Sandra Myres Graduate Research Assistant

Position Description:

The Sandra Myres Graduate Research Assistant (GRA) supports the research activities of the Center and its Center Fellows by conducting research in UTA’s Special Collections and other archival facilities as requested. Normally, professors/Center Fellows will identify various collections to be consulted, and provide guidance as to the type of research needed. Examples include

reviewing primary source documents to identify specific citations or material; reviewing, synthesizing or summarizing material; writing brief annotated research reports on selected sources/topics. Knowledge of a foreign language may be required for some research projects. Material provided by the GRA is to be credited to said GRA and the Center by professors publishing articles, books, or other published material including video or other audiovisual products.

The position begins on October 1, 2008, is 50% time (20 hours per week), and is subject to the provisions of the History Department’s GTA/GRA pay plan. The GRA reports directly to the Center Director. The workload of the GRA is to be determined by the Center Director, who solicits requests from faculty or Center Fellows. The Director prioritizes these requests based on factors such as previous research time allotted and ultimate use of the research (books and monographs being a higher priority than material for courses)

For more information, contact Sam Haynes, Director, Center for the Greater Southwestern Studies and the History of Cartography, Box 19497, Arlington, TX  76019-0497, (817) 272-3997 or (817) 272-2887, or e-mail to haynes@uta.edu.

How to Apply:

To apply for the Sandra Myres Graduate Research Assistant (GRA) position, please provide a resumé or vita and a one-page letter of interest that addresses your qualifications (including language skills, organizational skills, and verbal/written communication skills) and summarizes your research experience.  Provide these materials to Sam Haynes by September 16, 2008.

Required Software Tools [all free] and Policies:

1. I require you to subscribe to our class blog and the blogs of the rest of the class members using Google Reader, which is free once you establish a Google account.

2. I require you to maintain a blog for the class. This is where you’ll post your papers and links to other electronic assignments in the class. You can get a free blogs from several services, including Google, but I recommend http://edublogs.org or http://wordpress.com.

3. I require that all documents you submit to me come as electronic links to your Mavspace account. Go to http://mavspace.uta.edu to review the user manual and log in to your account.

4. I require that you use Google Earth, a free software program available from that company once you have an account. http://earth.google.com

5. I require that you use the bibliography manager Zotero [free from http://www.zotero.org]. Zotero, in turn, requires that you use the Firefox web browser. [free from http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/]

6. I will post all grades to our WebCT page, which you can access at http://webct.uta.edu