The mission of the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies is to promote research and teaching about the Holocaust in order to ensure the continued vigor and vitality of the field. The Mandel Center has developed a series of programs that support, facilitate, and nurture the work and careers of scholars throughout the academic pipeline, from the most junior to the most senior. Examples include:
- A Summer Graduate Research Assistantship program that funds MA and early PhD students to come to the Mandel Center for the summer to (1) work with staff on important Mandel Center projects (e.g., the Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos and the Jewish Source volumes) in order to learn how to conduct research and (2) identify potential thesis and dissertation topics.
- A large and thriving Visiting Scholars Program that provides funds for pre-docs, post-docs, junior faculty, and senior faculty to conduct research at the Museum for 3-9 month periods as well as network with other scholars in the field.
- Two senior, invitational fellowships for leaders in the field to conduct research but also to act as mentors to junior scholars.
- An Emerging Scholars Program that helps junior Holocaust scholars publish their first books and secure tenure-track positions in the field.
The existence of such a breadth of programs might suggest that internships are irrelevant to the Mandel Center. On the contrary, internships are vital to our mission. As many young people’s first exposure to academic life writ large, internships provide prospective scholars with an opportunity to see whether academic careers are right for them as well as with significant experience for graduate-school applications.
It is thus part of our mission to select interns who are interested in potentially pursuing careers in the field and provide them with substantive projects in addition to the usual “grunt work” (e.g., scanning, photocopying, database management, and securing copyright permissions for publications). For example, interns in the Mandel Center’s University Programs Division conduct literature surveys and identify participants for our faculty seminars and symposia; write white papers on a broad range of topics—from diversity issues on college and university campuses to assessments of the work of Holocaust and Genocide departments at US institutions; and assist with our cutting-edge, digital-humanities projects. Interns also participate in all Mandel Center programs. Not only do they help organize our symposia and faculty seminars, but they get to attend the programs as equals, allowing them to expand their knowledge of the Holocaust as well as their networks with scholars from diverse disciplines and institutions. The success of our internship program is evident in the number of former interns who have pursued higher degrees in Holocaust studies, secured positions at the USHMM and other Holocaust museums and institutions, returned to the Museum as fellows or contractors, and become teachers in the field.
Unpaid internships are inherently unfair. Unpaid internships place undue financial burdens on young people, many of whom already carry considerable debt from their college education. Since many young people are unwilling to accumulate even more debt—especially if they are considering graduate school, unpaid internships tend to privilege the privileged (i.e., those whose families can pay for housing and other associated expenses) or the local (i.e., those who can live with relatives in the area). As a national, federal institution, we must ensure that our internships are available and accessible throughout the US to all young people interested in pursuing careers in the field. Interns should thus receive funds whenever possible. It is true that funding for internships is becoming increasingly difficult to secure and must compete against other institutional needs, but internships must not be considered expendable. Wherever possible, concentrated efforts should be made to raise and protect funds for interns. Ultimately, if we do not support and mentor these young, prospective scholars, we will lose them and squander an important opportunity for us, for them, and for the field.
~ Robert M. Ehrenreich, D.Phil., United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
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