Regional Media Legacies Project Internships
To be eligible for an RML Internship, students must be a matriculated student in MIAP’s M.A. program. Over the course of two years in the MIAP program, students will complete one Spring internship in their first year, one Summer internship after their first year, and a Fall internship in their second and final year. As part of the RML program, offerings will be provided to students in the matching process that are eligible for support from the RML project. RML Internships conform to the existing MIAP Internship program and its related guidelines.
Under the guidance of the RML Project Manager and Post-Graduate Fellows, interns will work with organizations or individuals located in Brooklyn, Queens or on Long Island to provide such services as:
Inventorying and rehousing media items
Cataloging media items
Updating metadata for media items
Inspecting and repairing media items
Investigating copyright issues for media collections or items
Writing or implementing preservation plans for media collections
Researching vendor reformatting services
Researching in-house reformatting setup options
Researching sources of funding for preservation and reformatting projects
Assisting with grant writing or preparation work for grants related to the preservation of media items
These activities will allow sites to learn more about how to care for their audiovisual collections and safeguard them for the future. Currently, all activities must be performed virtually. Currently, New York University is back to in-person learning, allowing for onsite internships with an option for blended (combination of virtual and in person). The RML project will support the type of work that a student and internship host site are comfortable with. All onsite work must follow City and University safety guidelines.
Fall 2019 Internship
Brooklyn Historical Society - Brooklyn, NY
Brooklyn Historical Society (BHS) hosted the first Regional Media Legacies project-funded MIAP intern during the Fall 2019 semester. Founded in 1863, BHS is a nationally recognized urban history center dedicated to preserving and encouraging the study of Brooklyn's extraordinary and complex history. BHS collects, preserves, and makes accessible one of the most comprehensive collection of materials related to Brooklyn’s history and culture.
Under the supervision of Manager of Archives and Special Collections Maggie Schreiner, MIAP intern Matthew Hoffman researched and prepared a grant application for the preservation of audio-visual material in one of BHS’s flagship collections: the Ronald Shiffman collection on the Pratt Center for Community Development. Ron Shiffman is a city planner, architect, and expert in community economic development. The collection documents the broad scope of Shiffman's career from the 1960s to the present, and is a rich source of material pertaining to community-based planning, participatory and advocacy planning, self-help and sweat equity, housing programs and policies, community development corporations, and land use across New York City and internationally. This collection includes hundreds of audio-visual items, including video interviews from Building Hope: The Community Development Corporation Oral History Project, as well as event and conference recordings.
Find out more information here regarding Matthew Hoffman's Fall 2020 work.
Spring 2020 Internships
Booklyn - Brooklyn, NY
Booklyn is an artist-run, non-profit 501 (c) (3), consensus-governed, artists and bookmakers organization headquartered at the Brooklyn Army Terminal in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Booklyn supports artists and organizations committed to environmental and social justice. They work towards this by documenting, exhibiting, promoting, and distributing their work within educational institutions worldwide. They envision a world in which art and bookmaking are tools for education, personal agency, community engagement, and activism.
Over two decades, Booklyn has created a global network connecting hundreds of artists and organizations with educational institutions. Through that network, Booklyn has distributed thousands of books, artworks, archival collections, and box sets used by an audience reaching into the hundreds of thousands. They work directly with artists and social justice organizations to produce, document, and prepare work for acquisition by leading academic, artistic, and cultural institutions worldwide.
In Spring 2020, MIAP intern Amal Ahmed worked on inventorying and assessing Booklyn co-founder Marshall Weber’s collection of rare video-art, independent film, art historical slides, and music mix-tapes. The material is primarily from the 1980's and consists of activist, alternative, punk, underground artwork, and reportage by notable artists, musicians, and media makers of that time. A subsection of the collection includes material from Artists Television Access during the 1980's. While this internship was disrupted by the pandemic-related lockdown, Ahmed was able to complete a summary report of her work on the collection and continue discussing long term preservation options with Weber.
Find out more information here regarding Amal Ahmed's Spring 2020 work.
Weeksville Heritage Center - Brooklyn, NY
Weeksville Heritage Center is the steward of a 19th century African American historic site located in Brooklyn. In addition to three historic houses with period furnishings interpreted for the general public, the Weeksville Heritage Center’s collections include oral histories, unprocessed institutional records, archaeological artifacts, objects chosen for interpretive purposes, family papers of Weeksville descendents, and research files that compile primary source materials that document historic Weeksville and other free Black communities.
