Home | Institute | Archeology | Research | Remembering Pioneers | Museum

African Scientific
Research Institute

Intern/Coop

The African Scientific Research Institute/Museum
Internship Site/Organization: The African Scientific Research Institute
Chicago, IL 60653

Mission
ASRI’s Internship prepares individuals at the Undergraduate and Graduate levels for academic, research, and bio-anthropological medical investigation, integrating technology training in the health sciences. Undergraduate and Graduate candidates who are pursuing careers in archaeology, forensic anthropology, bio-history, museum administration/installation, african american studies, biology, biochemistry, bioengineering, other related engineering courses, and or an opportunity for research on forensic facial approximations. Candidates selected should exhibit a commitment to community development and educational enlightenment and should approach each assignment with professionalism.

Internship
Internship at the African Scientific Research Institute (ASRI) is proactively approaching Africa's forgotten history in the Americas with the application of the arts, science, and technology. This involves reconstruction of cultural, genealogical, and biological histories of Africans during the slave era of the Western Hemisphere. In order to take full advantage of the opportunities offered by ASRI, the intern should have a basic comprehension of the European slave enterprise and its impact on African humanity, the reconstruction of the African ancestral family tree utilizing mitochondrial DNA analysis, and the familial relationships of one gravesite to another gravesite using comparative mitochondrial DNA analysis.

The intern will contribute to this process in one of the areas indicated in the above mission statement. More specifically, the intern will participate in the development of empirical data that complements ASRI's academic programs. That is, analytical study of human remains, bio-archaeology, osteological and demographic analysis of the first several generations Africans in the Americas, enslaved in the St. Louis burial sites. Development of a secondary educational curriculum for 12th grade students. The Plantation Data Search Project, which includes the Midwestern and Southern States, and its development of a bio-archaeology comparative database from known and unknown archaeological African sites. Anthropological field investigations: Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable (1740 -1818), Dred Scott (1780-1850), Joseph "Pap" Tetter (1790-1862), and Frank McWorter (1760-1825) [gravesite excavations].

The internship covers a wide range of projects. Work with the director of ASRI for approximately three months for six hours per day, four days per week. In addition, meet with staff daily for the purpose of receiving organizational planning and individual staff assignments. This affords the intern the opportunity to gain theoretical and hands-on experience relative to "institutional building," which is a primary goal of ASRI. These exchanges provide the intern with a working understanding of ASRI's Mortuary Archaeological Program, Biochemical DNA extraction Program, the Anthropological Grave Site projects and how collected information and artifacts can be presented to audiences beyond the studio or public art fairs. Interested persons should contact

Jihad Muhammad, Chief Executive Director
The African Scientific Research Institute
412 South Peoria Street
University of Illinois [MC347]
Chicago, Illinois 60607
Email: jihadm@uic.edu
Ph: 312-355-3229

| © copyright 2005 ASRI. All rights reserved. |