I wanted to reach out to you and let you know that ACE is hiring tutors to serve for the 2016-17 school year. This is a great opportunity for students who don’t know what they want to do after graduation but would like to gain professional experience and stay in Austin!

If you know of any students who are looking to commit to a year of service as they apply for grad school, a career in non-profits, education, or want to practice their Spanish, please feel free to send them my contact information and this video to help them learn more. They receive an education award of $5,775 that can go towards grad school or student federal loans. 

Click here to read the tutor position description and click here to learn about our application process. To learn more about ACE and the life-changing experience they would have as a tutor, watch the ACE video or visit the ACE Blog to learn what tutors have to say about their experience.

PS. Several LAHers have participated in ACE and enjoyed the process.

The Strauss Center is very pleased to announce the call for applications for the 2016-17 Brumley Next Generation Graduate Fellows and Undergraduate Scholars programs. These unique opportunitues provide research training and mentorships to exceptional undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Texas at Austin. The program is made possible by the generous support of Jon and Rebecca Brumley.

Graduate Students: Next Generation Fellows

The mission of the Brumley Next Generation Graduate Fellows program is to provide a transformative experience for UT graduate students from an array of disciplines, accelerating their path towards career success with an emphasis on building professional and scholarly skills and networks. Selection is not merely honorific; students selected for the Brumley Next Generation Graduate Fellows program will participate in the life of the Strauss Center, and receive support, in several ways:

Research, writing, and professional mentorship: First, each graduate student selected to be a Fellow will be linked to one of the Strauss Center’s many current research programs (based on the preferences expressed by the student in his or her application). More specifically, each Fellow will be paired with a Distinguished Scholar associated with that particular program. Under that scholar’s guidance, and backed by the financial support detailed below, the Fellow will conduct their own research and writing project(s). The Strauss Center scholar also will serve as a professional mentor, advising on career matters.

Graduate Fellows Colloquium: The Graduate Fellow Colloquium is a monthly luncheon during which Fellows and Strauss Center Distinguished Scholars will convene for two purposes: ongoing discussion of one another’s work, and engagement in a private setting with a visiting policymaker, practitioner, or scholar (selected by the Fellows themselves) in order to discuss both substantive issues and career development.

Resources: Fellows will receive a fellowship stipend in the amount of $2,500 for the 2016-17 academic year. Fellows will also be eligible to apply for funding to support travel for conferences, research, and other scholarly or professional activities.

Participation in Other Aspects of Strauss Center Life: Fellows are expected to maintain a deep level of engagement with the Strauss Center, including by selecting a speaker on their relevant research topic for a Strauss Center public talk and acting as co-host for that speaker’s visit.

Undergraduate Students: Next Generation Scholars

The Strauss Center launched the Next Generation Scholars (NGS) program in 2010 with the goal of providing new research and mentorship opportunities for promising UT undergraduate students interested in careers in international security and law. Through a partnership with the RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service, this program now also includes a focus on civic engagement, expanding the reach of the program by engaging more students and involving faculty members on a wider range of local, national, and international policy issues. Involving undergraduates in international affairs and civic engagement early in their career is an important part of the Strauss and RGK Centers’ missions to prepare the next generation of leaders to help develop solutions to the most pressing public policy challenges.

Program Components

This one-year program includes two key components: First, students will take a 3-credit research training and professional development course, taught in the Fall of 2016. This course is designed to introduce students to policy work, including basic skills in policy research, analysis, and writing. Students will be trained on designing research strategies and proposals, conducting policy analysis, writing resumes and statements of purpose, crafting op-eds and blog posts, and planning for the steps in their career development. This course will be led by Dr. Michael Mosser, Lecturer in the Department of Government, International Relations and Global Studies, and the Center for European Studies, and a Strauss Center Distinguished Scholar.

Second, the program also matches each selected student with a research agenda underway by a Strauss Center Distinguished Scholar or RGK Center Faculty Fellow to provide opportunities to directly engage in policy-relevant research and practice skills taught in the fall course. Students who perform well in the research training course in the fall will be eligible to then continue as a paid research intern for their respective faculty members at the Strauss or RGK Center in Spring 2016. Students promoted to full intern positions will be expected to commit approximately ten hours per week during the spring semester and will earn a stipend of $500 for the spring semester. Students may use this stipend for independent research, travel to a study abroad program or summer internship, travel to a professional conference, or other experiential and scholarly pursuits approved by Dr. Mosser. Funding permitting, and contingent on positive performance evaluations, students may have the possibility of continuing as research interns at the Strauss or RGK Center after the year-long Next Generation Scholars program concludes.

Please see the attached documents for application information. The application deadline both the Brumley Next Generation Fellows and Scholars programs is March 25, 2016. For more information about the programs, please contact Anne Clary at anneclary@austin.utexas.edu.

