full-time

https://observatory.wiki/Human_Bridges

https://independentmediainstitute.org/human-bridges/

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Human Bridges is a research and education initiative of the Independent Media Institute (Education NGO) based in the United States that synthesizes findings from paleoanthropology, archaeology, behavioral biology, and cognitive science into accessible content for institutions, educators, and the public. We are building a global network of researchers, producing country-level guides to deep-time heritage sites, and developing curricula and consulting programs that bring anthropological evidence into institutional practice.

We are looking for a project coordinator who combines scholarly breadth with operational capability — someone who can move between research, outreach, content production, and project management without losing the thread. This is a full-time job.

We are also interested in specialists whose work is relevant to our projects who want to engage in a month-long research or development. See skill lists at the bottom. 

We are interested in applicants from across the globe, with special focus on S. Korea, Philipines, Malaysia, India, Morocco, Egypt, Ethiopia. 

You will need a graduate / advanced degree in a relevant field, and have some experience of working with international teams or NGOs.

The role:

• Coordinate a network of 15 international researchers producing country guides and content

• Research, organize, and synthesize scholarly material across human origins, archaeology, historical geography, and evolutionary science

• Support editorial production for observatory.wiki — writing, editing, fact-checking, archival sourcing

• Conduct outreach to universities, museums, cultural institutions, and potential collaborators

• Manage project logistics — scheduling, correspondence, tracking deliverables

• Assist with marketing and audience development for published content

• Contribute to mapping and GIS work for the New Grand Tour initiative

You should have:

• Strong written and spoken English; additional languages a significant asset

• Familiarity with higher education systems and academic publishing

• Administrative discipline — you keep things organized and moving

• Regular interaction and communications with specialists and the public

• Comfort with digital tools including LLMs, and content management systems

• US passport or green card required (travel to US-based meetings and institutional visits)

Knowledge Domains: An ideal candidate has focused on some of these issues:

• Paleoanthropology / human origins — hominin taxonomy, fossil record, Out of Africa debates, multiregional models

• Archaeology — field methods, stratigraphy, lithic analysis, site interpretation

• Ancient DNA (aDNA) — population genetics, admixture modeling, what aDNA can and can't tell you

• Synthetic biology — emerging relevance to understanding ancient genomes, de-extinction discourse, bioethics

• Historical geography — how landscapes, climates, and trade routes shaped human settlement and migration

• Synthesis - Multidisciplinary process design, research models, and pedagogy.

• Environmental history — deep-time climate, Holocene transitions, human impact on ecosystems

• Evolutionary biology — natural selection, speciation, phylogenetics as framework

• Behavioral biology / evolutionary psychology — Sapolsky's territory, neuroendocrinology, primate behavior

• Museum studies / heritage management — how institutions collect, preserve, interpret, and display

• History of science — how disciplines formed, paradigm shifts, who got credit and who didn't

• Classical geography / exploration history — for the Grand Tour framing: Strabo, Ptolemy, Humboldt, Darwin's voyage

• Quaternary science — geochronology, dating methods (C14, OSL, U-series), paleoclimate proxies

• Linguistic anthropology — language families, migration signals in language, ethnographic context

• Political ecology — how power structures shape who does science where, and whose heritage gets preserved

• Digital humanities — computational approaches to text, spatial, and network analysis in humanities research

Skills/Backgrounds: An ideal candidate has some of these skillsets:

• GIS / spatial analysis — mapping, georeferencing, cartographic production for New Grand Tour

• Database architecture — designing the data layer under observatory.wiki (relational schemas for sites, specimens, dates, researchers)

• Wiki publishing / CMS operations — MediaWiki, static site generators, structured content workflows

• Science communication — translating dense scholarship into accessible prose without dumbing it down

• Pedagogical design — structuring guides and content for learning, not just reading

• Project management — coordinating 15 international researchers across time zones, tracking deliverables, managing deadlines

• Research synthesis — pulling together findings across disciplines into coherent narratives

• Archival sourcing — navigating institutional archives, museum collections, digitized primary sources

• Bibliometric / citation network analysis — mapping who's citing whom, identifying key papers and gaps

• Grant writing / fundraising support — framing scholarly projects for funders (especially useful given the philanthropy side)

• Data visualization — charts, timelines, phylogenetic trees, migration maps that actually communicate

• Editorial production — copyediting, fact-checking, style consistency across multi-author output

• Outreach / relationship management — university liaisons, museum partnerships, cold outreach that lands

• Marketing / audience development — SEO, social strategy, newsletter craft, framing scholarly work for non-specialists

• LLM fluency — using AI tools for research acceleration, drafting, synthesis (not just "comfort with")

• Translation / multilingual research — reading sources in French, German, Spanish, Arabic, Mandarin opens entire literatures

Compensation: Commensurate with experience. This is a role with real intellectual range — not an administrative box.

To apply: Send a CV and a short note on why this project interests you to info@observatory.wiki