Applications are now being accepted for the next installment of Park Break, a five-day, all-expenses-paid, park-based seminar for graduate students who are thinking about a career in park management or park-related research and education. By interacting with park resource managers, researchers, administrators, interpreters, partners, and other professionals, Park Break participants will begin to understand the complexity of managing parks, protected areas, and cultural sites. This unique program is not offered anywhere else, as it focuses on intellectual inquiry at the graduate level.
The next Park Break will be hosted by the National Park Service at three park units in the Boston area: Boston National Historical Park, Boston African American National Historic Site, and Lowell National Historical Park. Engagement will center on the topics of making NPS sites more relevant to diverse communities and ways to attract diverse audiences to national park sites. All aspects of cultural resource management will be involved: museum services, building preservation, interpretation, cultural landscapes, planning, compliance, and preservation outreach to communities and partners.
Topics may include the evolution of how historic parks and sites are chosen for designation and today’s emphasis on selecting sites that better reflect the diversity of our shared heritage, making collections and exhibitry more relevant to diverse audiences, and partnering with diverse community groups to increase our capacity in telling America’s story.
Park Break is open to graduate students who are currently enrolled at an institute of higher education in the USA, Canada, Mexico, or the Caribbean, and are actively pursuing a degree. For this Park Break we are especially encouraging applications from interested minority students from ethnic, racial, and cultural groups that historically have been underrepresented in fields related to cultural resource management in parks and historic sites.
For more information on Park Break, and to apply, go to:
http://www.georgewright.org/parkbreak
The deadline for applications is September 6, 2012. Evaluation and selection will take place immediately thereafter and all applicants will be notified of the outcome by September 17.
Park Break is a program of the George Wright Society, planned and carried out in concert with various partners. If you have any questions, please contact the GWS at 1-906-487-9722, or email info@georgewright.org<mailto:info@georgewright.org>.
PSU Anthropology Department 