Abolitionist Sanctuary serves as a field education placement site as part of its Student Training Abolition Ambassador Research (STAAR) internship program.

We work with undergraduates and graduate (including doctoral) students across colleges, universities, and theological schools in the United States.

This is an unpaid internship. However, as a field placement site, we work with career offices in higher education to offer academic credit and stipends through the educational institution of the intern’s enrollment. All interns receive supervised support from our Executive Director—a practicing abolitionist and leading scholar.

Over a minimum of eight weeks or over a full semester, interns meet weekly with the Executive Director to engage in discussions around operational deliverables and research. Interns are expected to specialize in a research area, such as community organizing, education, law, media, public policy, or religion. Topics are generally located at the intersection of mass incarceration, religion, and Black motherhood. Interns’ research aims to assist the Executive Director with producing scholarship as well as advance the organizational mission and goals. At the end of the internship, participants produce a research paper for publication, project, and other uses.

In addition to research, interns help with day-to-day operational tasks and ad hoc projects that may include administration, content creation, media services, communications, newsletters, and other deliverables.

The STAAR program is an exciting opportunity to learn from a leading scholar in the areas of religion, law, and public policy with an emphasis on the criminalization and incarceration of Black women, mothers, and femmes. It is also a unique opportunity to gain theoretical and on-the-ground experience with community organizing and advancing a faith-based abolitionist movement!

Qualifications & Characteristics:

1. Strong research and writing skills;
2. Organizational abilities to work effectively and independently as a self-starter;
3. Reliable and meets deadlines (as well as manage the team-expectations by informing when delays are inevitable);
4. Effective communication
   Works well with others and has good interpersonal skills;
5. Demonstrated commitment to intersectional understandings of social justice and its implications for faith-communities;
6. Brings a strong network, influence, and connections for coalition-building

Due Dates

• Applications for Summer Semester Internships (May 15 to August 15) are due no later than March 1.
• Applications for Fall Semester Internships (September 1 to December 15) are due no later than July 1.
• Applications for Spring Semester Internships (January 15 to May 1) are due no later than November 1.