Weeksville Heritage Center identified a number of concerns related to audiovisual and time-based media in their archive. In order to begin addressing these concerns, MIAP intern Madeleine Mendell focused on surveying, documenting, and assessing legacy audiovisual formats (includes VHS, Compact audio cassettes, and 16mm film) and previously digitized materials in processed and unprocessed collections. Mendell was supervised by Collections and Archives Coordinator, Julia Keiser and Oral History Project Manager, Obden Mondesir. While this internship was disrupted by the pandemic-related lockdown, Mendell was able to utilize the information she had already gathered and generated an audiovisual collections summary report.
Find out more information here regarding Madeleine Mendell's Spring 2020 work.
Summer 2020 Internship
Regional Media Legacies (RML) Project - New York, NY
The Regional Media Legacies project team supervised a full-time graduate level MIAP intern for 10-weeks beginning in June through early August 2020. This Summer internship, originally intended to be carried out onsite at the Long Island Studies Institute, adjusted to lockdown restrictions during the pandemic and shifted focus to continuing RML outreach and research efforts.
MIAP student intern Aparna Subramanian worked collaboratively with RML Project Manager Marie Lascu and RML Fellow Rob Anen on outreach to historical organizations on Long Island and New York City (Brooklyn and Queens), assisted with gathering information for a collections assessment report for the LTV Archive, researched components for an audio cassette digitization kit, and led the planning and organization of our pilot webinar Audiovisual Archiving Basics hosted over Zoom for regional collections stewards.
Find out more information here regarding Aparna Subramanian's Summer 2020 work.
Fall 2020 Internship
Brooklyn Museum - Brooklyn, NY
The Brooklyn Museum Archives offers world class research resources. The Archives contain the primary source documents that detail the history of the Museum and its predecessor institutions. Totaling over 3,200 linear feet of records, they include letters, photographs, bills, layouts, and other documents created by people who worked in all departments, from Audiovisual to Visitor Services. The Archives’ Audiovisual collection numbers over 2,300 items and includes videos, audio tapes, and films that were predominantly created by the Brooklyn Museum from 1972 to 2005. The information held in the audiovisual collection is unique and documents the Museum's history and programs that include under-documented cultures that are of value to a wide and varied audience. Content includes documentation of installations and lectures, public programming and symposia, interviews with artists and curators, research done in the field, television programs, and publicity materials.
Under the supervision of Museum Archivist Molly Seegers, MIAP intern Zoe Yang assisted with the ingest of recently digitized materials: streamlining and updating policies and procedures around the ingest of digital assets; migrating, cleaning, and adding technical, descriptive, administrative, and structural metadata to object records in the DAMS and the video database. This work included following the established procedures for ingest of digitized videos and suggesting areas of improvement.
Find out more information here regarding Zoe Yang's Fall 2020 work.
Spring 2021 Internships
Los Herederos - Queens, NY
Los Herederos (The Inheritors) is a media arts non-profit organization dedicated to inheriting culture in the digital age. They engage in research-based documentation for public consumption to produce projects, programs, and services that address the realities of local culture, evolving communities, and an increasingly diasporadical immigrant experience. They believe in the power and complexity of transmedia storytelling to educate and encourage a more culturally aware, equitable, and sustainable society.
In an age where technological innovation, digital media, and access are at the forefront of everyone’s minds, Los Herederos seeks to compliment the venerable body of public sector and academic work in the fields of anthropology, ethnomusicology, and folklore by answering a need for more publicly accessible and community-driven educational media on the subjects of tradition, heritage, and folk art practice. They adapt their artist-driven projects and community-sourced archival collections to reflect the evolving nature of community and tradition while blurring barriers between scholarship and public discourse.
Under the supervision of Executive Director Naomi Sturm-Wijesinghe, MIAP graduate student intern Kayla Henry-Griffin will work on Urban Condors: Andean Music in NYC (1970 - Present), a mixed-media collection compiled by Sturm-Wijesinghe, who is also an ethnomusicologist and folklorist, based on her 15+ years of fieldwork and programming with Andean communities across the NYC metropolitan area (includes Long Island, Westchester and Rockland counties). Urban Condors contains materials relating to Andean music performance, artist interviews, and community-based activities spanning five decades in NYC. The collection includes recordings of the endangered Quechua and Aymara indigenous languages.
