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RESEARCH Aprenticeship PROGRAM

Contribute to a Faculty Research Project

This program allows undergraduates invaluable opportunties to learn research methods in a one-on-one collaboration with a faculty member.  Each fall, faculty members apply for the opportunity to bring undergraduate research fellows into their research projects.  The Humanities Center advertises research opportunities on this page, and students are invited to apply directly to faculty mentors starting in early September.  Faculty make nominations to the Humanities Center, and successful nominees are appointed as Student Research Fellows. Each fellowship involves work on a faculty research project, often leading to publication.  Projects involve different types of research and unfold over different time-periods with flexibility to accommodate the schedules of the student and the needs of the faculty member. At the end of the academic year, student fellows who complete the program successfully receive $450.

Students interested in serving as research apprentices should check this page frequently during the fall. Scroll down to see current opportunities.

Faculty members interested in the program should visit the faculty Research Fellows Program page for instructions on how to apply.

If you are interested in past research student-faculty collaborations please visit our archival page.
Professor Erik Jenson and a student sit at a table ogether discussing a research project

2023-2024  Apprenticeship Projects

If you are interested in applying for one of the apprenticeships below, please email the relevant professor and write "Research Apprenticeship Application" in the subject line of your email. For additional questions please write to humanitiescenter@miamioh.edu.

Embodied and On-line: Staging Social Justice

Ann Elizabeth Armstrong, Associate Professor of Theatre

This student research fellow will participate in a series of on-line workshops with leading innovators in activist theatre, and they will have an opportunity to contribute to the editorial process of documenting these on-line workshops to conceive and develop a published edited collection. Students will contribute to various phases of the editorial process, including preparing a proposal, research for an introduction, and participation on a collaborative editorial team with professionals in theatre (dramaturgs, artistic directors, teaching artists). Applicants with experience managing a social media campaign and with IRB certification are desirable, but not required. Student with interests in social justice, theatre, film or other arts/multimedia, producing, and critical pedagogy are encouraged to apply.

POSITION IS FILLED

Halal Down the Holler: American Muslims of Appalachia

Rosemary Pennington, Associate Professor of Journalism

A research apprentice would be interested in culture, religion, media, and/or Appalachia as they will help me on my book project Halal Down the Holler: American Muslims of Appalachia. An apprentice will conduct literature reviews, create an annotated bibliography of the research they’ve reviewed, find and archive media examples, and monitor podcasts for discussions of the Muslim or minority experience in Appalachia. An apprentice may also be tasked with proofreading book chapters or grant applications for the project.

POSITION IS FILLED

Normalize Changing Your Mind

Carolyn Hardin, Associate Professor of Media, Journalism & Film and Global & Intercultural Studies

The apprentice will help with a research project on Real Housewives fan podcasts. You will receive training on how to make a transcript on Rev.com and how to analyze transcripts on Atlas.ti. You will meet with Dr. Hardin and her co-researcher Dr. Hinck to discuss analyzing the podcasts. You will also search social media for relevant fan posts. You do not have to be a Real Housewives fan to apply.

POSITION FILLED

Ovid in Russia

Zara Torlone, Professor of Classics, Department of French, Italian, and Classical Studies

A research apprentice is sought to help a faculty member with the last stages of her research on a book project entitled Shapes of Exile: Ovid in Russian Literary Imagination. An undergraduate fellow will help with the following tasks: 1) access and describe a digital source in Bibliotheque Nationale de France; 2) help organize a vast bibliography for the chapters of this monograph which are complete; 3) prepare the annotated bibliography for the new secondary sources; 4) proofread the completed chapters for the book. Some knowledge of Russian and/or French is desirable but not necessary. An advanced undergraduate will benefit from this apprenticeship by developing and honing their language skills and learning how to conduct serious scholarly research both online and in the library.

POSITION IS FILLED

Patriarch Tikhon and the Orthodox Church in Revolutionary Russia

Scott Kenworthy, Professor of Comparative Religion

I am seeking a research apprentice for the last stages of research and preparation of a book manuscript entitled Patriarch Tikhon Bellavin and the Orthodox Church in Revolutionary Russia. The undergraduate fellow will help with the following tasks: 1) work with digital photos of archival materials from the Foreign Office in the British National Archives concerning British intelligence about the fate of religion the Soviet Union in the 1920s; 2) help complete footnotes and prepare bibliography for the book manuscript; and 3) editing and proof-reading chapters as they are completed. Some knowledge of Russian language and either Russian, modern European, or religious history, as well as prior experience in editing, are desirable. An advanced undergraduate will gain experience in conducting primary archival research as well as in the preparation of a major project for publication.

