Associate Research Scholar (Brown Institute)

The Brown Institute is a unique, bi-coastal partnership between Columbia Journalism School (CJS) and Stanford's School of Engineering. It was founded with a gift from Helen Gurley Brown (HGB) in 2012, and offers grants and development support for original work crossing journalism, media and technology. Each year, the Columbia and Stanford sides of the institute together award over $1M to help teams "follow their passions and experiment with new approaches to storytelling," to paraphrase Gurley Brown. In the last 10 years, it has funded over 100 projects, supporting nearly 250 people. Some of these grants produced innovative works of journalism, others developed platforms to assist with creativity, and still others explored entirely new forms of expression. In the last decade, the Columbia side of the institute on its own has grown into a $1.5M/year enterprise.

The Brown Institute is seeking an Associate Research Scholar - someone with a history of "creative research" that expands on traditional forms of journalism and media production, but who also wants to collaborate with institute grantees, as well as CJS students and alumni, inspiring new entrepreneurs working at the intersection of tech and media. The person should have a firm grounding in practicalities (be fluent in at least one programming language, have a history of learning new technological platforms, and have a general curiosity about how technology might shape narrative), and be able to lead their own creative research projects (seek out their own unique stories and explore the use of technology in journalism).

This position reports to the Director of the Columbia side of the institute. In addition to their creative practice, they will work with the Director and Brown Institute staff to aid grantees in identifying resources they may require, including professional development, guidance on interdisciplinary collaborations, and access to other creative professionals either from CJS, Columbia, Stanford or media and tech outlets in New York City and the Bay Area. There will be a particular emphasis on helping grantees think through the sustainability, impact and scalability of their projects. Brown also offers a mix of seminars, panels and informal workshops, all attempting to spark creativity in the application of technology to journalism. The Associate Research Scholar, as Creative technologist, should be able to help nurture these kinds of events and be excited by coming up with new directions for Brown - the institute will help support these new efforts through various kinds of seed funding.

This position will be appointed for up to 12 months, renewal contingent on performance and the continued availability of funding.

Education:

Bachelor's Degree required. Advanced degree preferred.

Experience:

Experience applying technology in a creative field. Some teaching experience is also desirable but not a requirement.

Other Skills:

Has the ability to work easily with teams of journalists and other members of the Brown Institute and the CJS community, helping to introduce new forms of technology into their storytelling.

Fluency in at least one programming language.

Well-versed and knowledgeable in design processes and has the technical abilities to produce prototypes of new story forms - helping to bring creative ideas to life.

Should be familiar with current technological innovations in one or more of the following areas: AR/VR, visualization, physical computing, app development, game design, general data and computer science, and computational media.

An appreciation for the power of a good story and the ability to experiment with the technical means of its production are key.

Columbia University is an Equal Opportunity Employer / Disability / Veteran

Pay Transparency Disclosure

The salary of the finalist selected for this role will be set based on a variety of factors, including but not limited to departmental budgets, qualifications, experience, education, licenses, specialty, and training. The above hiring range represents the University's good faith and reasonable estimate of the range of possible compensation at the time of posting.