JoCora Moore, a 1st year Public History PhD student, has received the Robert Frederick Smith Internship and Fellowship for the Digitization and Curation of African American History through the National Museum of African American History and Culture. The internship seeks to build pathways for historically underrepresented individuals to grow successful careers in the cultural sector. Moore will receive hands-on training, mentoring, and attend educational events. 

Moore will complete her 12-week paid internship starting May 21 at the historic plantation site, Stagville, in Durham. Stagville is dedicated to teaching about the lives and work of enslaved people on the plantation.

Moore’s work at Stagville will involve transcribing oral histories and working with the plantation tours. She will also be part of a project to determine how best to place and present their oral histories within the museum. 

This is the first internship Moore has done that is African-American history based. Says Moore, “I’m excited because now I can work in my field and learn how to talk about African-American history. It’s a difficult subject and there are a lot of difficult topics within African-American history, namely slavery, that we still don’t know how to really discuss. It will be interesting to see Stagville’s methods and how they extend their hand to others to help bring that conversation about.”

Moore’s internship also relates to her dissertation topic which looks at the interpretation of African American history -particularly slavery, lynching and the Civil Rights movement, in museums and historic sites. Stagville will give her an inside look at how they do their interpretations, how they structure their tours and how they compare with other sites she might see later down the road.

As part of her internship, Moore will go to DC in May and meet other interns as well as tour the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Additionally, in August, she is being sponsored to go to the Association of African American Museums Conference in Jackson, Mississippi.

Learn more about JoCora Moore HERE.