Project Mentor
Dr. Joshua Mayer
Department: Anthropology and Social & Critical Inquiry
Project Overview:
Building an Oral History Archive of Rama-Kriol Political Thought
I am a community-collaborative ethnographer working with Indigenous and Black communities in Nicaragua to study research questions that address the communities’ most pressing needs. For several decades, the communities with which I work have been engaged in a legal and political struggle to stop individuals, businesses, and government entities from seizing their ancestral territory. This project is an oral history of the ongoing, anticolonial struggle of two communities in southeastern Nicaragua; more than 80 interviews were conducted in Spanish, Miskito Coast Creole, and Rama Cay Creole in 2022.
Role of a SHARE Summer Apprentice:
The student selected for this SHARE apprenticeship will participate in the processing and analysis of oral history interviews, which will contribute to a report for the participant communities and to a scholarly book manuscript. This entails transcribing audio recordings of interviews in InqScribe and, once I have reviewed the transcript, coding identified themes in the interview using Taguette software. The apprentice will also complete CITI training in the first week of the apprenticeship so that they can be added to the IRB protocol for the study.
The apprentice will gain skills and experience with interview transcription, qualitative data coding and analysis, and data management and security. In the process, the apprentice will learn to use InqScribe and Taguette software. The apprentice will also gain knowledge of oral history interview techniques and Black and Indigenous communities’ territorial defense.
Summer Schedule/Time Commitment:
The apprentice should plan to work approximately 9–15 hours per week, which is equivalent to 6–10 weeks. Those weeks do not need to be contiguous; we will make a plan to work around our respective summer commitments and allocate the hours across the weeks in which the apprentice will work on the project.
Weekly Schedule and Meetings:
The apprentice will be able to decide the days of the week and times of day in which they want to complete their weekly work for this project with the exception of regular supervision and mentorship meetings. We will have weekly, hour-long meetings during the weeks in which the apprentice works on the project. These virtual meetings will be scheduled at a mutually agreeable time.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Required language skills: Fluency or near-fluency in either Spanish or a Caribbean English-based creole language (Rama Cay, Miskito Coast, Belizean, Limonese, Bocas del Toro, San Andrés & Providencia, or Jamaican Creole/Patois)
- Computer skills: Comfort with typing and willingness to learn to use new software is preferred. The student researcher will need to use a UConn-owned laptop that I will provide to access files through Microsoft SharePoint and UConn’s R drive, transcribe interviews in InqScribe, format and save transcripts in Microsoft Word, and analyze interview transcripts in Taguette.
- Interest in qualitative social science research
- Ability to work independently to meet goals
- Strong communication skills
To Apply:
The application is closed.