 From “Informants” to Intellectuals: Reframing Twentieth Century Nahua Participation in Academic Research 

McDonough, Kelly – Spanish & Portuguese

Starting on: As soon as possible

Contact: kelly.mcdonough@austin.utexas.edu

This project studies the representation of Mexican indigenous “informants,” collaborators, and authors in their own right during the twentieth century in anthropological and linguistic research (specifically related to Nahua culture, Nahuas being native speakers of Nahuatl – language of the Aztecs and more than 1.5 million people today). For the majority of the twentieth century many of the indigenous people who provided the information for academic studies were seen as sources of raw data that the “intellectual” academician would then analyze and interpret. In reframing indigenous peoples as intellectuals in their own right,  I argue for an expanded understanding of indigenous intellectualism addresses both the tensions and complementary nature of oral and written modes of creating and transmitting oral and written indigenous knowledges. At the same time, with this approach as example, I advocate for a return to early twentieth-century anthropological and linguistic studies in order to tease out and recover voices of indigenous intellectuals that can and should inform contemporary studies of Nahua culture.

Research assistants will identify linguistic and anthropological studies on/with Nahua people in the 20th century in pertinent journals; download and code essays for general topics; assess how the indigenous person who provided the source material (usually called an informant or collaborator, but sometimes author) is recognized in the essays. 

Qualifications:  

Required: Advanced proficiency in Spanish; knowledge of Word and Excel; basic research skills.

Preferred: Interest in Indigenous Studies

Time Commitment: Negotiable, usually 4-5 hours per week, less during midterms and finals

Duration: 2-4 months; research team meets one hour every other week

Compensation: Credit in the acknowledgments of the completed article

The sponsor of this project is available for meetings every other week

For more information please contact Kelly McDonough at kelly.mcdonough@austin.utexas.edu

These professors are looking for undergraduate research assistants!

Dr. Paul D. Miller, Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies

Dr. Miller is writing a book about the international reconstruction and stabilization project in Afghanistan from 2001 – 2016, and welcomes research assistance from interested students.

Misreading Afghanistan: Evaluating the International Project, 2001 – 2016

Dr. Erin Rodriguez and Ph.D. student Lauren Smith, Dept. of Educational Psychology, College of Education

Students majoring in psychology, social work, or related field who are also fluent in Spanish are needed as research assistants for a community-based participatory research study. Please see position announcement below for application details and contact info.

Pediatric Coping & Language Lab

Undergraduate Research Assistant Position for Community-based study

Brief overview of the research study: This community-based participatory research study seeks to collaborate with both members of the Latino community in Austin as well as those who serve the Latino community, to gain a better sense of stressors currently impacting Latino teens. This research will then inform later intervention utilizing community member feedback and partnership.

Primary role/responsibilities:

• Transcribing qualitative interviews (both English and Spanish interviews).
• Potentially conducting qualitative interviews with community members within the surrounding Latino community.
• Assisting with outreach in the Latino community.
• One year minimum commitment and can work a minimum of 8 hours a week, with occasional weekend availability.

Required qualifications:

• Must have interest in gaining experience in psychology/community-based research.
• Minimum 3.0 GPA and sophomore standing.
• Familiarity with Excel.
• Must be highly motivated and a self-starter.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Proficiency in spoken and written Spanish
• Experience working with Latino teens/families
• Familiarity with qualitative research
• Major in psychology, social work, or related field

If interested, please submit cover letter with relevant experiences and how this project relates to your interest/future goals. Also feel free to contact if you have any questions.**Course credit available**

Contact Lauren Smith: laurentsmith@utexas.edu

APPLY HERE

The College of Liberal Arts Digital Storytelling Seminar Application

Liberal Arts is offering a free 12-week seminar focused on five video projects written, directed, produced, and edited by Liberal Arts undergraduates. Participants will relive and retell some of their most memorable, compelling, tragic, and ecstatic college moments, while receiving hands-on experience in

·       Screenwriting and Storytelling

·       Cinematography

·       Editing

·       Graphic Effects

·       Careers in Digital Video Production

This is an introductory digital storytelling, film, and media production workshop with group productions of short films using high-definition video.

Participants will be provided with access to equipment, training, software, and direct support from working professionals in video production. Guest lecturers from the Austin film industry will instruct each seminar. These workshops will guide participants through the creation of their own digital story.

Students must commit to attending workshops that will be held on campus

February 15 – May 31, 2016

Mondays from 5 – 7:30 PM

Productions have potential to continue into summer 2016

APPLY HERE

The deadline to apply is Friday, February 5, by 5pm. Seats are limited!

To apply please visit colaclips.com and fill out the application.

REQUIREMENTS

This seminar is restricted to Liberal Arts undergraduates.

The seminar is collaborative, and will result in the production of up to five short films that will be showcased online and at campus events in the fall of 2016. Participants will co-own the work with the University and be able to use it in the future for their own portfolios and creative purposes.  The University reserves the right to also use the material created for educational and promotional purposes.

