Research Assistant in Accent/Dialect Study

Opportunity Description

Are you interested in accents or phonetics? Are you great with computers or music theory? This position involves assisting with research into the intonation patterns of various accents, specifically finding pitch relationships in particular speech utterances. There is also an opportunity to attend regular meetings with a faculty mentor and discuss relevant literature and research experiences in order to foster your education in the field.

This opportunity can be taken for course credit, or as a Work Study position (only for students with a federal Work-Study award), and runs in Spring Semester 2019. Students earning course credit can negotiate weekly hours (3 hours for 1 credit, 6 hours for 2 credits, 9 hours for 3 credits). Work-study students work 8-10 hours per week.

The role includes:
* Helping to recruit volunteer speakers of specific accents and request accent samples
* Assisting with recording sound samples from on-campus volunteers
* Orthographic (not phonetic) transcription of spoken samples from sound files
* Analyzing sound samples for fundamental frequency and musical interval relationships using appropriate software (e.g. Adobe Audition). Take screenshots and annotate with appropriate information. Record and organize this data.
* Assist in gathering and organizing related literature for review
* Read and summarize related literature
* Undergo online CITI Program Training Course (if required by IRB). This is online and takes less than 2 hours.
* Perform miscellaneous duties as directed

Student Qualifications
Skills/Qualifications required:
* Have excellent computer skills
* Have excellent communication skills
* Have great organizational skills and motivation

Preferred qualifications:
* Experience/education in any or all of phonetics, accents, linguistics, speech, music, sound engineering, computer science.

How to Apply
Please email your application to jennifer.scapetis@uconn.edu and include:
* Cover Letter (please write about why you would be good at the job and why it interests you)
* Resume
* References (Email or telephone numbers)

Looking to fill this position ASAP. Open until filled.

Mentor: Jennifer Scapetis-Tycer, Assistant Professor
Department: Drama
Email: jennifer.scapetis@uconn.edu
Timing: Spring 2019
Campus: Storrs