Find out more information here regarding Kayla Henry-Griffin's Spring 2021 work.
Queens Museum - Queens, NY
The Queens Museum opened in 1972 in Flushing Meadows Park, Corona, Queens. The site originally served as the New York City Pavilion for the 1939/1940 World’s Fair, and was one of few buildings that stood when the Fair concluded. Between 1946 and 1950, the building served as the temporary site for the United Nations. In 1964, the building was used again as the New York City Pavilion for the World’s Fair. The Panorama of the City of New York – a 1:1200 scale model of all five boroughs – was created for the Fair and remains a steadfast landmark at the Museum. Between 1965 and 1972, the building was an ice skating rink and a roller rink. The roller rink was removed in 1972 to make space for the Queens Museum; the ice skating rink disappeared after the Museum’s most recent renovation between 2009 and 2013.
The collection at the Queens Museum consists of over 10,000 objects related to the two World’s Fairs held at the site (the only two ever held in New York), including film and video. Each World’s Fair served as an international exposition that invited countries from around the world to share accomplishments and culture, and industrial leaders to share new technologies and projections.
Under the supervision of Archives and Collection Manager Lynn Maliszewski, MIAP graduate student intern Ana Salas will work with the Museum's audiovisual collection (16mm, 8mm, ¾ inch Umatic, ½ inch open reel, phonograph records, audio tape) related to the 1939/40 and 1964/65 World’s Fairs national pavilions and pavilions sponsored by leaders of industry including Ford, GE, Pepsi Cola, and Kodak. The majority of items serving as the material for this internship were produced in and around the 1964/65 World’s Fair. There are also a number of home videos (8mm, 16mm, VHS) donated by attendees of the World’s Fairs, and documentary films that memorialize performances, events, promotions, or news coverage related to the World’s Fairs. The core of this opportunity will be assessing the audiovisual elements in the collection, preparing them for any necessary preservation, and aiding in the proper cataloguing of those that remain in good condition. The Museum’s ultimate goal is digitizing these items to make them available to the public.
Find out more information here regarding Ana Salas's Spring 2021 work.
R.C. Diocese of Brooklyn - Brooklyn, NY
The Diocese of Brooklyn was created in 1853 in response to the growing numbers of primarily Irish and German Catholic immigrants into what was then part of the Archdiocese of New York. The diocese was named for the then City of Brooklyn, where the new bishop had his cathedral, which then encompassed all Long Island. This included the North and South Forks, where a Catholic mission existed at Sag Harbor. By the time Bishop Charles E. McDonnell became the second Bishop of Brooklyn, the city included not only English and German speaking parishes, but also a network of Polish, Lithuanian, and Italian parishes, as well as single parishes for Scandinavian, Slovak, French, Puerto Rican, and African American Catholics. After the death of the third Bishop of Brooklyn, and due to the post-WWII population growth in Nassau and Suffolk Counties, the diocese was split in two. The Suffolk County Diocese formed into the new Diocese of Rockville Centre, while Brooklyn and Queens remained known as the Brooklyn Diocese. Even with the division, the Brooklyn Diocese remains one of the largest in the United States.
The R.C. Diocese of Brooklyn Archives was created in 1977 with the appointment of the first full-time archivist, Rev. Harry Culkin. The Archives identifies, collects, preserves, and makes available historically valuable institutional records of the Diocese. It also includes the records of related organizations such as the Roman Catholic Orphan Society, The Emerald Association of Long Island, personal papers and oral histories of priests. The Diocesan Archives has custody of several collections of audiovisual material.
Under the supervision of Archivist Joseph Coen, MIAP graduate student intern Lindsay Miller will assist the archive in gaining more specific understanding of the audiovisual materials within their collection and the needs of those materials for long-term preservation (including copyright status, storage, and access). New material is being discovered or added to the collection often and an intern will be part of efforts to find, preserve, and bring to light additional audiovisual materials.
Find out more information here regarding Lindsay Miller's Spring 2021 work.
Summer 2021 Internships
Regional Media Legacies (RML) Project - New York, NY
The RML team took on two full-time graduate level MIAP interns for 10-weeks beginning in June through early August 2021. This second round of Summer internships were intended to be carried out onsite at two different Long Island-based organizations. With ongoing pandemic restrictions and the continued impact on local organizations, it was made clear that accommodating a full-time intern was too much for a single organization to take on at this time. Several of our regional partners required similar collections work, and were willing to coordinate with the project team to shape format-based internships that interns could tackle remotely. Two internships were designed to allow for hands-on work and training for the interns, and continue collections care work for multiple regional partners through to the end of the summer.
