Research Assistant

We are seeking a Research Assistance to provide specialized research assistance to Professor Angie Bautista-Chavez, including but not limited to the compilation of bibliographies, summarization and annotation of secondary sources, and analysis of primary-source materials.

Specifically, this Research Assistant will work on a research project co-led by Professors Bautista-Chavez and Dr. LaGina Gause, examining how state, private, and civic organizations have co-evolved in the digitally enhanced political environment of the twenty-first century. This research will produce a publication for the Annual Review of Political Science.

Political Organizing Amid Evolving Digital Landscapes. Contesting and Reinforcing Distributions of Power in the United States.

Political science research has explored how the internet alters the dynamics of political engagement (Bennet and Segerberg 2013; Earl and Kimport 2011; Katz-Kimchi and Manosevitch 2015; Tufekci 2017; Gause 2022). With the evolution of digital technologies, there has been a decentralization and democratization of many formal and informal organizations. Further, virtual spaces lower participation costs and enable individuals and groups to regularly express their preferences and attitudes. Indigenous nations and communities have leveraged digital technologies to promote sovereignty movements (Thumbadoo and Taylor 2022). Black communities have engaged digital technologies to highlight the joys and tribulations that arise from their lived experiences (Woodly 2022) and make visible the experiences of Black immigrants and Black asylum seekers (see Black Alliance for Just Immigration). Virtual spaces, however, are also sites of misinformation (Lajevardi, Oskooii, and Walker 2022), and digital technologies facilitate state surveillance, often of racialized groups framed as a threat (Char Lpez 2024). Latinos and Latinx migrants are the direct targets of surveillance innovations (Muiz 2022; Villa-Nicholas 2023;), and American Muslims experience heightened forms of surveillance from state and private citizens (Al-Faham 2021). This review engages the following questions: How have state, private, and civic organizations evolved in the digitally enhanced political environment? How does the evolving digital landscape create challenges and opportunities for marginalized communities hampered by traditional media outlets? This review will draw on lessons from organizing during the 2020 pandemic and the multiplicity of organizing among Indigenous peoples, Black and African Americans, Latinos and Latinx migrants, Asian Americans, and American Muslims.

Specific Duties & Responsibilities

• Identify secondary literature related to project topic. Literature must be drawn from the discipline of political science or related social science and humanities fields.
• Organize secondary literature in shared Zotero library.
• Read and summarize literature using literature review template provided by Principal Investigators (Professor Angie Bautista-Chavez and Professor LaGina Gause).
• Identify, organize, and annotate primary materials related to project.
• Coordinate with team RAs to set up weekly workflow goals and a support/ accountability system.
• Attend monthly check-in meetings with Professor Bautista-Chavez and Professor LaGina Gause.

Special Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Experience with Zotero.
• Excellent written and oral skills and the ability to communicate effectively are essential, strong organizational, administrative, project management, and problem-solving skills.
• Knowledge of current and historical political organizing and political capacities among racialized communities across the United States, as well as of existing scholarly literatures on these subjects.
• Experience finding, organizing, reading, and analyzing primary and secondary source documents regarding political organizations, collective action, and informal collectives among racialized communities.

• Bachelor's Degree in a related discipline.
• Additional related experience may substitute for required education, to the extent permitted by the JHU equivalency formula.

• Master's Degree.
• Significant previous research experience.

Classified Title: Research Assistant
Role/Level/Range: ACRO40/E/03/CD
Starting Salary Range: $17.20 - $30.30 HRLY (Commensurate with experience)
Employee group: Casual / On Call
Schedule: Monday - Friday / 5-10 hours per week
Exempt Status:Non-Exempt
Location:Remote
Department name: Political Science
Personnel area: School of Arts & Sciences