Undergraduate Research in Race, Ethnicity, and the Demography of Crime and Punishment

Population Research Center and Department of Sociology, UT-Austin

The Population Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin, in collaboration with the Department of Sociology, is hosting the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program in Race, Ethnicity, and the Demography of Crime and Punishment for the summer of 2014. This eight-week summer program, which is held during June and July and is funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation (but also with significant contributions from the UT Population Research Center, Department of Sociology, and College of Liberal Arts), offers eight very selective upper-division undergraduate students from both UT-Austin and from around the country the opportunity to study social demography through course work and a mentored research experience with senior PRC graduate students. The program pays for tuition, room and board, and computer expenses. REU students also receive a $4,000 stipend for participation in the program, which allows the selected students to fully concentrate on their REU experience over the 2-month program. Students participate in a 3-hour summer course during the first half of the program, then dedicate the second half of the program to their own projects in collaboration with their graduate student mentor and under the overall guidance of the faculty co-directors, David Kirk and Keith Robinson. Student papers are then presented in the fall at a specified professional conference.  Former students from the REU program are now on the faculties of Johns Hopkins University, Rice University, Pennsylvania State University, Vanderbilt University, University of Texas at Austin, University of Pennsylvania, and more, and currently in social science graduate programs at the Universities of Wisconsin, Chicago, Michigan, North Carolina, Texas, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and California at Los Angeles, as well as Harvard University, Stanford University, Princeton University, Northwestern University, Duke University, and more.  This program is specifically geared toward students with junior standing who are seriously thinking about attending graduate school in the social sciences and, particularly, in sociology or demography.

The 2014 summer REU Program application deadline is FEBRUARY 16, 2014. See http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/prc/training/undergraduate.php for details about the REU program and the program application, as well as information about other research and training programs of the UT Population Research Center.