Tag: AY1617

Department: International Affairs
Professor Catherine Woytowicz
Project Description: I am looking to hire a GTA or PWP (undergraduate teaching assistant) for my spring course – Science, Technology and Policy (IAFF2190W). This is a practical, but nontraditional class played like a White House briefing team.  We interview and brief experts in many fields.  We write talking points, policy briefs, op eds, and briefing books.
Duties: The duties are primarily to help students use critical thinking to write about science and public policy issues.  The course duties take about 10hrs/week and may include:
* attend class (7 – 10pm Thursday nights)
* hold 2 office hours/week (not on Thursdays)
* maintain experts database for student interviews and
call Society, NGO, industrial, military, and academic contacts
* help manage speakers/experts
* assist with protocol reception
* receive mentoring from Dr. Woytowicz based on goals
The selected candidate will be required to attend a welcome dinner with the previous teaching assistant cadre at a date when all can attend.  Former PWPs now work at the White House, CSIS, on the Hill, and for private firms.  We keep in close contact – even after graduation.  This is a great opportunity for those interested in science policy, teaching, or staff work.
Time Commitment/Compensation:  7-9 hours per week (average); $1125 PWP (based on 20 student cap)
To Apply: Submit the following items to drcat@gwu.edu by 5pm on Friday, 23 September:
* a cover letter of up to two single-spaced pages that clearly notes your year and major, why you want the position, what you would like out of the position, and your general career goals
* a resume (this can be informal)
* a writing sample of up to one single-spaced page on any science policy issue answering the question “Why is this issue important to the United States?”
* a statement of up to one single-spaced page on a notional mentoring goal (writing, briefing, teaching, etc) you would want to do

Department: University Writing
Professor Mark Mullen
Project Description: What is interesting about this project?
While the Lanphear story is not, ultimately, a very happy one, the letters themselves are a lot of fun to read.  There is humor, no shortage of family drama (no one seems to have liked Reuben’s second wife at all, for example) and each of the family members emerges as a distinct character in the ongoing story.  A key element of this project is that I am transcribing their letters as written, leaving all grammatical and punctuation idiosyncrasies intact. If you are at all interested in the richness of language, or in learning how ordinary working class people in the nineteenth century actually spoke and wrote you will enjoy working on this project.
Duties: The Research Assistant would be responsible for:
a) checking the accuracy of existing transcriptions
b) offering their own suggestions for particularly difficult instances of handwriting interpretation
c) identifying terminology, events, or references that would need further explanation for a general audience
If the RA has an a research project that he or she is currently working on that would be a good fit with this project we could talk about additional research work.  While I haven’t selected the “for credit” option I would be open to changing that depending on the needs and interests of the RA.
Time Commitment/Credits: 1-3 hours per week (average); 0 credits
To Apply: Submit Cover Letter/Resume to: ishmael@gwu.edu

Department: Physics
Professor Weiqun Peng
Project Description: Recent revolution in genome technology has ushered us in an era of high-quality high-throughput quantitative genomics data, opening up new dimensions in the understanding of biological systems. My group employs data-driven approaches (data mining, machine-learning) to study genomic and epigenomic regulation of gene expression, working closely with leading experimental groups in the respective fields. This project aims to characterize the biological significance of intron retention, one of the key forms of alternative splicing in eukaryotes, in gene regulation and cellular function. Our preliminary work in human CD4+ T cells demonstrated that regulated intron retention coupled with mRNA degradation might serve as a novel post-transcriptional regulatory mechanism underlying T cell activation. In this project, we will 1) explore intron retention-mediated regulation across diverse immune cell types and in human cancer; 2) characterize the molecular mechanism underlying intron retention at the sequence, epigenetic and network level; 3) examine how regulated intron retention coordinates with other regulatory modes to achieve expression robustness and plasticity.
Duties: Seeking motivated students who are enthusiastic about learning and cutting-edge research. Strong programming skill is necessary. Knowledge in biology is a big plus. Duty involves 1) Tailor and apply existing code to large functional genomics data sets 2) Develop novel analysis tools for genomics research
Time Commitment/Credits: 7-9 hours per week; 3 credits
To Apply: Send cover letter and resume to wpeng@gwu.edu

Department: Mathematics
Professor Jozef Przytycki
Project Description:  Knot Theory is a discipline of modern mathematics, part of topology (geometria situs). Student(s) will assist me with editing programing and doing research in Knot
Theory.

Duties: Students under my supervision will be involved in tasks as below:
1. Student would assist in preparing/editing research paper for arXiv submission (and eventual publication). Student has to learn LaTeX and how to draw figures in xfig or other similar program.
2. Many invariants of graphs and knots require pattern testing which require to write simple (or not that simple) programs. Also programs are needed to analyze simple algebraic structures related to knots.
I assume student would assist me 4-6 hours a week (2 credit) but I am flexible, so more, or less is possible.

