Connected to my role in the Internet Safety Technical Task Force, I’m seeking a research intern. The intern would be responsible for:
- Creating an annotated bibliography of all scholarly research related to the issues taken up by the Task Force (e.g., Internet sexual predators, bullying, identity theft, COPPA, etc.)
- Creating an annotated list of scholars and institutes working in the field and reaching out to them to see if new research is about to be published
- Writing the first draft of a literature review of the relevant research
- Other things that might come up…
The ideal intern will have strong research skills, strong writing skills, and an interest in the topic. Timeliness is also crucial – much is needed to be done by mid-June. The ability to self-motivate/self-direct is also critical; I will be doing virtually no micromanagement and the deadline is not movable.
The intern would officially be an intern at the Harvard Berkman Center and will receive the standard Harvard intern wage; living in Cambridge is not a requirement – most interactions with me will take place through email/AIM. The intern must be a student at a university (either undergrad or graduate level) and have full library access. Preference will be given to those in social science fields who are familiar with and can evaluate quantitative methods. The most ideal candidate would probably be a pre-quals graduate student who is working in this area and would love to be paid to do the literature review they have to do anyhow, but I’m not sure that this person exists.
This position will start the moment I find the right person. It will definitely last through June and can last much longer depending on the person’s interest (there’s plenty of related work through December). Hours are flexible; all that matters is getting the job done.
To apply, send me an email to zephoria at zephoria dot org. Include your CV, the names and emails of 2 professors who can attest to your research skills, a sample piece of writing (class assignments are fine) and a cover letter that includes: why you are interested in this internship, some background on your research skills, and whatever else you think that I might want to know.
Feel free to forward this announcement to anyone you think might be interested.
Update: This position has been filled. To my shock and excitement, there was an absolute plethora of amazing candidates that I had to turn down. Of course, that makes it really hard. But thank you to everyone who applied!
If you are a scholar who is publishing in this area who is jumping up and down with excitement, feel free to add citations and names to the comments. I will do a proper call for biblio bits and researchers a bit down the road.
Would you take on a student from outside the US?
Sadly, for the Harvard part (a.k.a. to get paid), you need to be a U.S. resident or at a U.S. school with the appropriate school/work visa. Sorry it took me a while – I had to check.
I suspected as much. Thanks for checking though! Much appreciated.
If a voluntary position ever comes up…
Reposting to my blog to see if it draws any bait. Sounds fantastic!
Just posted to WWWEdu and LM_Net. While I spelled apophenia correctly in the security field below, I managed to spell it wrong in my posts to the lists. At least I copied and pasted the URL to your blog entry. 🙂
I would seriously love to do this – and in fact this is the kind of research I collect in the course of my professional life. But, sadly, I’m not a student, nor based in the US. Please let me know if there is anyway I could contribute what I know from outside the US.
Conversely, I’d be enormously interested in the findings, particularly of the lit review. I’m very keen to see how the Task Force operates, and particularly the directions it chooses to take. My personal email is aramonrose at gmail dot com, though I do understand just how phenomenally busy you are at the moment.
This sounds like my dream job.
I will forward you the requirements mentioned above for consideration!
Beth (current M.Ed. student in Technology)
out source that shit. get more bang for your buck. create a corporation and just pay them as a contract. then find yourself an indian or chinese person w/ a phd looking for some pay. the 10-15 bucks the job probably pays goes way further there than it ever will here. heck, you could probably hire two research assistants…
😉