Public History Postdoctoral Fellow

Information about the organization

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is a federally chartered, nonpartisan institution that was created by the US Congress to serve as America’s national memorial to the victims of the Holocaust and an educational institution dedicated to the history and lessons of the Holocaust. The Museum seeks to educate Americans from all 50 states and all walks of life as well as international audiences. The Museum has three areas of expertise: Holocaust remembrance, Holocaust scholarship and education, and genocide prevention.

In carrying out its important memorial and educational mission, the Museum is guided by its institutional values for our workplace: Honor the memory of the victims; carry out our work with dignity, humility, integrity and respect for others; and strive for excellence through teamwork, rigor, and a culture of continuous learning. Consistent respect for others is the foundation for trust, collegiality and inclusion.

Information about the role

The Museum seeks a postdoctoral fellow, for a two-year fellowship, to research, review, and write content for USHMM’s online Holocaust Encyclopedia. The incumbent will help the Museum to convey stories of the Holocaust and other genocides with the goal of making the past relevant today as well as encouraging our visitors to think, question, care and take action.

This position provides hands-on experience in producing historical content for public-facing digital resources, as well as significant time for research and writing in the chosen candidate’s area of specialization. The position combines professional experience with time to pursue independent scholarly research and interact with other fellows in the Museum’s visiting scholars program.

This position is located in the Digital Learning Tools branch within the office of Museum Experience and Digital Media (MEDM). The Museum Experience and Digital Media office (MEDM) creates and maintains experiences in physical and digital spaces that encourage people to think about how and why the Holocaust happened and the lessons it holds for us today. The office applies an audience-centered approach, best practices in storytelling, and new technologies across platforms to create experiences for a variety of audiences. These include the general public, Museum visitors, students, educators, policy makers, and donors, among others.

This position combines hands-on participation in content review and production processes for digital content supporting the Museum’s student, teacher, and general public audiences as a subject matter expert, alongside independent scholarly research and writing time as part of the community of fellows within the Museum’s Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies (MCAHS).

This position is located in Washington, DC and is hybrid telework eligible, within the local commuting area of the Museum worksite. This is a full-time donated (non-Federal), two-year term position, paid with the Museum’s private funds. Salary is commensurate with experience.

Duties, and Responsibilities for the role

• Partner with the Holocaust Encyclopedia team and the Division of the Senior Historian to assess, prioritize, and update content in the online Encyclopedia.
• Help to create or update content in the Holocaust Encyclopedia using knowledge of current trends in Holocaust history. 
• Collaborate with the Encyclopedia and Senior Historian’s teams to help identify content gaps, write articles on a variety of topics in both the scholar’s area of expertise and in more general areas related to the history of the Holocaust and World War II.  
• Explore the Museum’s Collections for media illustrations and select images to accompany articles in the online Encyclopedia. Write media narratives and other descriptions and review those written by others.
• Pursue independent research using the Museum’s research resources and collections and create conference presentations and peer-reviewed scholarship that advance the field of Holocaust studies.

Minimum Qualifications for the role

• PhD in an area of content expertise about the Holocaust or a related field; extensive knowledge of the Holocaust and events leading to the Holocaust.
• Outstanding research and analytical skills.
• Ability to write material for high school and general audiences, including the ability to work with editors to ensure clarity and readability.
• Ability to work both independently and as part of a team, and to work effectively and diplomatically with diverse partners within the Museum.
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail. 
• Proven ability to balance content production work with independent writing and research.

Preferred Qualifications for the role

• Demonstrated knowledge of the history, purpose and mission of the Museum, of the various functions and programs of the Museum, and of the purpose of the Levine Institute and the role it fulfills in providing the complete Museum experience.
• Expert knowledge of the history of the Holocaust in a particular geographic region.
• Familiarity with tools such as Trello, Airtable, and Slack a plus.
• Proficiency in one or more languages other than English, as applicable to the incumbent’s area of subject expertise

The application deadline for this position is April 6, 2025.

Interested applicants must submit:

Curriculum Vitae, Cover Letter, Project proposal for independent scholarship project (1,000 words or less) and Subject matter related, academic or professional writing sample. Applications without these requirements will not be considered.

Benefits Highlights:

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum values employee wellness, work-life balance and the diversity of what this means for individual employees in life and work. We are proud to offer a comprehensive benefits package for benefits-eligible employees that includes generous paid leave benefits, health, dental, and vision insurance, flexible spending accounts, a health savings account with an employer contribution, 403(b) retirement plan with a generous employer match and contribution, group term and supplemental life insurance, short and long-term disability, commuter subsidy, access to two employee assistance programs, as well as voluntary critical illness and accident insurance coverage, long-term care and pet insurance options. Our policies also support telework and other flexible schedule options based on the job, work and team collaboration requirements.

The US Holocaust Memorial Museum is an Equal Opportunity Employer (EOE) that embraces a diverse and inclusive workplace. Applications from all qualified individuals will be considered without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including sexual orientation and gender identity), national origin, age, disability, genetic information, or any other protected status.