Call for Researchers
https://www.shawhinroudbari.com/openings

Architects, planners, and engineers mobilize to make their work more just, their institutions more equitable, and their governments more accountable. Examples include, planners protesting for housing justice, architects advocating for gender equity within their profession, and civil engineers opposing unethical infrastructure projects. I’m looking for students to join the research team.

​Through this project, we’ll seek to understand ways built-environment professionals mobilize to shape political power. We will investigate forms of dissent including advocacy, activism, protest, and other means to political empowerment.

​The project is an ethnography of design professionals that includes a study of social media as a space of formation and dissemination of discourses of dissent.

Fieldwork includes travel to meet with professionals for semi-structured interviews and observations of their gatherings and events. The study also involves network analysis and visualizing discourse formation on social media. A goal of the research is to make visible the physical and virtual spaces through which design professionals organize and advocate for social justice causes.

​Part of this project was awarded a 3-year grant from the National Science Foundation titled, “Engineering Dissent: Moving Political Engagement for Social Justice from the Vanguard into the Mainstream of the Engineering Profession.”

 This is a call for interested PhD and Masters students. Funding will be provided for a PhD student (for up to three years) and a Masters student. Travel expenses for extensive interviews and observations are included. (There are opportunities for undergraduate students and postdoctoral scholars to join the research team too.)

​If you’re interested in this project, please contact me at shawhin@colorado.edu. Applicants should be in high academic standing, with a minimum 3.5 GPA. Graduate students in Sociology, ENVD, ATLAS, Anthropology, or CMCI would likely be best suited for this work.

 You will be asked to submit a CV, contact information for two professional or academic references, and a 500 to 700-word statement of interest. The statement should speak to your interest in this research and qualifications you bring to the project. You’re also encouraged to submit a writing sample that demonstrates your writing ability.