RML Video Internship
MIAP graduate student Ben Rubin worked with RML Fellow Claire Fox on select video materials from RML project partner LTV. Rubin assisted with the inventory and inspection of items, prepped them for digitization, and began to digitize items using the RML Video Kit. For the second half of the internship, Rubin split time onsite with the Coney Island Museum and the R.C. Diocese of Brooklyn, assisting with the item level inventorying and inspection of magnetic media and film materials.
RML Audio Internship
MIAP graduate student Esther Rosenfield worked with RML Fellow Robert Anen on select audio materials from RML project partners Shelter Island Historical Society, Long Beach Preservation & Historical Society, Hallockville Museum Farm, Sea Cliff Village Museum, Straus Historical Society, and Freeport Historical Society. Rosenfield assisted with the inventory and inspection of items, prepped them for digitization, and began to digitize items using the RML Audio Kit.
Fall 2021 Internships
Queens Museum - Queens, NY
The Queens Museum opened in 1972 in Flushing Meadows Park, Corona, Queens. The site originally served as the New York City Pavilion for the 1939/1940 World’s Fair, and was one of few buildings that stood when the Fair concluded. Between 1946 and 1950, the building served as the temporary site for the United Nations. In 1964, the building was used again as the New York City Pavilion for the World’s Fair. The Panorama of the City of New York – a 1:1200 scale model of all five boroughs – was created for the Fair and remains a steadfast landmark at the Museum. Between 1965 and 1972, the building was an ice skating rink and a roller rink. The roller rink was removed in 1972 to make space for the Queens Museum; the ice skating rink disappeared after the Museum’s most recent renovation between 2009 and 2013.
The collection at the Queens Museum consists of over 10,000 objects related to the two World’s Fairs held at the site (the only two ever held in New York), including film and video. Each World’s Fair served as an international exposition that invited countries from around the world to share accomplishments and culture, and industrial leaders to share new technologies and projections.
Under the supervision of Archives and Collection Manager Lynn Maliszewski, MIAP graduate student intern Kirk Mudle will continue work with the Museum’s audiovisual collection related to the 1939/40 and 1964/65 World’s Fairs national pavilions. The majority of items serving as the material for this internship were produced in and around the 1964/65 World’s Fair. There are also a number of home videos (8mm, 16mm, VHS) donated by attendees of the World’s Fairs, and documentary films that memorialize performances, events, promotions, or news coverage related to the World’s Fairs. Mudle will build off of the inventory work begun by fellow student Ana Salas, and will begin performing full inspections of select film materials.
R.C. Diocese of Brooklyn - Brooklyn, NY
The Diocese of Brooklyn was created in 1853 in response to the growing numbers of primarily Irish and German Catholic immigrants into what was then part of the Archdiocese of New York. The diocese was named for the then City of Brooklyn, where the new bishop had his cathedral, which then encompassed all of Long Island. This included the North and South Forks, where a Catholic mission existed at Sag Harbor. By the time Bishop Charles E. McDonnell became the second Bishop of Brooklyn, the city included not only English and German speaking parishes, but also a network of Polish, Lithuanian, and Italian parishes, as well as single parishes for Scandinavian, Slovak, French, Puerto Rican, and African American Catholics. After the death of the third Bishop of Brooklyn, and due to the post-WWII population growth in Nassau and Suffolk Counties, the diocese was split in two. The Suffolk County Diocese formed into the new Diocese of Rockville Centre, while Brooklyn and Queens remained known as the Brooklyn Diocese. Even with the division, the Brooklyn Diocese remains one of the largest in the United States.
The R.C. Diocese of Brooklyn Archives was created in 1977 with the appointment of the first full-time archivist, Rev. Harry Culkin. The Archives identifies, collects, preserves, and makes available historically valuable institutional records of the Diocese. It also includes the records of related organizations such as the Roman Catholic Orphan Society, The Emerald Association of Long Island, personal papers and oral histories of priests. The Diocesan Archives has custody of several collections of audiovisual material. Under the supervision of Archivist Joseph Coen, MIAP graduate student intern Alyosha Nowlin will continue the item level inventory and assessment of magnetic and film media begun by fellow student Lindsay Miller.