Winter/Spring 2011
Internship: Joint Freshkills Park/NYU Oral History Project intern
Project Description:
The Freshkills Park project is working to transform the 2,200-acre Fresh Kills Landfill on the Arthur Kill waterfront of Staten Island into a new public park over the next 30 years. The City of New York has conducted a master planning process for Freshkills Landfill that resulted in an illustrative park plan, also known as the Draft Master Plan. While nearly 45% of the site was used for landfill operations, the remainder of the site is composed of wetlands, open waterways, and unfilled lowland areas. New York’s new parkland at Freshkills will be one of the most ambitious public works projects in the world, combining state of the art ecological restoration techniques with extraordinary settings for recreation, public art, and environmental education programming.
The Oral History Intern will be working jointly with a graduate course in NYU’s Draper and Public History Programs and the Department of Parks and Recreation’s (DPR) Freshkills Park team to shepherd the digital recording and collection of oral history from current and former members of the New York City Department of Sanitation, with the specific aim of establishing an audio archive of these interviews that may grow over time. A selection of these interviews, focused on Fresh Kills, will be used to start an Oral History Archive specifically about the site, to be shared through the park project’s own channels. The intern would be responsible for outlining protocols and standards for the further growth of the Fresh Kills-specific Archive, using the semester’s work as a guide.
Responsibilities:
Assisting with scheduling and tracking of interviewees and permissions
Verifying consistency of transcription methods across interviews
Managing and maintaining digital sound and text files
Assisting with equipment technical challenges
Troubleshooting file uploads and other glitches
Attending all class meetings for the semester, every Wednesday from 6:00-8:30pm starting January 19 at NYU
Reporting regularly to the DPR team on collection practices
Producing a guide to Oral History collection and production for the DPR team.
Preferred Skills/Qualifications:
Experience in audio recording and digital production
Experience structuring media content for the web
Strong organizational skills
Strong editorial skills
An ability to work in a team environment as well as independently
Expected Start Date: January 12, 2011
Hours: 15-20 hours per week, working with the class’s schedule; in-office hours flexible
Salary: Unpaid and/or school credit depending on school requirements.
Send resume and cover letter to: Raj Kottamasu, raj.kottamasu@parks.nyc.gov
