Research and Education

The Research and Education Department oversees many of the external programs of the Rockefeller Archive Center. It administers a competitive grant program that awards 40 to 50 research grants each year to graduate students, faculty members, and independent scholars. It organizes and hosts several workshops and conferences each year. And staff members on the research and education team edit and publish a series of research reports describing scholarly work at the RAC, a publishing program that is now primarily electronic and web-based.

The 2009 renovation of the Archive Center's Carriage House provides space for the research and education staff as well as three to six visiting scholars. The scholar-in-residence program serves researchers who have done research at the Archive Center and learned that they need to spend an extended period of time, ranging from several months to a full academic year, on their archival research. The staff has also expanded an annual teaching fellows program for area middle and high school teachers interested in using primary source materials in their classrooms.

The educational programs engage a number of area colleges and universities. The RAC brings university faculty and their graduate or undergraduate students to the Archive Center for course-related lectures and seminars, advises students on papers and theses, and helps faculty to find primary materials for their teaching. The staff offers lectures, seminars, and workshops for the Archive Center's college summer intern program. They also participate in meetings of various professional associations, delivering papers and organizing panels for RAC researchers.

There are several public outreach initiatives of the research and education program. The RAC regularly invites members of local historical societies to tour the archives. It organizes exhibits and presentations about archival holdings for board and staff members of donor organizations. The research and education staff also works with other Pocantico-based organizations on public programs, showing films and organizing exhibitions and lectures for the local community.