Spring 2026 Research Opportunities
Research Position Description:
The Ntu Co-Lab is an Alter-Native not-for-profit collaboratory whose mission is transforming justice globally to benefit all “Ntu” (people, communities, and planet). The unmet need that Ntu Co-Lab seeks to address is law’s widening in/justice paradox amidst growing inequality, globally: “the law,” while meant to ensure justice, serves to increase or deepen injustice. As our vision states: We won’t stop until all law is a force for good only. Since the Ntu Co-Lab's translational project, "Effecting the Global Promise of UbuNtu’s Alter-Native Justice," remains under development, the Ntu Co-Lab team is seeking an unpaid volunteer to assist with data cleaning, text-as-data and/or natural language processing, developing data visualizations, and refining the project's pilot website to support the team's application for a Translational Seed Award to officially launch the Ntu Co-Lab. Students interested in undertaking this position for academic credit are strongly encouraged to apply. The position is available as soon as possible and will run until the end of the Spring 2026 semester, with the possibility (not yet confirmed) of extending the collaboration through the Summer semester, as well as the hope (contingent upon successfully securing funding) of continuing for the 2026-2027 academic year. The role involves familiarizing oneself with the Ntu Co-Lab website's design history as well as coordinating and communicating with the Primary Investigator (Professor Sindiso Mnisi) and partners such as DataCore at the UMass Amherst Center for Data Science. The weekly time commitment may vary, but an average of three hours per week is anticipated.
Pay: for credit option available. Depending on their own availability, students may choose to take up this offer for 1 credit (3 hours per week), 2 credits (6 hours per week), or 3 credits (9 hours per week).
Length of Work: Full semester
Required skills/experience for the research work:
Proficiency with text-as-data (e.g. Python) and data visualization tools (e.g. plotly) is essential. Familiarity with web design (app on AWS) would be beneficial.
Can Online Student Apply? YES
Contact Info: Send the following to [email protected]: a brief cover letter listing the main experiences related to the position and an example/portfolio that can relate to the experience required for the position.
Research Position Description:
During the Spring 2026 semester, I am developing a National Science foundation grant proposal to research the use of community land trusts (CLTs) for affordable housing. We need to scrape the web to build a dataset of CLTs in the U.S. Depending on the length of time needed to build the dataset, descriptive statistics and additional data analysis may be added. There is an undergraduate Public Policy student who will be working on building a Zotero library of published materials. The team would meet weekly, bringing in co-principal investigators School of Public Policy Professors Schweik and Katz as needed. The NSF grant will be submitted in May. If funded, there may future opportunities to work on the project.
Pay: 2 credit option only (unpaid). About 6 hours/week but work hours can adjust to student schedule.
Length of Work: Full semester
Required skills/experience for the research work:
web scraping, database development
Can Online Student Apply? YES
Contact Info: Email [email protected] with your resume and description of your interest and skills.
Research Position Description:
The Editorial Committee of the DACSS Online Magazine is seeking a student volunteer to assist with web design and programming. The position is available as soon as possible and will run until the end of the Fall 2025 semester, with the possibility (not yet confirmed) of extending the collaboration through the Winter semester. The role involves assisting the Online Content Editor in the creation and setup of the magazine's new website. Weekly commitment may vary, but an average of three hours per week is expected.
Pay: Volunteer (no pay)
Length of Work: As soon as possible to the end of the semester, with the possibility (not confirmed) of extending collaboration during winter semester.
Required skills/experience for the research work:
Web design, programming in RStudio and/or Python. Experience with Quarto webpages would be ideal but not necessary.
Can Online Student Apply? YES
Contact Info: Send the following to [email protected]: a brief cover letter listing the main experiences related to the position and an example/portfolio that can relate to the required experience in web page design.
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