Work-Study Research Assistant Program

Faculty Name: Joshua Mayer

Faculty Department: Anthropology

General Research Focus: I am a community-collaborative ethnographer working with Indigenous and Black communities in Nicaragua to study research questions that address the communities’ most pressing needs. For several decades, the communities with which I work have been engaged in a legal and political struggle to stop individuals, businesses, and government entities from seizing their ancestral lands. This project is an oral history of the ongoing, anticolonial struggle of one Indigenous community and one Black community in southeastern Nicaragua; more than 80 interviews were conducted in 2022.

Brief Position Description: The student selected for this position will participate in the transcription and analysis of oral history interviews, which will contribute to a report for the participant communities and to a scholarly book manuscript. If the student is interested, there may be opportunities for remote meetings with community leaders and co-researchers to discuss the analysis of the interviews and research products. Note that this position will require the ability to understand and transcribe interviews in either Spanish or an English-based Central American or Caribbean creole language.

The student will learn about, and develop skills in, the following areas: 1) qualitative, ethnographic, and community-collaborative research methods and ethics, 2) qualitative data processing, 3) interpreting and summarizing primary source data, 4) prioritizing multiple tasks with varying deadlines, and 5) effective workplace communication, including asking for clarification and support as needed. The student will also learn about Black and Indigenous communities and movements. This position is especially appropriate for a student interested in pursuing coursework, independent projects, and/or a career related to justice-oriented social research.

A "Student Research Review Assistant - 205" will assist faculty in research effort by conducting review of literature and subject material specific to research topics. A student in this position will:

• Transcribe audio recordings of interviews in Spanish and/or a Central American English-based creole language
• Code interview transcripts in NVivo software and contribute to codebooks
• Cross-check sources and proofread research products
• Conduct other related research tasks relevant to their particular interests (as available and mutually agreed upon)