Past Opportunities

Kraemer Scholarship for Study or Research in the British Isles

Each year, the Charles Center’s Kraemer Scholarship provides funds to one or more students to spend a minimum of five full-time weeks studying or conducting research in the British Isles. The student award is $2,500. Any undergraduate who is not graduating before December 2017 is eligible to apply. The application deadline is noon on February 28, 2017. Please see this page for details. Select “Kraemer Scholarship” from the drop down menu on the main application page.


Opportunity for Current Juniors: Honors Fellowships

If you are a current junior thinking about writing an honors thesis, check out the Honors Fellowships as a way of funding your research. Student applications are due to the Charles Center on February 28, 2017, right before spring break.  Students must identify their advisor and topic, and complete the departmental approval process, by that time.

A full Honors Fellowship is $6,000, which includes $4,000 for the student’s summer grant, $1,000 for project costs, and $1,000 in research funds for the faculty advisers. Further information about the Honors Fellowships program, and about each of the current and past Honors Fellows, can be found on the program’s website, at http://honorsfellowships.wm.edu.


Course Offering: GOVT 391: Mixed Methods for the Study of Conflict Development, taught by Professor Philip Roessler

If you’re interested in understanding the causes of civil war, democratization, poverty and social inequality, check out this course. Students will learn and apply important methodological techniques for social science inquiry with special emphasis on studying conflict and development outcomes.

This course will be especially valuable for students planning to write an honors thesis or planning to conduct research over the summer and want to get a head start on developing a research design. In addition, students with a substantive focus on conflict and development will find the course of great interest as we read some of the latest cutting-edge research on the subject.


Apply to Intern for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), an organization dedicated to protecting civil liberties on college campuses, is looking for rising sophomores, juniors, and seniors to apply for their Summer 2017 internship positions. Interns will work at FIRE’s downtown Philadelphia office from Monday, June 5 through Friday, July 28 and will receive a stipend of $2,800. Interns will work closely with FIRE’s Campus Outreach, Defense, Policy Reform, Development, Litigation, and Media teams and will gain key insights into the organization’s mission, work, and administration. Direct any questions or inquiries to internships@thefire.org. Decisions are rolling. Check out the application here.


Paid Summer Fellowships for Current Juniors at Carnegie Mellon University

Carnergie Mellon Unversity is offering the chance to apply to a summer fellowship hosted by CMU’s Heinz College:  IT Lab: Summer Security Intensive (SSI). This program is a 7-week in-residence experience and feature specialized courses taught by CMU faculty. Fellows earn CMU academic credit for coursework (eligible for transfer to home institution) and receive a $1,000 stipend plus the costs of housing, meals, books, supplies, social functions, and travel expenses to and from Pittsburgh. Fellows will also get a scholarship of at least 50% of graduate school tuition, if they are admitted to and enroll in a master’s program at Heinz College. To learn more, please visit the websites for the program hyperlinked above or check out the flyer: IT Lab: SSI.


SSRMC Science Writer and Technical Director Interns

Science Writer Intern

The SSRMC science writers generate and disseminate information about the SSRMC to the broader public. They work closely with Professors Settle and Holmes, student members of the SSRMC, faculty members of the SSRMC, and other members of the University community to solicit story ideas and write content for the SSRMC. Science writers will write both short and long-form content, both in online and traditional media formats.

Web Developer Intern

The Web Developer is responsible for maintaining websites and providing technical support to members of the SSRMC community. The web developer will work closely with Professors Settle and Holmes, student members of the SSRMC, faculty members of the SSRMC, and other affiliates of the SSRMC to ensure that the website accurately reflects developments, such as speaking events and research updates.

The deadline to apply has been extended, and the preferred start date is February 2017If any of these positions sound interesting to you, please visit the Tribe Careers site for more information (click here for the Science Writer Position and here for the Web Developer position)—there are several parts to each application. Contact Professor Jaime Settle (jsettle@wm.edu) or Professor Marcus Holmes (mholmes@wm.edu) with questions.


Rountable Discussion of Polling in the 2016 Election

If you’re interested in learning more about polling and forecasting during the 2016 presidential election cycle, check out Rice University’s roundtable webcast on the topic this Friday at 12 PM EST. Roundtable guests include Natalie Jackson, Senior Polling Editor at the Huffington Post, Alan Abramowitz, Alben W. Barkley Professor of Political Science at Emory University, Hans Noel, Associate Professor of Political Science at Georgetown, and Robert Stein, Lena Gohlman Fox Professor of Political Science at Rice. The roundtable will be broadcast here using the Zoom platform, which is free to use and works on PCs, Macs, and iOS and Android tablets and phones.


Webinar: Improve Your Regression with CART and RandomForests

If you’re interested in or conducting quantitative social science, check out Salford System’s webinar on the fundamentals of tree-based machine learning algorithms and how to easily fine tune and improve your Random Forest regression models. The seminar will take place from 10 to 11 AM PST/1 PM EST on Thursday, January 26th. Find out more and register to receive a recording of the webinar here


Apply to the Ralph Bunch Summer Institute

Are you a minority student interested in political science? Check out the American Political Science Foundation’s Ralph Bunch Summer Institute! Located at Duke University, RBSI aims to help students from underrepresented backgrounds gain experience in the field of political science. Applicants must be college juniors who are either members of a racial or ethnic minority group or are interested in broadening participation in political science and pursuing scholarship on issues affecting under-represented groups. To apply, students must submit the 2017 APSA RBSI Program Application, an official transcript, and three letters of recommendation (one from the Government department chair, and two more from other people who are familiar with the applicant’s academic qualifications). Check out the RBSI page for more details.

Submit to the Pi Sigma Alpha Journal of Politics

The Pi Sigma Alpha Undergraduate Journal of Politics Editorial Board is calling for undergraduate students to submit their original research to the Journal. Undergraduates should consider submitting research that they have completed in senior seminars, capstone courses, and methods courses. Honor theses are also welcome, as long as they are under 35, double-spaced pages. Previous issues are available online: http://www.psajournal.org/   Submission deadlines are October 1 for the Fall issue and February 1 for the Spring issue. Manuscripts should be submitted via email here: psajournalou@gmail.com


Columbia University’s Call for Papers

Columbia University’s Journal of Politics and Society is currently accepting student papers for publication in its Fall 2017 edition. The Journal publishes work in the social sciences and history, and is distributed nationally among academics on EBSCO, Google Scholar, and the Library of Congress. In its 28th year of publication, the Journal features exclusively undergraduate work on political and social issues. It currently is seeking outstanding student research papers from seminars, upper-level electives, independent study and thesis programs. All submissions will be considered, but papers of 20-50 pages are preferred. The deadline for student paper submissions is January 8, 2017. To download a Call for Papers PDF, visit: http://www.helvidius.org/cfpTo learn more about the organization or to view past editions of the Journal, visit www.helvidius.org.