Internship Opportunities
AMERICAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION (APSA) POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT
POSITION TITLE: Data Science Internship in APSA Research
COMPENSATION: $20/hour (undergraduates); $25/hour (graduates), 20 hours in the academic year or 35 hours in the summer
REQUIRED EDUCATION: BA in Economics, Computer Science, Mathematics, Data Science, or methodsintensive political science or related other social science degree; acceptance into an advanced degree program in political science or related other social science discipline with data science component
REQUIRED EXPERIENCE: none
POSITION DESCRIPTION
The American Political Science Association’s data science internship program is an opportunity for upper-level undergraduates, or for graduate students, to be fully immersed in APSA’s work to streamline data analytics and to centralize data resources for the Association’s Research Department to enhance research on the profession of political science.
Applicants should be curious and eager to learn about data science skills as they apply to political science as a profession to intern at APSA. The internship will put individuals at the center of American politics in Washington, D.C., of the political science discipline, and of APSA’s membership, and is a great opportunity to enact positive change for members and the profession through supporting work for datadriven insights and evidence-based policies and decision-making for the profession. Over the next three years, a central goal of the Association is to increase engagement with and support for a diverse collection of members from a variety of backgrounds, areas of scholarly specialty and institution types. Thus, strong candidates will have experience working with diverse populations, research experience with or knowledge of diverse populations, and will provide evidence of being committed to furthering a climate of inclusivity and collaboration.
Applicants located in Washington, D.C., or with the possibility of relocation to Washington, D.C. temporarily, to work in APSA’s offices in DuPont Circle are highly desirable. Applicants with the ability to start immediately or by November 1st are highly desirable, students should expect a commitment of at least one semester, so a Winter-Spring semester start date (second or third week of January) or a summer start date are also possible.
ESSENTIAL SKILLS & EXPERIENCE
- A creative, detail-oriented individual;
- Ability to work both within a team and to take initiative;
- Ability to keep on task/ deadline;
- Basic knowledge of survey methodology;
- Basic knowledge of statistical analysis of structured data (e.g. data gathered from surveys, or data gathered from administrative records);
- Experience with programming in the R statistical environment, Python, or other relevant programming language;
- Interest in computational social science;
- Interest in/ experience with statistical analysis of unstructured data, in particular, with text data;
- Interest in/ experience with program evaluation or policy analysis;
- Interest in/ experience with study of labor markets, and/or micro- or macro-economics