Department: Speech and Hearing Sciences; Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences
Professors Greg Wallace, PhD; Lauren Kenworthy, PhD
The Project: Executive function (EF) is an omnibus term describing supramodal, higher-order cognitive abilities including working memory, planning, flexibility, and organization, all in the service of problem-solving and behavioral regulation. It is now well-established that EF skills are crucial to academic functioning in both typically developing children and at-risk youth from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. For example, early EF skills, including working memory and inhibitory control, have been linked with school readiness during early development (Blair & Razza, 2007). Later developing EF skills also foster academic achievement as several studies now demonstrate that individual differences in EF performance are associated with individual differences in academic functioning during adolescence (Latzman et al., 2010).
Nevertheless, in spite of this robust evidence for linkage between EF skills and academic achievement in typically developing and at-risk youth, to date, very little evidence links these domains in the context of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This is particularly startling given that EF deficits based on both performance measures (e.g., McLean et al., 2014) and ratings scales (e.g., Granader et al., 2014) are well-established in ASD and that several interventions (e.g., Unstuck and On Target! Kenworthy et al., 2014) have been developed to target EF difficulties in the service of reducing ASD (e.g., repetitive behavior and rigidity) symptoms and buttressing other (e.g., social-communication) skills.
This study will assess EF skills utilizing a battery of EF tasks (assessing working memory, inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, etc.) and examine their unique contributions (above and beyond IQ) to academic functioning, including reading and math. This study will include approximately 30 children with ASD and 30 typically developing controls matched on age (7-12 years old), IQ (>75), and sex ratio.
Tasks: The research assistant will help with a plethora of tasks including, but not limited to: gathering data/testing, data entry, data cleaning, data analysis, literature reviews, and writing.
Time Commitment/ Credit Hours: 4-6 hours per week; varies
To Apply: Please send a curriculum vitae or resume to Dr. Wallace at: gwallac1@gwu.edu
Tag: AY1415
African Diaspora Project [Research Assistantship]
Professor Yvonne Captain
The Project: Researching the whereabouts and movement (migration) of African Diaspora communities in the Americas, including those who are descendants of slaves in the United States. Of special interest is the migration of Creoles of Louisiana to other parts of the United States and to other regions of the Americas.
Tasks:
–Mine archival data as recent as last year or as early as the 1720s.
–Research will occur mostly through GW online access or physically at the Library of Congress and other local libraries
–possible transcription of interviews that the professor conducted with participants
Time Commitment/ Credit: 7-9 hours per week; 3 credit opportunity
Contact Address: ycaptain@gwu.edu
To Apply: Email me know of your interest. Prior knowledge of the African Diaspora is not necessary. No language requirement except good skills in the English language. Can be less hours if you prefer. Let me know so that I can hire more than one assistant.
–let me know when you are available to do the work
–either at end of spring semester or beginning of summer
A Reform to Help Congress Work Better [Research Assistantship]
Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration
Professor Stuart Kasdin
The Project: This project involves historic research using the Congressional Record. The goal is to produce an academic paper, in which the student could receive shared authorship.
The paper would examine the potential impacts of a particular reform to the Congressional budget process: the reform is to merge appropriations and authorization committees. Presently, authorization committees design new programs, creating the terms for program spending (i.e., what a program aims to accomplish, who is eligible, and what they can receive), while the appropriation committees determine how much funding each program will receive. This proposal would do away with this long-standing bifurcation of responsibilities. Each newly designed committee would have a mix of mandatory and discretionary programs.
The greatest potential advantage of the reform proposal is to encourage greater productivity from the Congress. Because appropriations must be completed on an annual basis and because the funding process supports logrolling and ‘splitting the difference’, compromise is easier. The need to annually produce new budgets could encourage greater on-going cooperation, enhanced communication and trust, and less partisan posturing. In addition, the new committees would have all the relevant program spending (except tax expenditures) housed together. This would encourage increased allocative efficiency.
There are potential risks. One risk is that the appropriation bills would be later than usual, with partisanship from the authorization process spilling into appropriations. In addition, there is a risk of increased use of legislative riders and earmarks added to appropriation bills.