POSITION IS FILLED

Sound and Music Education through Social Media

Mack Hagood, Associate Professor of Media, Journalism, & Film

Phantom Power, a podcast on sound in the arts and humanities, seeks a research apprentice to handle transcript creation, web content management, and social media promotion. Training will be provided for all tasks. Transcription will be aided by AI transcription software. If the apprentice is interested in audio production specifically, the experience can be shifted somewhat in that direction. Students with knowledge of/interest in sound, audio technology, podcasting, experimental music, or sound art will really enjoy this apprenticeship and are highly encouraged to apply! No previous experience is required, but skills in writing, web design, or social media promotion are a big plus.

POSITION IS FILLED

The Political Economy of Firm Cybersecurity Investment

Benjamin Bartlett, Assistant Professor of Political Science

I am seeking a research assistant to aid in the collection of data for a project comparing firm behavior with regard to cybersecurity investment in Japan, Germany, the UK, and the US. Using Zotero, the research assistant will locate, store copies of, and create bibliographic entries for primary sources (news articles, policy documents, etc.), briefly annotate those documents, and link those documents to related documents. No prior knowledge of Zotero required, though assistant must be willing to learn and install the tool. Only English-language skills required. Interest in cybersecurity or comparative political economy a plus.

POSITION IS FILLED

What Happened to the Local Paper? Assessing the Local News Crisis in Southwest Ohio

Matthew Crain, Associate Professor for Dept. Media, Journalism, & Film

This project investigates the state of local news organizations in southwest Ohio. The research fellow will assist with 1) developing an “interview script” as a standard tool of semi-structured interview methods; 2) participant interviewing, recording, and transcribing data; 3) preliminary analysis of the qualitative data. The fellow will also complete IRB certification for human subjects research. The fellowship runs from Nov. 1, 2023 to April 15, 2024 and requires approximately 2-3 hours of work per week on average. Necessary qualifications include: Familiarity with library databases; strong organization and writing skills;  interest in news media. Beneficial, but not required: Experience with Zotero citation manager; experience annotating scholarly publications, interviewing experience.

POSITION HAS BEEN FILLED

What is Commitment?

Facundo Alonso, Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy

I am seeking a research fellow to assist with a project on the nature and norms of commitment. We speak of an agent’s “commitment” to a particular action when we try to characterize, for example, an agent’s faithfulness to a promise she has given to another, her robust disposition to pursue a goal she values or cares about, and her determination to stick to that goal. The fellow is expected to help find, annotate, and analyze relevant bibliography as well as to discuss it with the mentor. The selected fellow will become familiar with important debates in ethics and philosophy of action, and gain experience in how to conduct research.

POSITION IS FILLED

Working with formerly Colonized Cultures: Towards Sustainable and Ethical Fieldwork

Jordan A. Fenton, Associate Professor of Art History

What is at stake when a researcher from the West conducts fieldwork or ethnography in spaces or localities that were formally colonized? The scope of this project seeks to develop more sustainable and ethical fieldwork practices when research involves work with living cultures in an attempt to avoid how most cases fall prey to hierarchical problems and inequalities that have long and layered historic precedent. A goal for this project is to broaden Professor Fenton's previously published model on his work with West African artists and compare and contrast it to cases from disciplines not traditionally related to the humanities and social sciences. An outcome is to publish an article in a major journal that reviews such approaches, identifies current trends, and delineates an ethically grounded approach that has broad applicability. The project is meant to cultivate more awareness to the ways in which academics and business partnerships must be guided by transparency, ethics, and with reciprocity in mind, especially when work or research is concerned with, or related to, histories or cases of global inequities.


For this project I am seeking an undergraduate research student to help with the follow tasks:  

1) Identify material, cases studies, and sources that are ethically grounded field based methodologies and/or transparent partnerships found in the broader humanities and social sciences as well as in fields not traditionally related to art history (examples include, but are not limited to, business, law, diplomacy, medicine, and engineering).

2) Develop an annotated bibliography of key sources, ethical approaches, and relevant cases based on the above task.

POSITION IS FILLED