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The Autistic Voices Oral History Project Announces Call for Fellowship Applications 

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The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) grant of $180,830 will support 24 fellowships among the archives/oral history & Autistic communities

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The Autistic Voices Oral History Project (tAVOHP) is pleased to announce a $180,830 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to fund The Autistic Lived Experience: Community Curation and Memory Workers Fellowship. This groundbreaking fellowship program, which is part of the larger tAVOHP initiative launched in 2023, aims to expand understanding of neurodiversity, foster collective and accessible community documentation of the Autistic lived experience and advocacy movement, and enhance the fields of archives and oral history.
 

In collaboration with the Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) and the Association for Autism and Neurodiversity (AANE), this fellowship program will feature two distinct tracks:
 

  1. The Autistic Community Fellowship is open to Autistic community members and will build a more representative historical record by centering Autistic narratives and empowering Autistic people to play an active role in capturing and preserving their community’s memory.
     

  2. The Memory Workers Fellowship will train non-Autistic (allistic) and Autistic professionals working in archives, libraries, and oral history, as well as students in LIS, on neuro-affirming practices, cross-neurotype communication, and Autistic culture.


Twenty-four fellows will be selected in total, with twelve participants in each fellowship track. Each fellow will conduct two interviews, resulting in 48 interviews being added to the tAVOHP interview collection. Each fellow will be compensated $3,000 for their participation in the project. All interviewees will be compensated $300 for sharing their stories.
 

Fellows will participate in a workshop, conduct two oral history interviews, and participate in ongoing cohort activities. The program aims to address the critical need for Autistic voices to be represented in archives, while introducing neuro-affirming approaches that honor Autistic communication and culture.
 

The application window is open from November 2024 - January 31, 2025. Fellows will be selected by mid-February 2025. Workshops will occur in March 2025, and fellows will record their interviews by July 2025.
 

Learn more and apply to the Memory Workers Fellowship.

Learn more and apply to the Autistic Community Fellowship.
 

For more information on the fellowship program or to apply, please visit autisticvoices.org or contact us via email at autisticvoicesproject@gmail.com.

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