Research Opportunities

Fall 2026 | Variable 1-3 credits (3 - 9 hours/week), depending on what the student is seeking

Position Description: 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. 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 Tuesdays from 9:00AM-10:00AM throughout the semester.

What You Will Learn: Students will learn to conduct rigorous social science research, and learn about the history of legal disputes involving the LGBTQ+ community.

Prerequisites: Legal 101, PoliSci 101, or equivalent 

How to Apply: Please send an email to Professor Collins ([email protected]) with a resume, expression of interest (including relevant skills), and the name of a faculty member reference. In addition, be sure to indicate that you are able to make the weekly meetings held on Tuesdays from 9:00-10:00 in your application. 

Spring 2026 | 2 credits (6 hours/week)

Position Description: This project analyzes what kinds of investors finance renewable energy power plants. There is still a ‘lack of finance’ and need to ‘mobilize’ finance in the renewables sector but lack of attention to what types of investors, are willing to finance these power plants and could scale their engagement muddies the debate. The project builds on a bespoke asset finance dataset through 2023 by Bloomberg New Energy Finance and augments it by correcting and detailing investor information. The project builds on a similar one that had data only through 2017 and it will improve and streamline the technique of gathering investor information. The job of the research assistant is to support with ensuring the data is accurate, for which she or he is to read ownership information and trace beneficial ownership and parent company information, and correct any errors in the original data are corrected.

What You Will Learn: The research assistant’s (RA) job will be to go through the investor data one by one and check and, if necessary, correct the investor information with instructions from Gregor how to do so. The RA will make a decision based on certain criteria and, in case of uncertainty, flag and discuss with Gregor. There will also be an opportunity to discuss how different types of investors may contribute to different types of capital projects being financed, setting ‘a direction’ for the economy. The RA will thus learn about financial ownership structures and investors in the renewable energy space, and how to read and evaluate information in ownership disclosures.

Prerequisites: An interest in financial ownership research and preferably previous *basic* experiences with R or another software that allows to write and execute code.

How to Apply: Email Prof. Gregor Semieniuk ([email protected]) a resume and a couple of sentences on why you are interested and meet the prerequisites.

Fall 2026 | 1 credit (3 hours/week)

Position Description: Presidential executive orders have become a central pathway by which federal policy is created and changed. They’re used to address a wide range of policy topics and have different valences. However, not all receive the same level of public attention, meaning some are more salient to the public than others. Over the course of the semester, you will contribute to the creation of two new measures of the salience of executive orders and their valence over time, as well possibly identifying the general topics they address. During this process, you will also learn about executive orders and how their relative use has changed over time, why capturing salience is important for studies of US institutions, and work through the validation process for creating such a measure. Depending on interest, there may be opportunities to additionally learn about AI applications for classification and measurement. Students must be available to meet on Fridays at 10:30 throughout the semester. 

What You Will Learn: All students will gain (or further develop) project and time management skills, as well as experience in honing and applying a codebook. Further, you will gain a better understanding of the research process. Beyond these skills, you have the opportunity to modestly design your own experience within this general framework. This might include developing skills in writing informative memos, which you can use as a writing sample in the future, basic data analysis, automated coding with AI assistance, and/or developing literature reviews, depending on your interests.

Prerequisites: No prerequisites for applying. Any class year is encouraged to reach out.

How to Apply: Students should e-mail Dr. Shoub ([email protected]) with an unofficial transcript and resume (if available). In the e-mail to Dr. Shoub, you should briefly indicate why you would like to participate in this particular UREP, which might include what skills you are interested in honing or developing. Additionally, you should affirm that you would be able to meet on Fridays at 10:30 throughout the semester ideally in person. A successful aspect of past experiences has been building a community through the experience. 

Fall 2026 & Spring 2027 (must be available both semesters) | $15/hour | 10 hours/week | No credit

Position Description: The Katz Environment & Energy Lab is hiring a paid undergraduate research assistant for a federally funded project with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (U.S. Department of Energy). The project studies how permitting processes shape the pace and outcomes of renewable energy development across the United States. The research assistant will build and expand national datasets on how renewable energy projects move through permitting systems. Day-to-day work includes searching public records, municipal websites, and government databases to locate permitting documents for specific energy projects; reviewing those documents to extract timelines, decisions, jurisdictions, and project characteristics and entering findings into structured databases using established codebooks; conducting online research across news sources and public platforms to document how communities and stakeholders have engaged with proposed projects; and quality-checking collected data for accuracy and completeness. The research assistant may also contribute to related tasks as the project evolves, such as classifying land use at project sites or organizing datasets for our collaborators at Berkeley Lab. This is a paid position (~$15/hr, 5 hours/week). The research assistant reports to Professor Katz and a graduate student lab lead. The individual's work contributes directly to datasets used in peer-reviewed publications and federal research reports.

