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At a Glance

• Title:  Digital Humanities Research Assistant 
• Effective Dates:  October 15, 2024 – June 15, 2025 
• Department:  English 
• Institution:  University of Oregon 
• Supervisor:  Mattie Burkert 
• Supervisor’s Title and Phone Number:  Associate Professor of English; Director of the Minor in Digital Humanities; Principal Investigator for Extending the London Stage Database; 541-346-0272 
• Hourly Rate:  $17/hour 

Purpose of Position: 

Professor Burkert seeks to hire an undergraduate student employee as an academic-year Research Assistant (RA) for a digital humanities research project, “Extending the London Stage Database.” This is an hourly position with an anticipated time commitment of approximately 30 hours per month. 

Launched in 2019, the London Stage Database (londonstagedatabase.uoregon.edu) is a treasure trove of information about eighteenth-century British theater culture, containing records of more than 52,000 performance events recorded between the years 1660 and 1800. The project has been awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to incorporate more documents and records into the dataset, develop features that enhance the user experience, and grow the user community through targeted outreach within in and beyond academia.  

With support and mentorship from senior project team members, the RA will contribute to the research team by collecting and organizing data from reference books, library databases, and archival sources, as well as by helping to develop and implement a communications strategy for sharing project news and announcements through social media and email campaigns. With the benefit of advance access to project data, tools, and features in development, the RA will further develop their own line of research inquiry that contributes to or builds on core project activities. For example, they might develop timelines or other visualizations to illustrate trends in the data and help bring to life the historical milieu of eighteenth-century London—portfolio pieces that could become the starting point for a capstone project or senior thesis. This position therefore represents an excellent opportunity to develop research skills in a supportive environment and to gain experience sharing schoarly work through posters, presentations, or published papers as well as public-facing social media and websites. 

Duties: 

Responsibilities will include:  

• curating data and metadata from primary and reference sources;  

• writing and editing copy for the project website;  

• creating visual and written content for the project’s social media accounts;  

• testing new website features prior to release; 

• attending regular in-person team meetings and other in-person and/or virtual meetings as needed; 

• helping to maintain project records, including meeting minutes and process documentation; 

• other duties as assigned.  

This position will require up to 270 hours of work payable at $17 per hour. This is an on-campus position requiring primarily in-person, collaborative work. To fulfill their responsibilities, the employee will be provided a UO-owned laptop computer for the duration of the appointment and access to a dedicated workspace in Prince Lucien Campbell Hall.  

Position Specifics: 

Required qualifications: 

• Academic: The successful candidate will be a full-time on-campus student with junior or senior standing, enrolled in a relevant major, minor, or concentration (such as English, Computer Science, Digital Humanities, History, Theatre, Data Science, Cultural Analytics, Journalism, or Humanities). 

• Technical: Applicants should be proficient with Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, OneDrive, Outlook, PowerPoint, Teams) and Adobe Acrobat. Advanced Excel skills are not required, but a willingness to work with spreadsheets is a must.   

• Professional: Applicants must be willing to work both individually and collaboratively, primarily in person and occasionally remotely. They should have excellent organization, time-management, problem-solving, and communication skills, as well as a willingness to try new things and ask questions. 

Preferred Qualifications: 

Preference will be given to candidates who have passed Humanities Research Data Management (DSCI/LIB 350M) with a grade of B or better. 

We especially welcome applications from students who bring to the team relevant experience with any of the following: 

• Visual communication and graphic design (e.g. Canva, PhotoShop) 

• Social media strategy and best practices (e.g. Twitter/X, Facebook/Meta, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn) 

• Web content accessibility basics (e.g. embedded links, headers, alt text) 

• Statistical analysis, data visualization, and/or data-driven storytelling 

• Lightweight collaboration and project management tools (e.g. Teams, Trello, Notion, Slack)  

• Software version control (i.e. GitHub) 

• Digital exhibit creation (e.g. Omeka, CollectionBuilder) 

• Reference management (e.g. Zotero, Mendeley, EndNote) 

How to Apply: 

Interested candidates should send a resume or CV and a cover letter addressed to Professor Burkert no later than 5 p.m. on Monday, October 7. Applicants are strongly advised not to use generative AI tools to assist in the preparation of their materials.  

Finalists will be invited to interview and will be asked for the names of two academic and/or professional references who can speak to their qualifications for the position.  

UO is an EO/AA/Veterans/Disability institution committed to cultural diversity. 

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