Agatha Huepenbecker Burnet Endowed Graduate Research and Teaching Assistantship

In 2013, the Agatha Huepenbecker Burnet Endowed Graduate Research and Teaching Assistantship was established with support from Dr. Agatha Huepenbecker Burnet, a former Iowa State University Textiles and Clothing professor from 1956 until 1993. An advocate of preserving and collecting historic garments and textiles, Dr. Huepenbecker Burnet founded the Ph.D. program in the department and worked diligently to catalog textiles and apparel in the TCM collection. She also served as the department chair from 1973 to 1993.

Students who have held the assistantship have come from a variety of disciplines from public history to fashion design to computer science and have had varying research interests.

Dr. Huepenbecker Burnet’s endowment provides graduate students enriched learning opportunities through the assistantship where they engage in:

  • Collaborative team research resulting in:
    • peer-reviewed publications
    • national and international conference presentations
    • curatorial exhibition scholarship
    • digital humanities projects
  • Curating and mounting physical exhibitions in our gallery and display spaces including the Mary Alice Gallery and the Textile Conservation Lab window
  • Assisting with teaching courses which utilize the collection such as our fashion history, cultural aspects of fashion, and social/psychology of fashion courses. In this area students assist with:
    • grading weekly assignments
    • responding to student needs and questions: answering emails, holding office hours
    • managing the learning management system
    • creating supplemental course materials as needed
    • moderating questions during class
    • updating and delivering lectures or other in-class activities
    • pulling objects from the collection for study
  • Collection management tasks such as:
    • physical care of the collection
    • monitoring environmental conditions of the collection
    • assisting with maintaining the collection handbook
    • assessing risk management
    • cataloging objects
  • Media work including:
    • assisting with developing content related to exhibitions for advertising, signage, and public outreach
  • Public programming such as:
    • curator tours of exhibitions
    • collection and facility tours
    • exhibition related talks

If you are interested in the Agatha Huepenbecker Burnet Endowed Graduate Research and Teaching Assistantship, please contact Dr. Kate Greder at kcgreder@iastate.edu.

To be eligible for graduate assistantships, you must first apply to our Apparel, Merchandising, and Design graduate program. The Apparel, Events, and Hospitality Management handbook has more information on assistantships including selection criteria, funding, and salaries. Assistantship applications are emailed individually to each student after they are accepted into the program.