Call for Applications: Humanities EXPLORE Undergraduate Research Fellowship with Professor Mark Amengual, 2024-2025
Research Assistant: Multilingual Hispanic Speech in California (LAAL)
We encourage work-study and non-work-study students to apply. This role is only open to undergraduate students with a declared or proposed Humanities major or minor and requires work authorization.
Application Deadline: Friday, December 13
The Humanities Division and The Humanities Institute are excited to announce an experiential learning opportunity for undergraduates at UC Santa Cruz to work with Languages and Applied Linguistics Professor Mark Amengual.
The Humanities Experiential Learning Opportunities in Research (EXPLORE) Program connects Humanities majors and minors to faculty-led research projects in the division. EXPLORE Fellows are mentored by faculty members to develop skills and knowledge to help them make an impactful intellectual or creative contribution to their field. Students gain practical experience and professional training that builds on their studies in the Humanities. At the same time, faculty benefit from students’ assistance and academic expertise.
Applicants must have a declared or proposed major or minor in the Humanities Division at the time of their application to be eligible. Please see the Humanities Division majors and minors list to check your eligibility before applying.
About The Project
A few generations ago, many people believed that exposing children to more than one language could confuse them, resulting in delays in their language development or speech disorders. Such bias against bilingualism has had detrimental effects on immigrant families, on education policy, and, more broadly, on the linguistic and cultural diversity that enriches our society. For instance, in the early 20th century, psychological tests were administered to all immigrants to the US as a yardstick to “keep out those who are manifestly undesirable” for US society (Sweeney, 1922). Presently, accented or non-native speakers of English face bias with potentially harmful consequences in terms of employment, housing, racial discrimination, and even judicial prejudice (Baugh, 2005). Ironically, in California, one of the most linguistically and culturally diverse states in the country, Proposition 227 required that all public schools use only English as the language of instruction, though fortunately, this was repealed recently in November 2016, by the California Non-English Languages Allowed in Public Education Act (Proposition 58).
This project examines the speech patterns of speakers who grew up in a Spanish-speaking household and speakers who grew up in an English-speaking household. By comparing the linguistic features that comprise the speech of Spanish-English bilinguals from diverse backgrounds, we will be able to offer a unique source of insight into the cognitive and linguistic abilities of a largely understudied bilingual population that has traditionally been ignored in language research despite the continuous increase of early and late Spanish speakers in California and the US.
Read the team’s 2023-2024 Project Brief to learn more about their recent progress
Position Description:
You will be part of a research team that will be contributing towards developing a robust and linguistically rich corpus of bilingual Spanish-English speech samples (Multilingual Hispanic Speech in California; MuHSiC) culled from 200 hours of sociolinguistic interviews and naturalistic conversations among speakers of diverse social profiles and regional origins throughout California. The audio recordings will be available on an open website where researchers, teachers, students, and the public can access a linguistic map of California Spanish-English bilingual speech. You will be involved in transcribing Spanish and English sociolinguistic interviews and collecting data as interviewers in the project's second phase.
RESPONSIBILITIES AND EXPECTATIONS
- (20%): Transcription of sociolinguistic interviews
- (40%): Acoustic analyses of audio data
- (20%): Processing forms and questionnaires
- (20%): Conducting sociolinguistic interviews
Required Skills, Knowledge, and Abilities
- You are a declared or proposed major or minor in a department in the Humanities Division and are in good academic standing. If your major or minor is proposed, you can declare by the end of the academic year in June. [strict eligibility requirement]
- Eligible majors: Applied Linguistics and Multilingualism, Classical Studies, Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, Feminist Studies, History, Jewish Studies, Language Studies, Linguistics, Literature, Philosophy, Spanish Studies
- Eligible minors: Black Studies, Classical Studies, East Asian Studies, History of Consciousness, History, Italian Studies, Jewish Studies, Language Studies, Linguistics, Literature, Middle Eastern and North African Studies, Philosophy, Spanish Studies
- You have work authorization. [required]
- You are bilingual in Spanish and English
- You are interested in learning and working with a team of researchers
Preferred Skills, Knowledge, and Abilities
- You have experience using Praat
- You have experience coding in Matlab
Position Term: January 2025–September 2025
Hours: 10-20 hours/week working with your class schedule
Compensation: $20/hour
Mentorship: You will work closely with and report to Professor Mark Amengual. They will delegate tasks, review your work, provide coaching, and help you understand professional research. You will meet to check in at least once per week
Apply By Submitting
- Your updated resume
- A short cover letter (no more than one page) answering these questions: Why are you interested in this position? How does your academic expertise and skillset prepare you for this role? What are you hoping to gain from this opportunity?
REVIEW these resume and cover letter resources to ensure you are a strong candidate! For application help, see Humanities Career Engagement.
- Address your cover letter to Professor Amengual
Once the application window closes, there will be an interview process with top candidates. This job is expected to start in January 2025.
Please contact the EXPLORE Program coordinator, Kylie Rachwalski, at hum-experiential-learning@ucsc.edu with any questions.
The Mellon Foundation, The Helen and Will Webster Foundation, The Humanities Institute, and the UCSC Humanities Division generously support the Humanities EXPLORE Program.
