

The Sector Research and Collections and the Research Center for Material Culture offer an Internship Program, which provides young academics, engaged members of the community, independent scholars and/or museum professionals with the opportunity to pursue further research and professional training within our museums. We mentor young professionals, welcoming the engagement so as to broaden our own perspectives on museum work. You may apply for an Internship or Research Associate position at the Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen, which comprises the Tropenmuseum (Amsterdam), the Afrika Museum (Berg en Dal), the Museum Volkenkunde (Leiden), and the Wereldmuseum (Rotterdam). Each museum or department recruits differently, but if you are applying to do an internship with the Curatorial, Collections, or RCMC departments, please read the below carefully.
At the moment, we can accommodate 8 Interns per year (i.e. students affiliated with a university wanting to do an internship or stage to earn credits). The process has become rather competitive: thank you for understanding that we cannot accommodate all those who apply.
For those applying for an Internship for the Fall 2022 semester, alas we are no longer taking applications.
We are working on an online system, and will have it up-and-running within a few months.
We accept Research Associates based on our research interests and curatorial and collection needs. If you are interested in a Research Associate position (i.e. you are not conducting an official internship with your university; you can also be an independent researcher), please email alessandra.benedicty@wereldculturen.nl
Critical Institutional Research
You are conducting research 'on' or 'about' our museum/s.
Our Talent Development Program offers young academics, curators and practiced based researchers the opportunity to work with/under the supervision of our team of researchers, to conduct research on the NMVW’s collections, or to pursue professional training within our museums on issues related to curatorship, collections care, registration and documentation.
Interns work closely with our research and collections team and have access to our internationally renowned collections of almost one million objects and photos. They will participate in the ongoing projects of our research staff, which vary from collections documentation research and research for future exhibitions, to international collaborative research projects on different themes.
Students currently registered in a relevant MA or advanced bachelors programme can apply for an internship, and must work together with one of our staff. Due to the high volume of internship requests from students we cannot but be selective.
Before applying, please familiarise yourself with our work.
All interns are required to support both the research and programming activities of the RCMC staff and contribute to organizing RCMC events.
Interns should:
Note: We do not offer funding for interns.
THESIS PROJECTS
For MA and Ph.D. students wanting to do research on or about the Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen (that is any of the four museums comprise our institution), we very much welcome such projects and have supported them consistently over the past years. That said, due to how incredibly busy our staff is, and how popular it has become to study our museum/s, at this point, we can only accommodate one project per year.
To this end, if you are interested in applying to research the Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen for your own thesis, please email the following documents to alessandra.benedicty@wereldculturen.nl by the below deadline. An internal committee will review the applications and get back to you by July 31, 2022. All applicants will be advised of their status.
If you plan to do your thesis in the 2022-23 academic year, send the materials by May 1, 2022. The materials include:
If you are applying from the EU, there is no extra legal paperwork. If you are applying from outside of the EU and you are enrolled in a university program in Europe, you may also apply, as you have a student visa.
There are several application dates.
For an internship in the months between, September and December 2022, alas we are no longer accepting applications.
For an internship in the months between, January and June 2023, based on applications we have already received, we will be selecting candidates by April 1, 2022. An internal committee will assess the applications, and we will get back to you by December 31, 2022. All applicants will be advised of their status. In future years, we will publish a deadline, and you will be able to apply through an online system.
Alas, due to summer schedules, we cannot accommodate summer internships.
For 2021-2022, we will be taking 3-8 students. We are seeking interns with subject expertise or clear personal interest in the following areas:
Before applying, please familiarise yourself with our work.