Graduate Students

General purpose

We are seeking a graduate student research assistant to contribute to an NSF-funded research project on cocaine trafficking in the Americas. Our aim is to bring quantitative and qualitative rigor to the analysis of drug trafficking. Research tasks will include measurement of cocaine flows, collecting trafficking organization characteristics, and geospatial analysis of organizations and cocaine flows, coca cultivation, and cocaine consumption.

The graduate research assistant will contribute to all levels of our project from cleaning of the data, data analysis, visualization, and design as well as writing and publication. You will work in collaboration with faculty members from James Madison College and, possibly, team members from the University of Maryland’s College of Business, Department of Computer Science, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice and START-National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism.

Requirements:

Graduate student with strong organizational, analytical, and writing skills. Must be detail oriented, a self-starter, and an independent worker. Ability to use at least one of the following software packages or a similar package: STATA, R, SAS, SPSS, MATLAB, ArcGIS. Ability to do spatial and/or statistical modeling. The candidate must be able to conduct background research and write literature reviews.

This quarter-time assistantship position (10 hours a week) is suitable for a graduate student from a wide range of fields including but not restricted to economics, geography, public policy, political science, statistics, mathematics, or computer science. The position comes with tuition and a stipend and has an expected duration of 1 to 3 years, beginning as soon as possible.

Students from minoritized groups, including women, persons of color, veterans and persons with disabilities are strongly encouraged to apply.

We do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, gender, gender identity, age, height, weight, veteran status, disability, national origin, marital status, or family status. We will make reasonable accommodation if need it.

The position will remain open until it is filled.

To apply:

Please send:

• A cover letter (two-page maximum) that includes:
  1. A brief description of your research or related experiences (if any), your reasons for applying for this position, and your familiarity with statistical and/or spatial analytic software.
  2. Name and contact information for two references.
  3. Your resume.

  4. Transcript showing undergraduate and graduate courses taken to date.

Please email your application to chandr45@msu.edu or benitez6@msu.edu

This position will remain open until filled.

Contact information:

chandr45@msu.edu

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