Electric Justice in New England
Electric Justice RAs will work with me and a team of students to research the roadblocks and possibilities in transitioning our electric grid away from fossil fuels. Students will collect information from newspapers, journals, websites, reports, and books to assist in writing case studies from Massachusetts and New England on topics including: community power, microgrids, peaker plant conversion, demand response and efficiency, regional grid markets and policies, and AI/datacenters among other topics. Students with interests in politics, power, energy justice, political economy, and climate politics/sustainability may find this research of particular interest. The research will be generally qualitative, but grid politics can be very technical conceptually. There are opportunities to focus more on technical aspects, financial/political economy, and EJ/community/political dimensions depending on student interest.
Supervisor: Regine A. Spector
Contact Email: [email protected]
Prerequisites: Electric Justice RAs must have an excellent academic record, and previous experience conducting research is welcome but not required. Working knowledge of how to use library databases and software like Zotero is a very strong plus. Students who are also interested and available to continue this research next academic year will be prioritized. Students from historically marginalized and/or rural communities across Massachusetts and New England are welcome to apply, especially if there are cases in your communities you are interested in researching.
Application instructions: Interested students should email me with a one-page statement of interest, a copy of their CV, and the name and email of a faculty who could provide a recommendation. I will then schedule a zoom interview with qualified students.
Research Assistant: Law and Legality in LGBTQ+ Media
Research assistants will help Professors Collins, Rice, and Rhodes collect information about depictions of law and legality in LGBTQ+ media, such as The Advocate. This will involve reading articles in LGBTQ+ media and coding the articles based on things like the types of rights featured in the articles (e.g., same sex marriage, employment), court decisions discussed in the articles, and the legal and political actors depicted in the articles.
Students will learn to conduct rigorous social science research, and learn about the history of legal disputes involving the LGBTQ+ community.
The objective of this research is to understand what legal issues are prominent on the agenda of LGBTQ+ media and how the legal consciousness of the LGBTQ+ community changes over time.
Students must be available for weekly meetings that will be held in person on Thursdays from 10:00AM-11:00AM throughout the semester. 1, 2, or 3 credits.