Undergraduate Academic Assistant

Student (JFG)

Job Category Student Employee

Job Title Undergraduate Academic Assistant

Department UBCO | Research | Taylor | School of Social Work | Faculty of Health and Social Development (Judy Gillespie (Inherited))

Posting End Date December 30, 2026

Note: Applications will be accepted until 11:59 PM on the Posting End Date.

Job End Date December 31, 2026

$22/hour

Summary Participate in an investigation into how ecological systems, culture, behaviour, cognitive-information-processing styles, and psychological temperament interact to influence violent individuals. This is a socio-cultural-ecological pilot study informed by existing literature, web postings, and available data.

Duties & Responsibilities

• Conduct complex library literature and computer media searches
• Work with the team to determine which literature is used by the project
• Conduct research-related tasks such as identifying and summarizing findings from articles, documents, and social media web information
• Conduct data collection, including data analysis and data management
• Identify research variables within select datasets
• Analyze findings to determine themes and linkage among and between variables
• Conduct content analysis of selected literature
• Prepare and present research findings for review by team members
• Help improve research activities and make revisions as necessary in work plans and products
• Write research reports
• Participate in regular team meetings
• Work collaboratively with the team leader and other Research Assistants (RA)
• Participate in writing articles for publication (authorship is based on the amount of original writing for the article completed by the RA)
• Perform other related duties as required.

Qualifications

• Registered and enrolled in a second, third or fourth-year Undergraduate degree
• Maintain good academic standing
• Applicant must have skills and experience conducting web social media searches and the ability to write literature reviews
• Strong reading, comprehension, and writing skills are required.
• Preference given for experience using databases and spreadsheets
• Preference given to individuals who have experience using SPSS and NVivo qualitative and quantitative analysis software.
• Works collaboratively and completes tasks independently

Additional Information The study uses published articles and documents, along with computer-generated information, to examine the development of violent individuals. This research aims to create a multidimensional description of individuals who intentionally engage in physical assaults. Harmonizing interacting elements rather than reporting singular concepts, such as home situation or socioeconomic phenomena, provides a more complete representation of how violent plans are formed. The study seeks to create a unified source of information detailing the many ecological dimensions of violent individuals.

The successful candidate will work directly with Dr. Edward Taylor. In addition to conducting web searches, the student will communicate with government and not-for-profit agencies. The student will attend regular meetings with Dr. Taylor. Most of the research will take place at the UBCO Landmark Tower offices. However, part of the assigned work can be completed off campus. This project is expected to continue until December 2027.