Community Archivist, The Graterford Archive – Feb 26

Posted by Haverford College on February 20, 2024

The Graterford Archive project, funded for the coming three years by the Mellon Foundation, will chronicle the dignity, creativity, and thought leadership of men who were incarcerated at Graterford, involve young people most impacted by present carceral conditions, and engage broader publics in understanding Graterford, as well as Pennsylvania’s status as one of the most carceral jurisdictions in the world today. Together, these efforts aim to address the clear moral crisis of mass incarceration.

The Community Archivist for the Graterford Archive will manage all aspects of developing a digital archive for this multi-year, freedom-seeking project. The Graterford Archive is a Mellon grant-funded project to develop a digital archive documenting the experiences of those affected by the State Correctional Institute (SCI) – Graterford, including incarcerated and formerly incarcerated men and their loved ones and communities. The project brings together many community groups already working in this space, as well as faculty and students engaging with carceral issues as part of Haverford College’s decades-long engagement with artists and activists at SCI-Graterford. The project is directed through and infused by the spirit of “nothing about us without us,” and will involve those from the Graterford community throughout.

The Community Archivist will work with a great team, including Akeil Robertson (Graterford Archive Project Creative Director), Lindsay Reckson (GAP Faculty Curricular Innovation Director / Associate Professor of English), Gus Stadler (GAP Archival Planning Director / Professor of English), Sarah Horowitz (Head of Quaker and Special Collections), and me (Executive Director, Center for Peace and Global Citizenship). Vitally, the project will be stewarded by a remunerated steering committee composed of people most affected by Graterford, and we are working closely with Right to Redemption and the Youth Art and Self-Empowerment Project.

To learn more about the context specific to Graterford, read Sentenced to Life as Boys, They Made Their Case for Release or the Pennsylvania Profile from the Prison Policy Initiative. Men incarcerated at Graterford, along with collaborators on the outside across the Philadelphia Region, have been raising awareness to end death by incarceration for many years. This past fall, Philadelphia-based Robert Saleem Holbrook, Executive Director of the Abolitionist Law Center, traveled to Geneva with a coalition, testifying before the United Nations that, “Life imprisonment is a form of the death penalty and must also be abolished.” Following testimony by Holbrook and numerous other advocates for human rights, the “United Nations Human Rights Committee recommended that the United States “establish a moratorium on the imposition of sentences to life imprisonment without parole,” often referred to as death by incarceration by advocates.”

The position is slated to start at $75,000 in annual salary and 4% annual raises. This is a three-year term position.

The application deadline is February 26, 2024.

Learn more and apply.