The NPS Mellon Humanities Postdoctoral Fellowship Program places recent humanities PhDs with NPS sites and programs across the agency. In collaboration with NPS staff and partners, the incoming cohort of fifteen (15) Fellows will contribute to planning and preparation for America at 250, an initiative inspired by the semi-quincentennial of the Declaration of Independence. This event provides an opportunity for the NPS to tell a more inclusive story of the American past and present. The NPS is committed to exploring the full complexity of our history, even if that history is uncomfortable, contested, or erased. The humanities research supported by this Fellowship will expand these efforts, encouraging creative approaches to documentation, interpretation, and outreach.

This opportunity is generously supported by a generous grant from The Mellon Foundation through the National Park Foundation (NPF). The project is administered via a three-way agreement among NPS, National Park Foundation (NPF), and American Conservation Experience (ACE).

Fellowship Title: National Park Service Mellon Humanities Postdoctoral Fellow: Green Book Cleveland

Employer: American Conservation Experience (ACE)

Department: EPIC Program, National Park Service (NPS) Division

Location: Brecksville, Ohio. Eligible for telework flexibility.

Status: Temporary, Full-time, Exempt

Term: Position is fully funded through August 31, 2025

Start Date: September 2023

Host Description: The fellowship is placed within the Division of Interpretation, Education & Visitor Services at Cuyahoga Valley National Park. The park was established in 1974 as part of the federal Parks to the People initiative, which sought to create national park experiences closer to where people live. The park encompasses 33,000 acres of open space along the Cuyahoga River between the cities of Cleveland and Akron in northeast Ohio. The park protects diverse natural, cultural, and recreational resources. Cuyahoga Valley's relationship with its nearby cities is central to the park story. Cuyahoga Valley National Park is located within the Ohio & Erie Canalway, a national heritage area that includes the two cities.

ACE is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing rewarding environmental service opportunities for young adults and emerging professionals of all backgrounds to explore and improve public lands while gaining practical professional experience. The EPIC NPS Division works alongside the National Park Service across the United States, from Alaska to Puerto Rico, to support the NPS in its mission to "preserve unimpaired the natural and cultural resources and values of the National Park System for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations" while providing career promoting individual placement opportunities.

Position Description: The Green Book Cleveland Fellow will research and interpret African American experiences related to twentieth-century entertainment, leisure, and recreation in a major Great Lakes metropolitan area. The research will explore themes of community change, celebration, and resilience in an era marked by segregation, racism, and racial violence.

The Green Book Cleveland project started as an archival research and digital history project of Cleveland State University in cooperation with Cuyahoga Valley National Park. It is inspired by an interest in recovering the histories of the many places that were listed in Victor H. Green's Green Book guides that were published between the 1930s and '60s to help Black travelers find courteous, fair service in their travels. The Green Book Cleveland project maps and further documents these sites of Black entertainment, leisure, and recreation, along with many similar places in Cleveland and across Northeast Ohio. Some of the places researched in the project are in historically Black neighborhoods. Others extend to suburban and even rural Northeast Ohio. This preliminary work resulted in a website, Green Book Cleveland.

The preliminary work revealed the importance of informal spaces of outdoor recreation and leisure. While the work to date found a long history of African Americans using the region's parks, in many more cases it identified places that they created for their own use, often a short distance from more formal spaces. Several of these locations occurred in what is now Cuyahoga Valley National Park before park establishment. The work has also revealed how many of the informal spaces have vanished. Urban Renewal, highways, exclusionary zoning, poor code enforcement, demolition, disinvestment, and threats or commissions of violence-all have erased many sites from the landscape. Digitally reviving the places through the preliminary work is just a start. Through the work of the Fellow, the project will move beyond the digital and begin to reattach public recognition of this history to specific places in our region.

Each NPS Mellon Humanities Postdoctoral Fellow will complete work in four areas. Fellows will (1) perform project-based research; (2) share research results; (3) produce and substantially contribute to interpretive and educational products; and (4) pursue career-focused work.

