The Women’s Studies Research Center Internship: Student-Scholar Partnership (SSP) Project Proposal
Form Fall 2013 – BOTH New and Continuing
SCHOLAR INFORMATION
Name: Susan Eisenberg
Brandeis WSRC Affiliation: Resident Artist/Scholar
E-mail: seis@brandeis.edu
Are there dates during the semester when you will be traveling/unreachable? Please specify. I will be
reachable. Will be installing in NY the week of September 23.
PROJECT INFORMATION
Title of Project: On Equal Terms / High Voltage Women / Perpetual Care
Please circle one: Is this project: Continuing from the Spring 2013 SSP program √
Describe your
research project in three sentences for advertising purposes. (More detailed description will be given
later in this app.)
My projects combine oral history/witness and the arts to address issues of social policy. The first focus
this fall will involve preparations for the NYC exhibition of the mixed media art installation, ON EQUAL
TERMS: Women in Construction and Skilled Trades, 35 Years & Still . . . at the Clemente Soto Velez
Center on the Lower East Side After that, a photo/poetry book project on chronic illness; and a
nonfiction book project on women who work as high voltage lineworkers.
STUDENT PARTNER INFORMATION
Have you participated in the Student-Scholar Partnership in prior years?
Yes __√___ No _____ (Please specify year and student’s name if yes)
Please note: The Hiring Deadline is rolling so interviews (if appropriate) must be completed as soon as
possible after receipt of application.
What is your timeline for work to commence on your research project this semester? Immediately.
Scholars and faculty members participating in the SSP Program are required to meet with their student
research assistants on a weekly basis for supervision. Please explain how you will fulfill this
commitment. Where do you plan to hold supervision meetings? How will you manage time together
when one of you is traveling/vacationing? We will set up a regular weekly meeting time (and vary if
needed) and meet at the Center. While away, will plan to keep to that meeting schedule by
email/phone/chat.
Hiring Criteria Reminder: The SSP is designed for Students and Scholars to work together for 50 hours
on a project in the Scholar’s area of expertise. All candidates who apply must be considered. Final
choices should be made based on student’s background, skills and level of interest. Decisions may not
be made based solely on academic year standing.
Qualifications Needed for Student Partner: Please indicate below any Required or Desired skills
pertinent to your job description. NOTE: Year of Standing (i.e. Sophomore, Junior, Senior) may NOT be
used as a sole criterion. Please see Coordinator if you have any questions.)
Related coursework: Gender Studies / American Studies-Am Hist / arts
Technical Skills: basic web/tech/social media skills a priority __transcription
Past Experience: basic understanding issues of power imbalance/discrimination (from studies or life
experience)
Similar Professional Interests: arts and public policy; labor and/or health policies
Other (please indicate): familiarity with point-of-view, how position affects perspective & story
Qualities: * a flexible person (this is a multidisciplinary project that can take sudden shifts) * a creative
thinker with a sense of sport/fun (we’re playing hard to change public policy/ideas, though know we’re
bound to lose -- for now -- but seeing how far we can get, so helps if one can enjoy the game) * able to
work with painful/difficult material * able to work with mind and hands * ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Please submit a curriculum vitae and a detailed explanation of the following: 1. Please give a detailed
description of your project.
2. What role will the student play in the project? Please be specific regarding expected responsibilities.
3. How will your project benefit from the student's participation?
4. What specific knowledge or skills will the student acquire from carrying out this work?
5. What do you foresee to be the mutual benefits of the mentoring relationship?
6. Please feel free to add any other information you feel relevant.
ON EQUAL TERMS/ HIGH VOLTAGE WOMEN / PERPETUAL CARE
Susan Eisenberg, Resident Artist/Scholar
I am looking for a student to assist me in a variety of ways with the On Equal Terms Project. Basically,
the Project uses personal testimony and the arts as springboards for education, discussion, and action
about employment equity, with a focus on women in the construction industry (Iʼve had great SSPs ––
none of them started with any knowledge about women construction workers!). The Project conducts
research, develops national programming (including writing projects –– blog, articles, etc), and organizes
national touring for the On Equal Terms installation. Basically, using various vehicles –– witness, analysis,
activism, arts –– to change ways of thinking.
The ideal student will be well-organized, reliable, flexible, and have a strong interest in one or more:
visual arts, arts in social policy, public policy and/or labor issues. I think this will be fun and exciting for a
student with some combination of those interests. The work will be shifting (sometimes suddenly -- due
to external factors), so the student should be someone for whom that's a positive, or at least
comfortable.
THE PROJECT (multiple separable but interwoven elements):
Iʼm a poet, multi-disciplinary artist and oral historian, as well as a master electrician and grassroots
activist, working on issues of employment equity from various angles at once and often mixing genres.
