Short Term Data Science RA – Center for Information, Technology & Public Life

Prof. Alice Marwick is looking for someone with experience in data science / computational social science to work as an hourly research assistant for a month or so, starting ideally in March 2020. This person would be working with large data sets from social media sites like Parler, Gab, 4chan/8chan. These are pre-existing datasets gathered by other researchers and made publicly available. Duties include downloading and hosting the datasets, querying them for relevant keywords, extracting sub-sets of data, cleaning the data, and transforming it into usable formats for qualitative analysis.

Requires proficiency in Python or R and experience working with large social datasets. Prefer someone who has experience working with non-computer scientists. Because the datasets may expose the researcher to extremist or hateful content, we would prefer someone with some experience working with disinformation or hyper-partisan content but that is not a requirement.

Undergrad or graduate level, position is paid. Major is not important as long as you have the experience.

Please send CV/resume and a brief informal cover letter stating your interest and experience to Dr. Marwick via email.

Dr. Marwick is a Principal Researcher and co-founder of the Center for Information, Technology & Public Life at UNC, which examines the impact of emerging technologies on democracy and the public. Her project “Redpills & Radicalization” critically examines how people come to believe extremist and fringe positions they encounter on social media. The project is funded by a 2020 Andrew Carnegie Fellowship.