Research Assistantships/Internships etc.

[antecedent]

Hi everyone,

 

I'll be applying for PhD programs next fall, but while I do that I would like to stay plugged in to academia in some way. My prof recommended a research assistantship, and suggested a mailing list to join, but I'd like to find other options. I already subscribe to LinguistList, does anyone know of any other databases/mailing lists that would have this kind of information?

 

Also, is it ever acceptable to email a professor from a school in my city that I don't attend and ask if they need a research assistant? I feel like that's kind of forward, but who knows. 

 

Thanks!

[fuzzylogician]

I don't know about the former question but I think the latter is perfectly fine. If it's in your city I would actually recommend doing everything face to face - get a meeting to talk about your interests, and ask about RA possibilities then. It will help increase your chances of getting hired if the professor knows you and your work, so you may want to either give the professor a paper of yours to read or else discuss your interests with them at a meeting. Once you've established yourself as a serious student and mentioned your PhD plans, you should have an easier time getting serious attention from the professor when it comes to research opportunities.

[mylime]

Yes, it's totally appropriate to email around. I'd suggesting emailing organizations and non-profits that are related to your research as well. I emailed a ton, with resume attached, and from that this summer I'm going to help out at a nonprofit related to my interests (it's unpaid, but should be a good learning experience).

[funchaku]

If you are interested in doing experimental work, there are typically people in Psychology departments doing language-related work. You might have an easier time finding paid RAships/Lab Manager positions in Psychology than Linguistics, in part because Psych tends to be larger department than Linguistics. I am not sure if this will be relevant to you since you are not in the US, but also try hercjobs.org. Good luck!

[antecedent]

Thanks guys, those are some great ideas! I'll be in either Vancouver, B.C. or the Bay Area of California next year (I'm not actually Scottish, just doing my MSc here), so I guess I'll start reaching out to people in a few months to see if I can make any contacts. 

 

mylime, out of curiosity, what kind of organisations did you email? I'm still fairly new to the discipline, so I'm not sure what kind of places would hire a volunteer/paid linguist.

[mylime]

antecedent, it depends on your area of interest. I'm interested in sociocultural and anthropological linguistics, so I asked around at endangered/indigenous language documentation/rights organizations, mostly. I basically just Googled around and found several organizations that looked interesting to me, emailed about ten, heard back from three or four, and one of those fleshed out!

[lzs]

If you're in the Bay Area, the Rosetta Project has various (usually unpaid) linguistics internships. There's also a political nonprofit called Real Reason that has some kind of linguistics group, though I don't know much about that.