What You Will Learn: The student will develop four areas of skill through structured training and supervised practice. First, applied research methods: collecting, coding, and quality-checking empirical data using standardized protocols for federally funded research, including understanding why codebook consistency matters and how individual data collection decisions affect dataset integrity. Second, energy policy literacy: gaining substantive knowledge of renewable energy permitting in the United States, including how authority divides across levels of government, why timelines vary, and how institutional design shapes siting outcomes. Third, systematic online research: locating, evaluating, and extracting information from government records, news sources, and public platforms in a structured and replicable way — a skill transferable across social science, policy, and communications research. Fourth, professional research practice: participating in lab meetings, receiving feedback on work quality, and learning how individual contributions fit a multi-institution collaboration — from data collection through analysis to publication. A student who performs well may take on additional responsibilities as the project evolves.

Prerequisites: Sophomores, juniors, and seniors. The most important qualification is attention to detail and willingness to follow structured protocols consistently; the work depends on accurate, reliable data collection across hundreds of records. The student must be comfortable with spreadsheets (Excel or Google Sheets), able to commit to 10 hours per week for two consecutive semesters (Fall 2026 and Spring 2027), and reliable and self-directed — this is a paid position with real deliverables and federal reporting deadlines, not a drop-in experience. Preferred but not required: coursework or interest in public policy, environmental studies, political science, geography, or data science; familiarity with online research such as public records searches or news databases; and prior experience with research, data collection, or content analysis in any context. No energy policy knowledge is needed. Training on all codebooks, protocols, and tools will be provided.

How to Apply: Email Professor Juniper Katz at [email protected] with: (1) your resume (1 page); (2) your class year and whether you can commit to both Fall 2026 and Spring 2027; and (3) the following task — go to the website for any Massachusetts town and find minutes from a planning board, zoning board, or select board meeting where a solar or energy project was discussed. In a short paragraph (5–8 sentences), tell me what town you chose and why, what you found, how you found it, and what the meeting minutes told you about the project or process. Applications reviewed on a rolling basis. Priority given to students who can start Fall 2026 and continue through Spring 2027.

PROPEL is a resource for students to apply to open projects during 5 rounds over the academic year. This is the link to the projects that are open https://propel.umass.edu/projects. PROPEL will be open for undergraduates to apply on November 7 AT 1:00PM and ending on November 17 at 5am. Students can apply to up to 5 projects. Students need to log in to set up an account and then write a short profile about themselves. When they apply to a particular project, students will write maybe a couple of paragraphs on why they are interested in the project. 

The Office of Undergraduate Research and Studies (OURS) is a branch of the Learning Resource Center and serves as the centralized research and resource office for the campus. OURS helps students find and access undergraduate research and scholarly opportunities on and off campus, throughout the year. We serve students in all disciplines at every stage of their undergraduate careers. Students are also supported in preparing for and navigating the application process for research and scholarly opportunities. Learn more here.

By participating in a UREP students work collaboratively with faculty to develop studies with real‐world significance and to carry them out with practical, readily transferable skills that will provide them with a crucial edge in the job market. Students who gain sophisticated research skills will be highly sought after by potential employers: they will understand how to conduct research; how to choose and use the appropriate qualitative or quantitative methods to carry out studies; how to work collaboratively towards a common goal; and how to write effectively in order to convey their findings to the public. These students will be able to not only tell potential employers about the classes they took, but clearly indicate on their resumes and in their interviews the deliverables that they helped produce. Furthermore, these students will gain critical information about substantive public policy and legal topics that will offer them an advantage in competing for internships and jobs in public policy or the civil service.

Student researchers are encouraged to present the research conducted through the UREP at conferences like the Massachusetts Statewide Undergraduate Research Conference. They receive opportunities to co-author reports, and they are able to incorporate the skills and methodology learned through the program into their capstone or thesis projects. Most importantly, the UREP is a unique opportunity which students can include on their resumes as they apply for graduate school or enter the workforce.

The topics and projects that have already been advanced through the UREP reflect the breadth of faculty expertise in the School of Public Policy. In past semesters, for instance, the students have been trained to construct and manage public opinion surveys and analyze data through the UMass Poll; to draft in-depth literature reviews about sanitation reform in India; to conduct archival research on the death penalty; and to compile and analyze a database of the ratification of international environmental treaties – just to name a few projects!  

The UREP projects are compensated through academic credit, not a paycheck. Students selected to participate in UREP will be enrolled in PUBPOL or LEGAL 398R - Research Practicum. Students may take up to 18 practicum credits while at UMass. Those credits may count toward the total needed for graduation.

For Legal Studies majors, the research credits do not count toward major requirements. 

For Public Policy majors, a maximum of 4 credits of applied coursework - research credits and/or internship credits - may count toward major requirements.

In general, 1 credit hour is equivalent to about 40 hours of work (3 hours per week) during the semester and students may enroll for up to 4 credits per semester.