Limited to no more than 20 students.

QUESTIONS?

Mystie Pineda, Radio TV Film Specialist IV| College of Liberal Arts |  The University of Texas at Austin  mystiepineda@austin.utexas.edu 512-471-3720

The University of Texas at Austin Undergraduate Research Journal is now accepting submissions for its 2016 volume. Papers may be the products of classes, independent study, supervised research, honors theses, and they can be of any discipline or subject.

Papers will be reviewed by University of Texas faculty of the appropriate field, and accepted papers will be published in print as well as online on our website. The author of the winning article among those published will  be selected to receive a $200 prize, and a runner-up will receive a $100 prize.

More information and submission guidelines are available at http://texasurj.com/submit/. Submissions are reviewed on a rolling basis, so we encourage you to submit your paper as early as possible. You may also view previously published articles at http://texasurj.com/archive/.

Feel free to contact Patrick Haley at editor.in.chief@texasurj.com for any questions you may have.

SUMMER RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES (SROH) AT HARVARD

June 8–August 16

Application Deadline: February 1, 2015

Summer Research Opportunities at Harvard is a summer program offered for currently enrolled undergraduates from across the country who are considering pursuing a PhD in the humanities, social sciences, or life/physical sciences; who have already had at least one summer (or equivalent term-time) of research experience; and who have taken at least one upper-level course in their field of study. Areas of study: Economics, Education, Government, History, Law, Psychology, Public Policy, Religion, Social Policy, Sociology, and Religion.

ACTIVITIES

• Placement in faculty research groups in Cambridge spanning fields in the life and physical sciences, humanities, and social sciences.

• Weekly faculty lectures from departments in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) divisions, held jointly with students enrolled in the Harvard summer research programs.

• Weekly group meeting discussions on student research projects and a range of career and professional development topics.

• Participation in the Leadership Alliance National Symposium. Visiting student status includes housing with residential proctor; library privileges; athletics privileges; access to summer activities such as field trips, music, etc.

ELIGIBILITY

• Applicants must currently be enrolled full-time in an accredited public or private college or university in the United States or its territories, as recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.

• All applicants must be in good academic standing with a GPA of 3.0 or better.

• Demonstrate a committed interest to pursue graduate study toward a PhD or MD-PhD.

• Have completed at least two semesters and have at least one semester remaining of their undergraduate education by the start of the summer program.

• Be a US citizen or have permanent resident status at the time of application.

FUNDING

Students in the program will live in Harvard-affiliated housing. The program will provide all research and course-related expenses, room, travel to and from the program, and typically, a stipend of $3,500 and a food allowance of $1500.

Apply Today: https://www.gsas.harvard.edu/prospective_students/summer-research-opportunities-at-harvard.php 

SUMMER RESEARCH OPPORTUNITY PROGRAM (SROP) AT NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY

June 20-August 11

Application Deadline: February, 2015

The Summer Research Opportunity Program (SROP) is an eight-week competitive research experience at Northwestern University for sophomores and juniors from colleges and universities across the United States. All fields of research at Northwestern are open to SROP participants including the social sciences and humanities, physical sciences, chemical and biological sciences, technology, math and engineering fields.

ACTIVITIES

• Conduct research with a Northwestern faculty member

• Orientation programming

• Professional development workshops

• GRE prep classes

• Research Forum and Poster Session

• Networking events with faculty and graduate students

ELIGIBILITY

• Be a current sophomore or junior.

• Have a cumulative GPA of at least 3.3 on a 4.0 scale.

• Be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident.

• Have an interest in pursuing a doctoral degree (PhD) at Northwestern University. Those interested in pursuing an MBA, JD, or MD are not eligible.

FUNDING

Students will receive a $4000 stipend, round trip travel to Northwestern, University housing (single rooms), and a meal subsidy of $450 (not intended to cover all meals).

Apply Today: http://www.tgs.northwestern.edu/diversity/undergraduate-summer-research/ 

Voting is now open for the Texas Student Research Showdown! You can now view 15 short videos made by UT undergraduates to explain their research to a general audience. From movie trailer to time-lapse, animation to idea pitch, these videos bring alive the student research happening in all disciplines across campus. Only currently enrolled UT undergraduates can vote on their favorite entries, and the researchers with the top videos will go on to compete for $2,500 in a TED-style talk showdown to an audience and judging panel on Nov. 12 in Avaya Auditorium.

The videos are viewable on the Showdown website, and on the online voting form itself. Students can vote for as many videos as they want, but each student can only submit the voting form once—multiple submissions will be rejected. Students will need to provide an EID to verify student status, but otherwise the vote is anonymous. Voting runs through Oct. 21.

Please spread the word to anyone with an interest in research communication, in students’ involvement in the world-changing work done at UT, and in supporting their friends and classmates.