EUReCA! Archival Student Assistant, Chiapas Marimba Research Collection at University of Colorado Denver

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The EURēCA! Student Assistants Program provides introductory opportunities forCU Denver undergraduates to engage in research and creative activities.

StudentsMUSTcomplete the self-paced EURēCA! Presentation and Quizzes in Canvas (30min) or meet with a EURēCA! advisor before applying for all EURēCA! positions.

University of Colorado Denver Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities

Laurence Kaptain, DMA

CU Denver Department of Music and Entertainment Studies/ This position can be flexible with some remote and some on-campus components.

In 1985–86, supported by a Fulbright pre-doctoral research grant, I conducted a year of fieldwork in Chiapas, Mexico, on the marimba and its cultural world — research that became my University of Michigan doctoral document, was published in English, and was translated and published in Spanish by the government of Chiapas. Because this work predates personal computing, the primary materials exist only on paper and film: approximately 500 photographic prints, 20 rolls of negatives (roughly 500–700 frames), and 20 linear inches (approximately 2,000 pages) of newspaper clippings, government documents, and archival photocopies in Spanish and English.

This collection is not dormant. It directly supports an active, multi-year research program: a peer-reviewed article series in progress, a book under development for Routledge, and new fieldwork in Chiapas during a Fall 2026 sabbatical awarded by the CU Board of Regents in June 2026. Digitization will make forty-year-old primary sources citable, searchable, and preservable — and will place a CU Denver undergraduate at the center of building a research archive of lasting scholarly value, with the intention of eventual deposit in an institutional special collection.

Scanning of photographs, negatives, and paper documents; running and verifying OCR in English and Spanish; file naming and organization; metadata entry in Tropy and Zotero (Chicago style, author-date); rehousing of original materials; maintenance of the 3-2-1 backup routine and periodic file-integrity checks; a semesterly written report of research finds; and presentation of the work at a local event such as RaCAS.

The student may also assist with occasional literature searches related to the marimba, Mexican regional music, and music archiving.

Archival digitization standards, digital asset management, metadata schemas, OCR workflows, primary-source handling and description, preservation practice, database organization, written and oral communication, and exposure to ethnomusicological fieldwork methods and the scholarly publication process from raw field materials to peer-reviewed output. Software the student will learn includes Tropy, Zotero, professional scanning software, and OCR tools with Spanish-language support. The student will also gain insight into careers in music archives, libraries and special collections, digital humanities, and the asset-management side of the entertainment industries.

• Practical training in archival and digital-humanities methods: digitization standards, metadata schemas, OCR workflows, preservation practice
• Primary-source literacy — handling, describing, and evaluating original fieldwork materials
• Exposure to ethnomusicological research and the scholarly publication process, from raw field materials to peer-reviewed output
• A concrete, portfolio-ready contribution: the student may develop a digital exhibit or a poster for the Research and Creative Activities Symposium (RaCAS) from the collection

• Reliability and resourcefulness, strong work ethic, careful attention to detail, organizational skills, basic computer and file-management comfort, eagerness to learn new tools, and effective written and oral communication. No prior archival or technical experience is required — all skills are taught on the job. Open to all majors; designed for a first- or second-year student.
• Preferred Qualifications
• Reading and…