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Pathways Fellowship

The AMIA Pathways Fellowship supports pathways into the audiovisual preservation field for people from groups historically underrepresented in the profession at any level of their career.

What is the Pathways Fellowship?

The AMIA Pathways Fellowship supports paid internships in combination with mentorship and professional development training to forge pathways in the audiovisual preservation field for people from groups historically underrepresented in the profession at any level of their career.

Because audiovisual collections are not unique to traditional library, archive, and museum institutions but rather exist in diverse communities and cultural institutions in all areas of the country, Pathways Fellowship connects at least half the fellows with internships in regional or community archives. As with many programs, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic forced the Pathways pilot to swiftly recalibrate many aspects of the original program. This successful transition demonstrated the adaptability of the program and, more importantly, as we move increasingly into a virtually connected world, it proved that the program may be strengthened by the incorporation of remote work and the breakdown of geographic barriers regarding optimal matching of participants with both host sites and mentors.

CK Ming, Chair of the Pathways Fellowship’s advisory board, says of the project, “The AMIA Pathways Fellowship is a critical program to increase diversity in the audiovisual archiving field. It is incredibly important that this field be inclusive to all voices in order to not only encourage creative thinking, but to ensure that the histories and stories of marginalized communities are told and preserved. The prohibitive cost of education to enter this field is a barrier that this program hopes to overcome. I am overjoyed that the IMLS has chosen to fund the expansion of this program to include not only more fellows, but more host institutions especially those in underrepresented communities.”

Currently the Pathways Fellowship is available to US based individuals, but we are hoping to expand the program to international applicants in coming years.

The AMIA Pathways Fellowship was made possible by the Institute of Museum and Library Services [RE-254879-OLS-23].

Apply for the Pathways Fellowship

Applications for the 2024 Fellowship program are now open.

To participate in the AMIA Pathways Fellowship, applicants must be accepted into a paid internship at one of our partner host sites. Acceptance into the Fellowship program is distinct from acceptance into any individual internship and will occur after internship selections have been made.

Fellowship events begin June 3, 2024 and will continue weekly through September. Internship start dates are subject to the individual host site schedules. During the fellowship, in addition to the paid internship, fellows participate in weekly online professional development sessions for ten weeks (June – August), are paired with professionals in the field in a remote mentorship program (July – December),

We strongly encourage you to review the information about being a Pathways Fellow (PDF) to have a full view of the program, information about each component, Fellowship calendar, and time commitment.

Fellows must be based in the US. We are hoping to expand the program to international applicants in coming years.

Become a Pathways Partner

We would like to invite you to become a Pathways partner with your organization providing a paid internship for a Pathways Fellow for our next cohort!  Partnering with organizations to provide paid internships is critical in forging pathways in the audiovisual preservation field for people from groups historically underrepresented in the profession.

Fellowship News

News about the Fellowship