Apply to be a Research Assitant at The Kaiser Family Foundation
The Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan non-profit specializing in healthcare analysis, is looking for a research assistant with a Bachelor’s Degree and 1-2 years of working experience. Among other duties, Research Assistants prepare graphs, tables, and other visual presentations of data for written reports and staff presentations, proofread and prepare research reports for publication on the web, and track news coverage related to health policy. The position is based in Menlo Park, CA. To apply for this position send a resume, cover letter, contact information for three references, and a writing sample, to jobs@kff.org. Label your documents “Last Name_First Name_Document Title” and write “Research Assistant” in the email heading.
The Urban Institute is Seeking Data Science Interns
The Urban Institute’s Data Technology and Innovation Team is currently looking for a Data Science Intern to work in a cutting edge, big and unstructured data environment. The department is made up of programmers who use tools such as C, C++, Fortran, Python, R, and SAS to translate public policy and proposals into algorithms and code. Interns’ responsibilities include the creation automated data collection systems using webscraping, database, and cloud computing technology to collect datasets to answer policy questions. They will also produce an automated data collection system (with assistance) and two blog posts, or similar brief analytical documents, including statistical analysis and/or visualizations of public policy data. Applicants should be pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in computer science/programming, public policy, or a related field, and they should have an interest in one of the following: data visualization, cloud computing, SQL, Docker and/or Web Scraping (interns will still be given training and support to learn these systems and tools). For more information about the position and application, see here.
Charles Center Summer Research Scholarships
The Charles Center offers a number of $3000 grants to support undergraduates doing seven weeks of full-time summer research. Any W&M undergraduate not graduating before December 2017 is eligible to apply. In addition to funding for research in any field, there is targeted funding for research that: concerns African Americans and the College, will take place in Israel, concerns and/or will take place in Latin America, concerns peace and conflict resolution, and is in the sciences or math conducted by a student from an underrepresented population at the College. To apply, create an account here and select “Charles Center Summer Research Funding” for the “To which program are you applying” question.
Stanford GSB Research Fellows Program
Interested in doing a PhD in social science? Check out the Stanford GSB Research Fellows Program, a pre-doctoral program that offers valuable research and academic training for those interested in pursuing PhD programs in political science, economics, psychology, or other social science fields. Fellows have the opportunity to do research with GSB Faculty mentors, take doctoral-level courses, and fully engage in the intellectual life at GSB. Fellows receive a fellowship that includes living stipend and tuition. For more information, contact gsb_fellows@stanford.
VCU Political Science Conference Call for Papers
Looking for a place to present research you’ve been working on? Check out the 11th Annual Politics and Government Student Research Conference at Virginia Commonwealth University on April 14, 2017! The theme this year is “Politics, Society, and World Affairs,” but the conference will host a diverse array of panels. To apply, send your paper abstract/proposals to VCUConference2017@gmail.com
ProPublic Data Institute
If you’re interested in data and/or journalism, check out ProPublica’s second Data Institute. The Data Institute is an 11-day intensive workshop on how to use data, design and code for journalism. The workshop will be from June 7 to June 21 at ProPublica’s NYC offices. The deadline to apply is March 31. To learn more, click here, and to apply, click here.
A Conversation with Norm Ornstein (Tuesday, March 21, 6:30-7:30PM in Blow 201)
The public is invited to hear “A Conversation with Norm Ornstein” on Tuesday, March 21 at 6:30 pm. Norm Ornstein, a political scientist at the American Enterprise Institute, is the Hunter B. Andrews Fellow at the College this Spring. He is a noted columnist and commentator who has been a vocal critic of the Trump administration. He also co-authored the book, It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided with the New Politics of Extremism,” with Brookings Institute Fellow Tom Mann. The presentation will be in Blow Hall Room 201, and John McGlennon, Professor of Government at the College will engage Ornstein in the conversation.
International Methods Colloquium Talk: “The Speaker Affect Model for Measuring Emotion in Political Speech with Audio Data” on Friday 3/17 at 12PM
On Friday, March 17th at 12 PM, the International Methods Colloquium will host a presentation by Christopher Lucas of Harvard University titled, “The Speaker-Affect Model for Measuring Emotion in Political Speech with Audio Data.” The talk will cover the Speaker-Affect Model (SAM) that Lucas has developed to complement and extend existing methods for text analysis by modeling speech dynamics and incorporating a ridge-like regularization step. Additionally, he will demonstrate an extension of SAM that permits supervised analysis of text and audio jointly. Lucas will also apply this method to common benchmark data from computer science and to recordings of Supreme Court oral arguments. To tune in to the presentation and participate in the discussion after the talk, visit http://www.methodscolloq
Psychology Colloquium: Mediation in Statistical Analyses
The Psychology department is hosting a colloquium by W&M alum Dr. Kris Preacher, Professor and Associate Chair of Psychology at Vanderbilt, on March 20, from noon-1pm in Tidewater B, Sadler Center. Dr. Preacher will present his recent work on mediation analyses, including the various methods and underlying assumptions for testing indirect effects in applied settings (i.e., real data, not simulations). He will also illustrate how to use online tools (and other software) he’s developed to perform these tests easily and accurately. His talk is relevant to anyone doing statistical research or in relevant courses. For more information, please see his website (quantpsy.org).
Research Position at the MIT Election Data and Science Lab
If you are graduating this year and are interested in elections and data science, check out the senior research support associate position at the MIT Election Data and Science Lab (http://electionlab.mit.edu/). This position is geared towards recent graduates who are looking to go to graduate school or do work in election-related data science. The senior research associate would primarily be responsible for collecting and organizing the lab’s data, plus assisting in various research projects the lab would be undertaking. To apply, click here.