Digital Humanities Specialist at the University of the Pacific

The University of the Pacific seeks to hire a creative and collaborative Digital Humanities Specialist (DHS) to develop and manage strategies and infrastructure for curating digital and pre-digital content and data; provide computer programming support for projects; and author and/or co-author new digital humanities resources or scholarship.  This is a full-time 20-24 month pilot staff position. The DHS will work half-time contributing to the University Library’s archival and digital initiatives and half-time on an interdisciplinary NEH-funded Digital Humanities research project, KELLIA.  The DHS will report to Prof. Caroline T. Schroeder in the Department of Religious Studies and Michael Wurtz, the Head of Special Collections.

[Apply for this position at the University of the Pacific website]

KELLIA (Koptische/Coptic Electronic Language and Literature International Alliance) is an international DH project funded by the NEH and the DFG (Germany) to develop international standards and promote digital scholarship in the language and literature of ancient Egypt.  Researchers at the University of the Pacific, Georgetown University, Goettingen University, and Muenster University will be collaborating on digital methods in textual studies, linguistics, history, and manuscript studies.

The William Knox Holt Memorial Library on the Stockton campus serves a diverse community of liberal arts and professional faculty.  The Holt-Atherton Special Collections is home to several important American cultural heritage collections:  the multimedia archives of jazz legend Dave Brubeck; primary source documents from World War II Japanese-American Internment Camps; the papers of renowned naturalist and conservationist John Muir; and the papers and video archive of former San Francisco Mayor George R. Moscone.

Duties

The Digital Humanities Specialist may perform some but not all of the following duities and/or may be assigned additional duties:

  1. Develops and manages strategies and infrastructure for curating digital humanities content and data.
  2. Authors/co-authors new digital humanities resources or scholarship.
  3. Provides web development and programming for humanities research.
  4. Contributes to original research in digital humanities.
  5. Contributes to planning and decision-making about KELLIA’s technological development and long-term sustainability.
  6. Identifies, recommends, and implements linked open data technologies for humanities research.
  7. Identifies, recommends, and implements digital asset management and digital archiving in the Library.
  8. Participates in archival processing and reference duties in a special collections environment.  
  9. Designs forward-facing, interactive digital initiatives, websites, and/or exhibits.
  10. Provides library and special collections instruction.

 

QUALIFICATIONS:

Education/Work Experience/Certifications:

  • 1) MA in Digital Humanities OR 2) MLIS from an accredited ALA program or MA in Archival Studies with demonstrated digital/technological training/certification OR 3) MA in a Humanities discipline or related field with demonstrated digital/technological training or certification
  • Documented research and/or teaching experience in digital scholarship or pedagogy in a humanities discipline or related field
  • Demonstrated experience in web development and programming for research and/or teaching in the humanities or a related field (including archival studies and library and information science)

Skills/Knowledge and Expertise:

Required skills/knowledge and expertise

  • Excellent interpersonal, presentation, and communication skills
  • Demonstrated expertise in digital humanities technologies of web development (HTML, CSS, PHP, JavaScript), text encoding (XML), and programming (Python, Java)
  • Commitment to open access technologies and data for the humanities or a related field
  • Proven ability to work collaboratively in team-based initiatives
  • Proven ability to contribute to original scholarship in the humanities or a related field
  • Enthusiasm to build international and interdisciplinary research partnerships
  • Proven ability to work successfully with diverse populations and demonstrated commitment to promote and enhance diversity and inclusion
  • Knowledge of ancient languages, while welcome, is not a requirement for this position.

Preferred skills/knowledge and expertise

  • Demonstrated expertise with data curation techniques for a variety of digitized and born-digital media (text, code, images, music, etc.) and tools (e.g., DSpace, EPrints, Fedora, contentDM, etc.)
  • Demonstrated experience with linked data technologies and methodologies (e.g., JSON, RDF)
  • Experience managing CMS and LMS systems
  • Command of archival theory and best practices, especially as they relate to the particular issues posed by born-digital content.  

APPLICATION:

To apply for this position visit https://pacific.peopleadmin.com/postings/5822 and submit:

  • Letter of interest
  • CV
  • Names and contact information for 3 references

Review of applications will begin on September 1.

Questions about the position may be directed to cschroeder@pacific.edu and mwurtz@pacific.edu.  For questions about the online application process, please consult the online help system.

This position is funded by the University of the Pacific Library and the National Endowment for the Humanities (through the joint NEH-DFG bilateral Digital Humanities grant program).