Time Commitment/Credits: 4-6 hours per week (average); 2 credits
To Apply: Submit Cover Letter/Resume to przytyck@gwu.edu

Department: Psychology
Professor Jody Ganiban
Project Description: The Boston University Twin Project (BUTP) is a multi-method, multi-situation, longitudinal study of early child temperament and related behaviors. The first phase of this project focused primarily on activity level and comprised over 300 twin pairs assessed in the home and lab at ages 2 and 3. Subject recruitment, sample characteristics, and study procedures are described. A second phase broadens our focus to the development of multiple temperament dimensions and developmental outcomes in a new cohort of 300 twin pairs to be assessed at 3, 4, and 5 years of age.
Duties: Research assistants will be involved in the collection of data through analysis of videos of parent-child dyadic interactions. Each RA will be assigned videos weekly to code. Much of the work would be done independently and on the research assistant’s schedule. One hour each week would be dedicated to a meeting with other research assistants and the supervisor in order to discuss anomalies in videos and necessary modifications to the coding manual and procedures.
Time Commitment/Credits: 7-9 hours per week; 3 credits
To Apply: Submit your cover letter and resume to ganiban@gwu.edu

Department: Political Science
Professor Alasdair Bowie
Project Description: This is a chapter in a larger book manuscript on the role of local (provincial, district) governments in the contemporary economic development of Vietnam and Indonesia. I have a completed draft of this chapter which relies primarily upon field research and data on two provinces of the Red River Delta, collected while I was a Fulbright research scholar in Vietnam in 2011. I welcome help finding sources to update and supplement statistical and empirical data in the chapter. I also hope to supplement the treatment of the two provinces with some brief, thumbnail treatments of 2-3 other provinces in this region of Vietnam.
Duties: I seek an undergraduate RA with experience of writing research papers in disciplines such as political science, international affairs or history (to name but a few). She/he should possess well developed abilities to use the databases available through the Gelman Library website to identify and access statistical and empirical data. She/he should also be a self-motivated and indefatigable searcher for scholarly and authoritative sources online. Her/his tasks will involve helping me find sources to update and supplement
statistical and empirical data in the chapter. I also hope to she/he will help me supplement the treatment of the two provinces that are the focus of the existing chapter draft with some brief, thumbnail treatments of 2-3 other provinces located in this northern region of Vietnam. The student need not be familiar with Vietnam or have any knowledge of the Vietnamese language. However, she/he should be innovative in using Google Translate (or other online tools) to navigate sites that are primarily in Vietnamese and to find comparable English-language sources where available. Although the student should undertake the required research in her/his own time, and the primary method of reporting on her/his research will be by email, I would expect to meet with the student to discuss in person reports and updates on Tuesday afternoons in my office for 20-30 minutes between 1:00 and 3:30, initially on a weekly basis (perhaps less frequently as the semester goes on). The student would need to be available at some time during this window.
Time Commitment/Credits: 7-9 hours per week (average); 3 credits
To Apply: Submit Cover Letter/Resume to abowie@gwu.edu

Department: Professor of Human Origins
Professor Bernard Wood
Project Description: There is no comprehensive inventory of museum collections of great (chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, orangutans) and lesser (gibbons and siamangs) apes. The student would work on-line and with me at the Library of Congress chasing up publications that relate to the major ape skeletal collections in natural history museums around the world. We are especially interested in the history of each collection. Where did the animals come from? Who collected them and why? The goal is to present this research as a Chapter in a book called “Primates in History” to be published by Taylor and Francis. A previous Honors RA was an author of this 2013 publication that focuses on one collection of great apes at the Powell-Cotton Museum in the UK. ‘Great Ape Skeletal Collections: Making the Most of Scarce and Irreplaceable Resources in the Digital Age.’ Gordon, Adam D., Marcus, Emily and Wood, Bernard. Am. J. phys. Anthropol., 57: 2-32. doi: 10.1002/ajpa.22391
Duties: The student would work on-line and with me at the Library of Congress chasing up publications that relate to the major ape skeletal collections in natural history museums around the world. The student would also be involved in collating this information and writing the chapter.
Time Commitment/Credits: 4-6 hours per week; 2 credits
To Apply: Send your cover letter and resume to bwood@gwu.edu

Department: Sociology
Professor Ivy Ken
Project Description: The school feeding program in Chile is dominated by companies that import and distribute the food. The Chilean government brokers deals with these companies to ensure that all children in public schools are fed. As part of an ongoing research project, this semester I will investigate and
document the changes that have occurred in this program over the last six months, including updated nutrition standards, new contracting practices, and increased attention to local producers in the supply chain.
The goal of the larger research project is to understand what structural practices within school feeding programs contribute to the health and well-being of a population by prioritizing children’s access to whole, unprocessed, nutritious foods. This requires attention to the inequalities perpetuated by current practices, and specifically in this project, a comparison of Chile’s system to school feeding programs in the US and Brazil.
Duties: This position requires fluency in Spanish.  The Research Assistant will search for and work through Spanish-language documents produced by the government in addition to labor union materials and media reports.  The RA
will meet with me weekly to discuss these materials and to analyze them collaboratively within the context of the larger goals of the research project.  This will require the student to become familiar with the political-economic situation of contemporary Chile and with the current dilemmas of school feeding programs cross-nationally.
Time Commitment/Credits: 7-9 hours per week (average); 3 credits
To Apply: Submit Cover Letter/Resume to ivyken@gwu.edu