1) Project-Based Research: A multi-partner Green Book Cleveland Collaborative has now formed. This collaborative will begin a memory project in 2023 to bring community voices into the research. The memory project will be accomplished with community-based partners, who can help identify oral history participants and host oral history events. In year one, the Fellow will continue the memory project by collecting additional community stories by conducting oral histories themselves or supporting partners in their collection and conducting analysis. In year two, the Fellow will consult with their mentorship team and the Green Book Cleveland Collaborative to propose a project for the second year.

2) Sharing Research Results: The Fellow will collaborate with their support team and the Green Book Cleveland Collaborative to share the results of their applied research with their hosts, cohort, Fellowship project team, the larger community of NPS staff and partners, and ultimately to visitors and community partners. This research will be shared on various platforms, including webinars, educational and interpretive content on NPS.gov and Green Book Cleveland. The Fellow will also serve as a liaison to other public history and humanities organizations.

The Fellow will be expected to develop and sustain connections with program-provided mentors and host staff, associated NPS staff, members of their Fellowship cohort, and other Fellows across the tenure of the program. In addition to being provided mentorship and support themselves, the Fellow will have the opportunity to mentor others and to enrich staff knowledge by organizing events such as virtual speaker series and presentations. Twice a year, the Fellow will participate with their cohort and other Fellows in a virtual conference for NPS staff and partners to provide updates about their research. The Fellow will be responsible for tracking and reporting accomplishments and for supplying copies of interpretive, educational, and research products to their host and to the National Coordinator.

3) Interpretive and Educational products: The Fellow will work with their mentors, support team, and Green Book Cleveland Collaborative to identify feasible interpretive and educational products informed by their research. In particular, the Fellow will be asked to implement a project that begins to create a physical presence for the stories of Green Book Cleveland on the landscape through a marker and/or wayside exhibits program or similar project. This would entail organizing research findings to support the project, coordinating a project committee and developing a project plan, coordinating partner conversations to develop a vision and parameters for the markers or waysides, working with the committee to establish a visual design for the project, and developing the interpretive content for phase 1 of the project based on a scope identified with the committee.

4) Career-focused research and products: In consultation with their mentors, the Fellow will carry out a career-centered project. About 20 percent of the Fellowship will be dedicated to this scholarly work that advances the Fellow's career path. The Fellow will be supported by a multidisciplinary team that draws on local, regional, and agency-wide expertise. In addition to NPS staff, the Fellow will also have the support from the Green Book Cleveland Collaborative and an external mentor with expertise in public and urban history.

Essential Responsibilities and Tasks:

• Conduct original research into the history of African American entertainment, leisure, and recreation during the 20th century through archival research and oral histories. Synthesize findings with existing research.
• Work with a multi-partner collaborative to identify research and interpretive goals. Advise students and staff from partners who may support the project on research best practices.
• Organize and share findings with NPS and partner organizations through in-person and virtual meetings. Develop content for multiple digital platforms to make research available to interpreters and the public.
• Assist with coordination of virtual programs to share research findings from this and other Mellon Humanities Fellowships with NPS staff, partner sites, and the general public.
• Implement a project that creates a physical presence of the Green Book Cleveland stories on the landscape, such as a marker or wayside program. Coordinate a project committee and develop a project plan. Coordinate partner conversations to develop a vision and parameters for the markers or waysides. Work with the committee to establish a visual design for the project. Develop interpretive content for phase 1 of the program based on a scope identified with the committee.

Required Experience and Qualifications:

• Must be a PhD in any field of the humanities or humanistic social sciences. Scholars who received or will receive their PhD between May 1, 2018, and August 15, 2023, are eligible to apply. For more information on eligibility, visit https://www.nationalparks.org/nps-mellon-humanities-postdoctoral-fellowship
• Subject matter expertise in African American history, public history, or cultural anthropology.
• Excellent research skills.
• Excellent writing and communication skills for diverse audiences, including the general public.
• Ability to work both independently and collaboratively in a team environment.
• Skill in project planning, organization, and time management; ability and desire to perform multiple concurrent and variable tasks
• Strong organizational skills to keep track of workload, tasks, and interactions
• Selective factors include the merit of scholarship and promise, commitment to the public humanities, and capacity to complete research successfully.