While I work on a timeline with that methodically progresses forward, sometimes thereʼs a sudden shift
of focus, in response to, for example, an event sponsor (or potential sponsor) needing materials, or a
quick deadline for a grant, or the need for urgent support to a working tradeswomen whoʼs in crisis. So,
one needs a flexible temperament.
Here are specifics weʼll be working on this semester:
1. MOVE THE DECIMAL POINT blog. I try to put up a new post of text and images monthly. Thereʼs a
format thatʼs set and Iʼll count on you to get things posted. Iʼll write the text and supply most images,
but how we work together is flexible. To give you some idea, the blogʼs at
http://susaneisenberg.wordpress.com. The Move the Decimal Point animation and Courage-O-Meter
were developed by Julie Shih, my SPPat the time. The Move the Decimal Point image transferred to a
button that was distributed at a national conference in Oakland, CA in May. One week/month, we get
this done. Itʼs read by grassroots tradeswomen nationally as well as policy gatekeepers.
2. ON EQUAL TERMS art installation. A MAJOR FOCUS THIS FALL will be preparations and outreach for
the NYC exhibition of the mixed media installation, On Equal Terms Sept. 29 - Nov. 1, 2013 at the
Clemente Soto Velez Center on
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Manhattanʼs Lower East Side. Also, keeping track of a possible spring 2014 exhibition in SEattle.
About the mixed media installation. On Equal Terms combines realistic and fanciful works of art with
personal testimonies to bring viewers into the experiences of women who work on construction sites.
The exhibition celebrates the pioneers, as well as the tradeswomen and their allies who have kept the
gates open for three decades. Awarded a “Liberty and Justice for All” grant from Mass Humanities, On
Equal Terms is a 600-1200 square-foot mixed media art installation combines audio, poetry, found
objects, photographs, historical documents and sculpture — including Stella, a life-sized figure on a
ladder in a diamond hardhat and a 6 X 6 - foot bathroom shack. The installationʼs 2008 launch coincided
with the 30th anniversary of federal government policies, enacted in 1978, that opened construction
jobs and apprenticeship programs to women. Had those policies been enforced beyond the initial years,
todayʼs construction workforce would likely be roughly 25% female. Instead, women hold less than 3%
of building trades jobs. Questions raised by that discrepancy — between policy expectation and policy
outcome — inform the installation. Last spring, On Equal Terms exhibited in the Smithsonian-affiliated
Michigan State University Museum Main Gallery For images about the installation, check my website
http://susaneisenberg.com.
3. High Voltage Women nonfiction book project I have begun researching women lineworkers in the
utility industry: conducting interviews and writing a book proposal. Transcribing interviews and
researching how changing to smart grid/more green energy would expand these occupations might be
part of the Student Partners role. In work like this I try to navigate between stating the case of
discrimination in its starkest terms, and protecting the women whose stories Iʼm telling. Will be working
on a book proposal
4. Perpetual Care (poetry with photographs book and photographs with poetry exhibition)
Simultaneously, Iʼm working on a book and exhibition project that combines poetry and photographs
about the experience of life-threatening chronic illness. Most recently, I gave a presentation
(photographs and poetry reading) to the Residency Program at Boston Medical Center. I am working on
combining a full poetry manuscript with the images for a book. I expect this to be completed late
fall/early winter, so weʼll be working on outreach.
5. Fair warning. Unexpected things might surface and need short attention. Iʼm on a National Task Force
on tradeswomen issues and sometimes policy work needs immediate attention.
STUDENT PARTNER:
The Student Partner will play a key role in the project, from being a sounding board/
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contributor as ideas develop, to helping with mundane tasks (like xeroxing, transferring material from
one medium to another, transcribing, baking letter cookies. . . .) that still need attention to detail. My
own work as an artist has this same range -- very exciting and sometimes just tasks that can be tedious
but are essential. Some responsibilities will vary depending on the studentʼs interests and skills; and
responsibilities will shift during the course of the project. I would count on a Student Partner to be more
techno-savvy than I am, enough to guide and oversee the On Equal Terms blog, and, if possible, website
updates, and maybe even some new venture.
Some of the following tasks would be expected. Please let me know which you feel capable of, and
where your interests are:
*Keep the blog going and update the website;
*Research linked to affirmative action in construction or utility industry;
*Technical support for layout, preparation, planning of On Equal Terms exhibition;
*Look for funding sources for touring and organize applications;
*Transcribe oral histories of women lineworkers;
*Layout/copyediting photo/poetry book about living with ife-threatening illness.
While I am not looking for a student to contribute directly to the artwork itself, but rather to assist with
work that supports the artwork, if the Student Partner is an artist or is looking to expand a project of
their own into the arts, I would be most glad to be a sounding board for ideas and share what I know. I
am particularly, at this moment, exploring ways to make text a visual element.
I think students who have worked with me have gotten a good sense about grass roots public policy
work and the quirky life in the arts.
I am most interested in someone who has enthusiasm for these projects.