Research Assistantships and SOC 497

Fall 2024 opportunities and applications will open on Friday, August 2nd, 2024. Undergraduate Research Assistantships are offered through unpaid course credit via SOC 497 (Honours Research Practicum). The department does not have any paid positions at this time.

SOC 497 Honours Research Practicum

Description: Denoting a preprofessionalization experience, this course provides selected students with an opportunity to work (to a maximum of 8 hours per week over one term) as an apprentice with a specific instructor on a research project in which the instructor is currently engaged. Note: This is an unpaid position and may not be combined with sponsored research positions. Earlier or outside research involvements will not meet the criteria for this course. Also, this course cannot be used to fulfill any plan requirements, like the 400-level course requirements for the Sociology major. Rather, it is a Sociology elective only. It can however count towards the courses you need to fulfill the BA degree requirements (40 courses for Honours and 4-year general Arts, 30 courses for 3-year general Arts). This course is not repeatable; it can only be taken once.

Eligibility: You must be in level at least 3A. Preference will be given to level at least 4A Sociology and/or Legal Studies students.

Grading basis: Credit/no credit. You will be assigned a CR grade at the end of term by your supervisor upon satisfactory completion of the assigned research work.

Course requirements: You must complete up to 8 hours of research work per week with your supervisor over the course of a term. Your supervisor must be a Department of Sociology and Legal Studies faculty member.

Benefits: Completion of the course will appear on your transcript, and you can indicate completion of the course as well as research tasks completed and skills developed in your resume. This is a great opportunity for you to further develop your research skills and resume, and get to learn what real social scientific research looks like at UWaterloo!

Application instructions

Deadline: Student applications, which include the online application form and CV, must be received by Friday, August 23, 2024 at 11:59 pm.

Instructions: Please review the SOC 497 information above (if you want to receive course credit for the undergraduate research assistantship work) and the research projects below. Afterwards, please fill out the webform and indicate your preference for the projects (first choice = highest preference). Please do not contact the supervisors regarding the status of your application. If you submitted the webform and saw a confirmation message, then we received your application. You will be notified at the start of the term if you are a successful candidate. If you have any questions, please contact the undergraduate advisor.

Outcome: Depending on the number of student applications received, faculty members will select the most qualified available candidate for their research assistant position, and not all students in the end may be able to enrol in SOC 497. You will be notified by email of whether or not you have been accepted into SOC 497 at the latest by Monday, September 9th, 2024.  

Fall 2024 Research Projects

Christian Nationalism in the U.S. and Canada

Project description:

This project involves gathering information about peer-reviewed journal articles, books and media articles that focus on the phenomenon of Christian nationalism. Whitehead and Perry (2020, p. 10) define Christian nationalism in the U.S. as “a cultural framework – a collection of myths, traditions, symbols, narratives, and value systems – that idealizes and advocates a fusion of Christianity with American civic life”; a cultural framework through which many Americans navigate their social world. This Christian nationalism ideology is not simply religious, it is also ethnic and political in nature; about power and maintaining a specific social order: “[…] the “Christianity” of Christian nationalism represents something more than religion. […] it includes assumptions of nativism, white supremacy, patriarchy, and heterenormativity, along with a divine sanction for authoritarian control and militarism. […] Understood in this light, Christian nationalism contends that America has been and should always be distinctively “Christian” (reflecting this fuller, more nuanced sense of the term) from top to bottom – in its self-identity, interpretations of its own history, sacred symbols, cherished values, and public policies – and it aims to keep it that way” (Whitehead and Perry 2020, 10). Symbolic, and at times physical, boundaries and hierarchies are drawn among natives and foreigners, whites and nonwhites, men and women, as well as heterosexuals and others, which encourages “[…] antipathy and mistrust toward those who do not meet the membership requirements of native-born, Christian, and white – namely, racial minorities, nonwhite immigrants, and Muslims” (Whitehead and Perry 2020, 16).

Although there is a large body of research focusing on Christian nationalism in the U.S., little has been done on the topic in Canada. The main goal of this research project is to gather and review all existing literature on Christian nationalism, with a view to seeing what may be applicable in the Canadian context.

Instructor / supervisor: Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme, Associate Professor | Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies, Sociology

Research tasks:

  • Bibliographic searches for peer-reviewed publications on Christian nationalism
  • Web and media archive searches for media articles on Christian nationalism
  • Annotated bibliography for the key sources found

Prison Transparency Project

Project description:

As part of the Prison Transparency Project, the RA will focus on collecting documents and information about (a) the Paul Bernardo prison transfer controversy and (b) the new Structured Intervention Units (SIUs) in federal prisons in Canada. The data collected will support broader research being done on how (a) Canadian carceral authorities manage controversy in relation to transparency and (b) seek to do solitary confinement or segregation 'differently' through the creation of SIUs.

Instructor / supervisor: Sarah Turnbull, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology and Legal Studies

Research tasks:

This project uses qualitative research methodologies. Training will be provided where needed.

  • Conducting literature reviews
  • Gathering documentary data via searches of government and news websites
  • Filing access to information acts to collect documents
  • Data management and organization

The Social Organisation of Climate Science

Project description:

Many scientists agree that the 2015 Paris climate goals of limiting human-caused global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius can only be reached when a drastic reduction of climate gas emissions is combined with negative emissions technologies that sequestrate carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. A variety of such technologies have been proposed. All are in early stages of development. How scientists, funders and legislators decide on which ones to pursue is a social process that includes scientific, technical, legal, economical and ethical considerations. Drawing on interviews with scientists, social activists and legislators, this project focuses on how fertilizing the ocean with iron to sequestrate carbon was proposed, developed, abandoned and re-considered. The German-Indian Lohafex experiment, conducted (and contested) in 2009, was a key event in this history. This project aims to inform ethical decision-making on current and future negative emissions technologies.

Instructor / supervisor: Götz Hoeppe, Associate Professor | Anthropology, cross-appointed with Sociology and Legal Studies 

Research tasks:

  • Transcribe interviews using machine learning transcription software,
  • Edit resulting transcipts,
  • Index transcripts for analysis.

Apply Here!

Have you taken SOC 497 before?
SOC 497 Application
Please upload your resume in PDF or DOC format.
One file only.
2 MB limit.
Allowed types: txt, pdf, doc, docx, odt.
Please provide a rationale for applying for this undergraduate research assistantship position.
Position preferences

If you have already received credit for SOC 497, unfortunately, you will not be able to reapply as SOC 497 is not a repeatable course.

I encourage you to explore other research opportunities at the University of Waterloo. 

Please note: if you have applied before but have not obtained an assistantship and have therefore not received credit for the course, you are free to apply as many times as you like. 

Thank you for your interest in SOC 497!