Please complete a research application and choose one of the research positions listed below (research applications available on the Undergraduate Research link or in Townshend Hall 141). Please return your completed applications to the contact person listed for the project via email.
Below are the research projects that are available for students to work on for SOCIOL 4998 credit Spring Semester 2025. SOCIOL 4998 is one of the options that students can use to fulfill the major Experiential Learning Requirement - PLEASE NOTE, you may only count 3 hours total of research credit towards the SOCIOL-BA and CRIMINO-BA majors and 6 hours total of research credit towards the SOCIOL-BS major. Also, remember that research experience is especially important if you are planning on applying to graduate school!
Please read the requirements for each project carefully, as some require either specific coursework or specific GPA.
Building Abolition Democracy/ Dr. Townsand Price-Spratlen and William Goldsby
E-mail application to William Goldsby at rec2ffl@aol.com
Students should have interests in 1. Defining abolition democracy in a collaborative and reciprocal learning organization; 2. participating in the refinement of a transformative curriculum; 3. practicing and furthering our use of consensus building; and, 4. exploring strength through vulnerability as they "transform silence into language and action."
Requirements:
All are welcome in Sociology and other disciplines as well. Please email your resume with 1. your time commitment availability per week, 2. a brief description of why you’re interested in the project, and, 3. an example of resilience you have exhibited, and/or contributed to (100 words or less). Share these with Mr. William Goldsby at rec2ffl@aol.com. We look forward to hearing from you.
ALL POSITIONS FILLED: Examining the Effects of Proximity to Whiteness on Non-White People
E-mail applications to Evangeline at warren.651@osu.edu
Across the United States, there have been emphatic calls to expand research concerning racial disparities in health and to understand the critical mechanisms that shape these inequitable outcomes. Much of the prior work on this issue has compared racial groups to each other, emphasizing differences between racial groups rather than within racial groups. This serves to flatten our scientific understanding of how race operates, describing monolithic experiences across a group rather than illuminating the variety of experience within a group. As a result, the existing health disparities research does not typically investigate the gradations of experience non-white people have with respect to their health and wellbeing, particularly as it pertains to the role of whiteness in shaping key outcomes Through in-depth interviews with 75 non-white individuals of diverse backgrounds, this project will examine the effects of proximity to whiteness in three social domains (individual, interpersonal, and institutional) on the health and well-being of non-white people. Specifically, I am interested in embodied proximity to whiteness (through ancestry or appearance), familial proximity to whiteness (through intimate or household relationships), and structural proximity to whiteness (through schools or workplaces).
Students joining me on this project will assist with participant recruitment and compensation and with the transcription and anonymization of interviews. Students will develop skills in qualitative data management and will be asked to acquire basic knowledge about the social construction of race in the United States. Our work will be conducted remotely. Other than a weekly team meeting on Zoom, students will have flexibility in completely their assigned tasks.
Requirements:
Students should have at least a 3.0 GPA and should have passed a research methods course with a qualitative component. Preference will be given to applicants in Sociology and Public Health. Interested students should email me with a completed SOCIOL 4998 Application Form and a 200-word statement about their interest in this project.
Disparities of Place, Structure, and Perception in Rural America
E-mail applications to Brayden Dawson at dawson.796@osu.edu
Rural Americans have not kept pace with their urban and suburban counterparts when it comes to healthcare access, quality, and overall outcomes. This study takes two main approaches to understanding the effect of such inequality on rural Americans. One- an examination of rural child health outcomes that is particularly focused on how a key social institution- marriage, intercedes as a potential protective factor for rural children’s health; and two- understanding how democratic backsliding, which is particularly prevalent in rural America, impacts overall mortality rates for rural Americans. Students will review and analyze a wide variety of news, media, and academic literature during the term.
Requirements:
Completion of sociological research methods is strongly preferred. 1-3 students are needed.
Political Leaders Annotations on Truth Social (PLATS)
Email application to Dr. Laura Dugan at dugan.226@osu.edu
The PLATS project is building an archival database of Truth Social posts by federal and state political leaders that will be accessible to scholars and the general public for data visualization and analysis. The research team had created a similar database of Tweets called State Leaders Annotation of Tweets (SLANNT), which stopped when Elon Musk discontinued the academic researcher API. To create this database, we need to collect Truth Social usernames from a large list of political leaders. Research Assistants will help in this endeavor as well as participate in meetings about building the database.
Requirements:
Students should have a 3.0 GPA. Priority is given to those with digital, data, and/or methodological experience.
Examining College Admissions Policy Alternatives
Email application to Dr. Tiffany Huang at huang.5895@osu.edu
The 2023 Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and UNC Supreme Court decisions led to the end of race-conscious undergraduate admissions. Since then, policymakers and scholars have debated how colleges and universities can best promote diversity and equity in higher education. The selected Research Assistant (1 needed) will conduct a literature review of college admissions literature and analyze policy proposals within. Other tasks may be assigned.
Requirements:
Student should have a 3.0 GPA and successfully completed a research methods or policy analysis course. Demonstrated interest in policy preferred. On the SOCIOL 4998 application form, please indicate how many hours per week you will be available.