Because there are historical examples of congressional committees with combined authorization and appropriation responsibilities, we can get a better sense of the possible outcomes of the reform. Between 1879 and1885, the House of Representatives stripped the Appropriation Committee of its authority over rivers and harbors, agriculture, consular and diplomatic affairs, the military, the Post Office, and Indian affairs. In each of these areas the authorization committees gained the right to report appropriations. On the Senate side, by1899, a similarly broad swath of activities had been removed from the appropriator’s jurisdiction and placed under the responsibility of the relevant authorization committees. The Appropriation Committees only regained the responsibility for appropriations after the 1921 Budget and Accounting Act.
Research Assistant Tasks: You would examine the Congressional Record (which is on-line), comparing committees that made the change and combined authorization and appropriation functions, and committees that did not. In addition, the examination could cover the period of time several years before and after the changes in committee responsibilities. Some metrics to examine would include legislation introduced; public laws enacted and landmark, timeliness of appropriations, and a measure of altered appropriation bill content, such riders.
Time Commitment/Credit Hours: 4-6 hours per week (beginning Summer 2015); 2 credit option
Contact email: skasdin@gwu.edu
To Apply: Email a resume with major and a writing sample to the above address.
Strategic Behavior by Federal Agencies in the Allocation of Public Resources [Research Assistantship]
Department: Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration
Professor Stuart Kasdin
Description: Our project examines how federal agencies respond when there is a change in the partisan control of Congress. Do government agencies allocate program resources so as to best accomplish program goals, without regard to the political party affiliations of those in Congress? Or, perhaps they favor districts represented by the President’s party, or favor any districts whose congressional representatives are positioned to support the agency. Also, across government do federal agencies react differently, responding with varied strategies to a changing political environment?
We will examine the role of government agencies in resource allocation choices, focusing on how federal government agencies responded to the 1994 election, when control of Congress shifted from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party. In particular we will focus on the impact of the election on the agencies’ allocations of contracts. Do they respond to the election by allocating more contract resources to Republican districts?
Tasks: The student would do several things revolving primarily around data preparation. First, in a spreadsheet we need to determine the partisan affiliations of legislators in office in 1993 and in 1995. Next we need to get the data on contracts for a set of agencies. All of this data is available on-line. Subsequent data analysis will depend on the student’s quantitative background.
Time Commitment/ Credit Hour: 3 hours per week; 2 credit option
To Apply: Email a resume and relevant experience to skasdin@gwu.edu
Christian Zionism in American Thought [Research Assistantship]
Department: Political Science
Professor Samuel Goldman
The Project: This project is an attempt to understand why American Christians have historically expressed such strong support for the idea of a Jewish state in some portion of the Biblical promised land. Focusing on public arguments in books, pamphlets, and sermons, it traces the discourse of Christian Zionism from the Puritans to the present day. I pay special attention to claims that the United States has a special role to play in establishing/supporting such a state. According to Christian Zionists, how is America’s destiny intertwined with Israel’s?
Tasks: The research assistant will help with the following tasks:
1) Locating and collecting primary sources in internet and library searches.
2) Verifying quotes and citations.
3) Proofreading manuscripts.
Time Commitment/ Credits: 1-3 hours per week; 1 credit
Contact Email: swgoldman@gwu.edu
To Apply: Applicants should send an unofficial transcript and a short statement indicating their background for or interest in this project, as well as any prior research experience.
You are invited to a Panel Discussion on the Legacy of the Cold War with Prof. Christov
Before/After is a multimedia portrait of the transformation of East-Central Europe told by the people who made it happen. Through words, pictures, video, and music, it tells the story of the people who chipped away at the Iron Curtain, tore down the Berlin Wall in 1989, and tried to realize their hopes and dreams in the decades that followed.
More details are available here.
My Relationship with the UHP – Four Years Strong
As a graduating senior, I reflect upon my time at GW and the UHP with nostalgia and the clarity of hindsight. I raise my foot for the impending step into adulthood, and I remember the UHP fondly and with love (and hope it remembers me, too).
