Archival Intern

Call for Applicants:

North Carolina Environmental Justice Network

Archival Internship

Position: Archival Intern

Pay: $20/hour (total stipend: $3900)

Time Frame: June 2026 - May 2027 (flexible start and end dates)

Schedule: average 16.25 hours per month

Location: Hybrid position, with some in-person work required in Durham, North Carolina and in Eastern North Carolina. Applicants must be residing in North Carolina with availability to travel to on-site locations for collections efforts at least once per month. 

Description: The Archival Intern will support the collections and processing efforts of the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network (NCEJN) Archive. Founded in 1998, NCEJN is a grassroots, people of color-led coalition that builds power with systemically marginalized communities to resist climate, environmental, racial, and social injustice. The NCEJN Archive is a community-driven repository of oral history interviews, photographs, artifacts, and a wide range of documents preserving perspectives, experiences, and stories related to environmental justice activism.

During the duration of the internship, the Archival Intern will:

• Engage in a wide range of tasks related to expanding and maintaining the NCEJN Archive, from archival acquisition to processing.
• Meet community members in person to facilitate archival donations and record donor information. 
• Enter metadata for archival materials. 
• Transcribe and process oral history interviews.
• Participate in conversations about archival management for this community-driven archive.

Outcomes: 

• Develop skills related to a wide range of archival tasks, including acquisition, ingestion, and accessioning.
• Expand proficiency with archival metadata.
• Gain experience processing oral history interviews. 
• Strengthen awareness of the ethics and practices of community-driven archiving and public history projects.
• Build understanding of archival management procedures for this community-driven activist archive. 

Qualifications: 

Required qualifications:

• Current graduate student or upperclassman undergraduate student (or equivalent experience).
• Experience with qualitative and/or archival methods. 
• High attention to detail.
• Ability to communicate effectively.
• Excitement about community-driven methodologies.
• Residing in North Carolina for the duration of the internship. 

Preferred qualifications:

• Personal, academic, or professional connection to a community (or communities) impacted by environmental injustices in North Carolina. 
• Experience in public humanities projects and/or humanities research. 
• Experience with community-engaged methods.
• Access to a personal vehicle for travel to site visits.

Application Process: 

Please submit your cover letter, resume/CV, and contact information for three references via this form tinyurl.com/Archival-Apply. In your cover letter, please explain how your experience (lived or professional) is aligned with the job description and how your values align with the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network's goals. 

The application deadline is April 1, 2026.

Finalists may be invited for a virtual interview. We intend to announce final decisions by the end of May 2026.

If you have any questions, please contact NCEJN’s Public Historian Emma Donnelly at emma@ncejn.org.