SpokenWeb Undergraduate Research Assistant Position
Position Title: SpokenWeb Research Assistant
Academic Level: Undergraduate
Location: AMP Lab (Fipke 251) or remote
Contract term: Summer semester (June 1 to August 31 2022, or until project is complete)
Wages: 12 to 20 hours per week at $18/hour
Application Deadline: Interested applicants should send a CV / resume and short cover letter describing their qualifications, experience, and interest in the position by May 20th to karis.shearer@ubc.ca with the subject line: SpokenWeb URA application
Interested in Canadian literature and archives? SpokenWeb is offering an undergraduate student at UBC (Vancouver or Okanagan campuses) the exciting opportunity to join the team at the AMP Lab for a summer research assistantship! SpokenWeb is a SSHRC-funded research project with partners across Canada, which collaboratively explores ways of preserving, sharing, and creatively and critically engaging with archives of literary sound recordings. SpokenWeb’s branch at UBCO, led by Dr. Karis Shearer, is part of the AMP Lab, which houses and supports a variety of digital humanities-based research projects.
Job Description:
This position is project based. The RA will be tasked with locating the archival fonds of a predetermined list of 20th- / 21st-century Canadian writers and collecting data regarding restrictions of access on materials in their collections. The goal of this project is to chart existing precedent for archival restrictions in personal papers of living or recently deceased authors represented in literary archives across Canada. The RA will be responsible for the following tasks:
-Search for and possibly contact archival repositories for finding aids
-Search finding aids for scope and rationales of restrictions
-Research authors’ biographical information
-Enter findings into data spreadsheet
-Attend bi-weekly SpokenWeb team meetings
Qualifications:
The RA will be supervised by Dr. Karis Shearer and mentored by a team of graduate research assistants on the SpokenWeb project at UBC (Okanagan). We are looking for a student who has a background in literary study (preferably but not necessarily Canadian literature) and an interest in archives. The successful candidate will have an attention to detail, be adept at professional communication, and will ideally have done research in archives and/or attended archival training workshops, although the latter is not required. Paid training and orientation will be provided. Applicants must be enrolled in an undergraduate degree at one of the UBC campuses.