To the Classes of 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019. Take advantage of the UHP – for the mental challenge, the warm hug of community, and the Cheers-like atmosphere where everybody knows your name.
Behold, our Beloved Townhouse. Holy Fountain of Coffee and Hot Chocolate. Righteous Bearer of Snacks.
Over the past four years, I’ve spent countless hours as a Student Staffer, Student Peer Adviser, and just plain Student, dependent on this place for the community it fosters. I came to the UHP for the academics – but I stayed for the community. We take classes in this building (if we’re lucky), and this is where the magic of friendships, advising, and pumpkin carving takes place. The Townhouse is our bubble that is exclusive, but at the same time, endlessly welcoming.
Let’s backtrack to writing the Common App in 2010 (WHOA), passively writing my Honors essay, not actually understanding it had a curriculum (shame on me). Fast forward to Fall 2011, when, on Thanksgiving Day, I cried on the phone with Eyal, asking for an extension on my draft term paper. Months later, I interviewed to be a Student Peer Adviser and ended up being hired also as a Student Staffer. By May, I was in love. This relationship was for real. My eventual departure had not even crossed my mind. Through Honors, I gained research experience, work experience, failure experience, and decision-making experience, all with a comfy safety net below me.
Many people speak about Origins and Evolution of Modern Thought as the fundamental Honors experience – and in its exposure to Honors expectations, it is. But Senior Fall, during my Senior Capstone with famed Faculty in Residence/Tall Outdoorsy Professor Mark Ralkowski, I sat back in my comfy, ripped Club Room chair and observed around the table all of my friends, fellow seniors, in class discussion debating, having read a long, dense article for a Pass/Fail class. These were kindred people to me. We grew up together, in a way. This is what I had worked towards. I worked to appreciate this discussion, these people, and this community. This is not just the Capstone, but also the Cornerstone experience that sheds light on my four years here.
Today is April 30, 2015. I’ve attended my last InsideGW session with prospectives, and my last Student-Faculty dinner. I gave my token speeches on how much I hated physics but loved class with Bethany Kung, and how I wish William, Catherine’s three year old, was actually my son. I’ve started to say goodbye. And I hope that all students behind me recognize this potential for this community to be sharply defining. I didn’t love every minute, but I loved all four years.
This is the sappy part where I say Thank You, and undoubtedly where many of you will stop reading (it’s okay, you’ve made it pretty far).
To my fellow Students – Thank you for putting up with me in class, and at least trying to understand me before disagreeing vehemently.
To my Professors – Thank you for your dedication to the program and to me. I owe you all baked goods.
To Eydie – Thank you for being my Mama Bear, and for not judging me too hard when I struggled with locking doors and silly things like that.
To Catherine – Thank you for sharing your son, laughing at my jokes, and making me feel like one in a million, even amongst the thousands of students you care for. All of the applause for you and your award.
To Alex and Mary – We don’t have much time left to get to know each other in the Townhouse, but best of luck, and hopefully we stay friends!
TODAY IS APRIL 30TH
And we all know that means tomorrow….
UHP Research Showcase This Thursday!
Join #TeamUHP this Thursday to celebrate the research of your peers at the University Honors Program Research Showcase!
Enjoy brief, casual talks and ask questions this Thursday, April 30th from 1pm to 3pm in the Club Room of the Honors Townhouse. Let your fellow UHPers know how proud we are of their dedication and willingness to take a risk in order to contribute and disseminate original work as active scholars! It’s going to be beautiful.
The Eckles Prize for Freshman Research Excellence
If you’re a freshman who likes free money, I highly encourage you to keep reading.
The Eckles Prize for Freshman Research is an annual prize recognizing students who produce a research project in their freshman year that demonstrates significant and meaningful use of library services and collections at the George Washington University.
First year students are encouraged to submit a research project of any length or format, along with an essay summarizing how they used library resources to complete the project. Students should submit the one project that reflects their best work of the year. Prizes will be awarded for the top 3 submissions:
- 1st Place: $500
- 2nd Place: $300
- 3rd Place: $200
Deadline to Apply: The application deadline for the 2014-’15 academic year is Friday, May 15. Click here for more info.
