CSAP Predoc: American Politics and Political Methodology
This position is part of The Center for the Study of American Politics (CSAP) Pre-Doctoral Fellows Program, which is affiliated with the Tobin Center/Economics Pre-Doctoral Fellows Program. The CSAP predoc program provides a high-quality education and training in quantitative political science research for individuals who are considering pursuing a Ph.D. in political science or a closely related discipline. CSAP predocs are invited to participate in all Tobin Center predoc activities. Information about the CSAP predoc program is available at this link.
FACULTY SUPERVISOR(S):
Melody Huang and Mellissa Meisels
Project and Position Description:
We are searching for a pre-doctoral researcher to work on research projects in the areas of American politics and political methodology. The pre-doctoral researcher will work with Dr. Mellissa Meisels (Political Science) on projects related to congressional campaigns and money in politics, and Dr. Melody Huang (Political Science, Statistics and Data Science) on projects related to causal inference and explaining treatment effect heterogeneity.
Dr. Meisels’ projects will investigate questions related to the campaign platforms adopted by candidates for the U.S. House (especially during primary elections) and how donors, interest groups, and voters respond to candidates' ideological positioning and issue attention. This research relies on large-scale, transaction-level campaign contribution data, campaign platform text from websites, original survey data, and more. The pre-doctoral researcher will be involved in the collection, cleaning, and extension of these various data sources.
Dr. Huang’s projects will focus on identifying drivers of treatment effect variation, with a particular focus on estimating different subgroups of individuals who may benefit more or less from receiving certain interventions. The pre-doctoral researcher will be involved in collecting and cleaning data from recent experimental studies in political science. Furthermore, the pre-doctoral researcher will aid in creating software, tutorials, and Shiny applications to help implement novel statistical methods in practice.
Specific tasks include:
· Manual and automated collection of data from online sources
· Cleaning and merging data using the statistical language R
· Programing surveys in Qualtrics
· Preparing detailed documentation
· Developing R packages and Shiny applications
Requisite Skill and Qualifications:
We seek a highly motivated individual with a strong quantitative background and programming experience. The ideal candidate will have interests in American politics and applied quantitative research; and be able to work independently.
We strongly encourage applicants from diverse backgrounds, particularly women, people of color, and other marginalized communities that have historically been underrepresented.
Proficiency in R is required.
Special Application Instructions:
Please submit a sample of code you have written with your application.