HARC Archival Internship – Spring–Fall 2026

The mission of the Heritage and Research Center at Saint Mary’s is to preserve and honor the rich history of women religious and their sponsored ministries through the partnership and collaboration of congregations of women religious and Saint Mary’s College.

The HARC Archival Internship Program provides students with the opportunity to engage with the history of womens religious communities while developing archival skills in a collaborative setting. Interns will work with diverse materials including textual, photographic, audiovisual, and digital. This hands-on experience connects classroom learning with real-world application, preparing students for a variety of careers in cultural and informational sectors.

Quick Facts

Location

Heritage and Research Center

Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, IN

Credits & Hours

1 cr = 3 hrs/week • 2 cr = 6 hrs/week • 3 cr = 9 hrs/week

Term & Supervision

Spring–Fall 2026 • Faculty check-ins with HARC supervisors

Spring 2026 Projects & Work Scope

Overview

From January–February 2026, HARC will receive mixed-format collections from ten women religious congregations. Interns will assist professional archivists with hands-on collection work that supports long-term preservation, discovery, and access. This internship uniquely enables students to apply humanities-based inquiry and digital project skills to real archival materials, engaging with historical documents that reveal the lived experiences, ministries, and social impact of Catholic sisters across multiple generations.

Typical Activities

  • Preliminary preservation assessments (housing, handling, storage environment)

  • Creating and refining metadata for discovery and preservation

  • Preparing materials for digitization and implementing the digitization practices for long-term storage

  • Assisting with description, box/folder inventories, and researcher support

  • Working across formats: photographs, text, books, artwork, audiovisual, born-digital materials

  • Supporting components of digital humanities and public-facing project development

Learning Objectives

Practice & Standards

  • Apply archival principles to ethically arrange, describe, and preserve historical collections
  • Create accurate, standards-aligned metadata that supports discovery, contextual interpretation, and long-term digital preservation
  • Document archival decisions and workflows using clear, professional descriptive writing aligned with digital humanities communication practices

Preservation & Reflection

  • Identify preservation risks and recommend responsible housing, handling, and environmental strategies across formats
  • Work effectively in collaborative archival teams and public-facing contexts
  • Reflect on the role of archives in documenting women’s religious communities and their impact on education, healthcare, social justice, and spirituality

Digital & Public Humanities Integration

  • Understand humanities data as interpretive, constructed, and ethically complex: What gets counted? Whose voices are visible or missing? How does archival work influence memory and power?
  • Engage with digital infrastructures that enable public access and scholarly research
  • Analyze and communicate humanities-based findings for action in the public good

Professional & Project Management Development

  • Practice project planning, workflow design, and assessment strategies aligned with best practices in libraries, archives, and museums
  • Build transferable skills in grant planning, project documentation, and public communication
  • Prepare artifacts that support professional growth, résumé development, and portfolio building

Alignment With Saint Mary’s Course Themes

The HARC Archival Internship provides students with a valuable opportunity to apply the concepts learned in the classroom to a real-world setting. This internship closely aligns with various fields of study, including Digital & Public Humanities, Religious Studies, Project Management, History, and Gender & Women's Studies, among others. It offers experiential learning opportunities that support academic goals and fosters the integration of ethical archival practices.

Digital & Public Humanities

Transform archival materials into public-accessible knowledge, interpret data ethically, and engage public audiences through digital platforms.

Religious Studies & History

Explore the lived history of Catholicism, community purpose, identity, spirituality, and social impact, highlighting the role of women religious, through primary archival documents.

Gender & Women's Studies

Examine archival records as a form of data by considering whose voices are included or excluded, and how these archives influence memory, power dynamics, and representation.

Project Management & Professional Growth

Develop practical project planning, design workflows, enhance professional communication, and build skills for future career paths.

Supervising Archivists

JA Pryse, Lead Archivist

Leads preservation and access for HARC’s collections, with 14+ years of experience in cultural heritage repositories. Specializes in digital preservation, metadata design, and workflow optimization. Former Senior Archivist at the Carl Albert Congressional Research Center, with master’s degrees in Museum Science and Library & Information Science, and currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Information Science (Archival Informatics). 

Jennifer Head, Congregational Archivist

Serves as the Congregational Archivist at HARC. She has 13 years of experience working with the archives of women religious and was previously the archivist for the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. She holds master's degrees in American History and Library and Information Science (archival concentration.) She is a Certified Archivist and Digital Archives Specialist, and is active in several archives organizations.

Step 1 – Complete the Application Form

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After submitting the form: Please email your résumé or CV as an attachment to info@harcsm.org .

Questions?

Contact the HARC archivists with any questions about eligibility, schedules, or credits.

Email: info@harcsm.org  
Phone: (574) 678-6155
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