Research Assistant

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• If you are NOT a current employee or student, please click "Apply" and complete the application process for external applicants.

Approval of remote and hybrid work is not guaranteed regardless of work location. For additional information on remote work at Penn State, see Notice to Out of State Applicants.

JOB DESCRIPTION AND POSITION REQUIREMENTS

The Department of Anthropology is seeking a motivated and detail-oriented undergraduate research assistant to support active research projects centered on the human ecology of infectious diseases. The position is flexible and collaborative: specific tasks will be discussed and agreed upon with the student based on their interests, skills, and availability. The student will have opportunities to contribute to multiple complementary work streams, ranging from technical data tasks to substantive quantitative and qualitative analysis. The successful candidate will report to Dr. Sagan Friant and Christina Harden.

Responsibilities may include:

• Data Annotation & Landscape Analysis
• Annotating drone orthophotos using semantic segmentation tools (CVAT) to classify land cover types (e.g., agricultural fields, settlements, vegetation) that inform models of rodent habitat and human-rodent contact risk
• Reviewing and quality-checking annotation outputs
• Quantitative Data Analysis
• Assisting with cleaning, coding, and analysis of rodent ecology datasets (trapping records, species composition, infection status)
• Supporting statistical analyses of human subjects survey data, including household surveys and ecological momentary assessment
• (EMA) data on human-rodent interaction
• Working in R or similar tools to produce summaries, visualizations, and
• Exploratory analyses Qualitative Data Analysis
• Assisting with transcription, coding, and thematic analysis of qualitative data including focus group discussions and interviews on local knowledge, land use practices, and human-rodent interactions
• Contributing to synthesis of qualitative and quantitative data streams
• General Research Support
• Literature review and background research as needed
• Assisting with data organization, documentation, and research protocols
• Contributing to lab meetings and presenting work-in-progress as experience develops

Qualifications Required:

• Enrollment in a relevant undergraduate program (Anthropology, Biology, Public Health, Geography, Statistics, or related field)
• Strong attention to detail and commitment to data quality
• Ability to work independently and communicate proactively

Preferred:

• Interest in infectious disease ecology, global health, or human-animal interactions
• Exposure to quantitative methods (statistics, data analysis) or qualitative methods (ethnographic research, content analysis)
• Experience with Excel, R, Python, or GIS tools (not required - willingness to learn is)

BACKGROUND CHECKS/CLEARANCES
Employment with the University will require successful completion of background check(s) in accordance with University policies.

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