Other Requirements:

• Must be a US citizen or Permanent Resident, as required to comply with U.S. government contracts.
• Must be proficient in English.
• Must pass a federal criminal background check; Fellowship is also contingent upon a successful security background check with the NPS.
• Must be willing to abide by ACE Policy and Federal Drug Free workplace policies and laws. ACE reserves the right to drug test at any time
• Must verify that they are fully vaccinated for COVID-19 by the time they start their fellowship or request a medical or religious exemption.
• Must be willing to abide by a requirement to acknowledge The Mellon Foundation, the National Park Service, the National Park Foundation, and American Conservation Experience, in any publications generated by this project.
• Must be willing to abide by federal policy that research results, publications, films, videos, artistic or similar endeavors resulting from the fellowship, other than the specifically career-focused work, will become the property of the United States, and as such, will be in the public domain and not subject to copyright laws.
• Consent to being photographed and to the release of such photographic images.

Physical Demands, Work Environment, and Working Conditions:

• Physical Demands: Requires frequent sitting, standing, walking, using hands to handle or feel, reaching with hands and arms, talks and hears with or without assistive personnel and/or devices. Manual dexterity required for use of computer keyboard/mouse and other office equipment with or without reasonable accommodations. May be occasionally required to stoop, kneel, climb stairs, and/or crouch (all physical demands are required with or without reasonable accommodations). The National Park Service host will provide reasonable accommodations, if needed, to meet task assignments.
• Vision Requirements: Requires close, distance, peripheral and depth perception vision as well as the ability to focus. The National Park Service host will provide reasonable accommodations, if needed, to meet task assignments.
• Environmental: Mainly indoor, office environment conditions; indoor air quality is good, and temperature is controlled. This is describing both provided office spaces and home office spaces.
• Noise Environment: Moderate noise such as in a business office with equipment and light traffic. This is describing both provided office spaces and home office spaces.
• Travel: This position requires domestic travel as needed for program duties.

Salary & Benefits:

Compensation: Starting annualized salary $65,000 with annualized COLA to $67,600 for Year 2 (40 hours/week for 52-weeks). Paid bi-weekly, a two-week pay period. Travel funding is provided, and Fellows will not be responsible for the costs of allowable/approved program travel. Each Fellow will receive an annual research fund of $3,000.

Medical/Health Benefits: ACE offers competitive medical and ancillary plans (health, mental health, dental, vision, flexible spending accounts, and other supplemental benefits). Fellows are also eligible to participate in ACE's 403b retirement plan, which includes a 1% employer contribution for participating, contributing staff.

Holidays, Vacation, and Sick Time: As a Fellow, you will be eligible to accrue up to 80 hours of paid vacation time annually during your first two years of continuous employment. Additionally, ACE observes 13 paid annual holidays and provides 10 days (or 80 hours) of paid sick time annually.

Additional Benefits: Outdoor Perks - As an ACE Fellow, you will be eligible to receive pro deals which include deep discounts on outdoor gear providing 30 - 50% off retail prices on 100s of established outdoor gear brands.

To Apply: Please submit: 1) a cover letter stating interest and vision for the Fellowship (letters may include a summary of the dissertation, a statement of personal research interests and plans, discussion of past engagement with public humanities, discussion of willingness to participate fully in NPS research and education programs); 2) a comprehensive curriculum vitae; 3) a writing sample accessible to the general public; 4) confirmation of Ph.D. award by August 15, 2023; and 5) names and contact information for 3 professional references.

Deadline to apply: The deadline to apply for this position is January 30, 2023, or until 75 applications meeting eligibility requirements have been received.

Questions about the application process should be sent to mellonhumanities@usaconservation.org

American Conservation Experience provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability or genetics. In addition to federal law requirements, American Conservation Experience complies with applicable state and local laws governing non-discrimination in employment in every location in which the company has facilities. ACE encourages all qualified individuals to apply and does not discriminate on the basis of any protected status, including veteran and disability status. ACE is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to employees with disabilities under the ADA and provides the opportunity for employees to request reasonable accommodations during the hiring process.