Head of University Public History and Robert Francis Engs Director of the Lemon Project

Job Requisition:JR101962 Head of University Public History and Robert Francis Engs Director of the Lemon Project (Open)Job Posting Title:Head of University Public History and Robert Francis Engs Director of the Lemon ProjectDepartment:CC00036 WM001 | PROV | Provost's OfficeJob Family:Staff - LibrariansWorker Sub-Type:Regular (benefited)Job Requisition Primary Location:Swem LibraryPrimary Job Posting Location:Posting Location - William & MaryJob Description Summary:William & Mary Libraries seeks a Head of University Public History and Robert Francis Engs Director of the Lemon Project to lead The Lemon Project: A Journey of Reconciliation, the university’s flagship research and reconciliation initiative on its history of slavery, segregation, and their legacies. The role also directs the Bray School Lab, William & Mary’s initiative, developed with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, to interpret the history of the Williamsburg Bray School, one of the oldest surviving schoolhouses for the education of enslaved and free Black children in North America. Reporting to the Director of the Special Collections Research Center (SCRC), the Head of University Public History serves as the principal steward and public face of both initiatives, connecting them into a coherent, university-wide program of inclusive historical interpretation.The Head of University Public History expands the narrative of slavery and its legacies at William & Mary through archival and genealogical research and descendant-community engagement, with findings housed in University Libraries. As a founding member of the Universities Studying Slavery consortium, the Lemon Project holds a position of national and international leadership among institutions reckoning with their histories of enslavement. Supervising an Associate Director, Genealogist and supporting staff, the Head of University Public History holds oversight of the unit’s research agenda, community-engagement strategy, publications, communications, budget, and records, and works with library colleagues, university partners, and descendant communities to illuminate the 300-year relationship between African Americans, William & Mary, and the Greater Williamsburg area.Key Responsibilities:Leadership, Research & Reconciliation• Provide strategic and intellectual leadership for the Lemon Project, advancing its mission to research, document, and make public the history of African Americans at William & Mary and to repair the university’s relationship with the communities it has harmed.• Set the Lemon Project’s research agenda in partnership with the Lemon Project team, advancing the continuing effort to uncover the full history of William & Mary.• Lead the Bray School Lab and coordinate its research and interpretive work with that of the Lemon Project.• Conduct and lead original archival and genealogical research on slavery, segregation, and African American life at William & Mary and in the...