Undergraduate Student Research Assistant

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Job Title:

Undergraduate Student Research Assistant

Department:

Arts and Sciences | History-JM

The History Praxis Lab at Ohio State invites students to apply for a four-week paid summer research student position that will run from June 30-July 25, 2025. Students will learn the techniques of historical research and do team-based research on Native American and African American civic engagement, citizenship, voting, education, and civil rights activism 1780-1950. Students will work in person and virtually with experts on Native American and African American history, including Professors John Bickers (Miami Tribe of Oklahoma), Margaret Newell, Deondre Smiles (Leech Lake Ojibwe), and Noël Voltz. The 2025 Lab will focus on stories from the Midwest including Minnesota, Ohio, and Indiana as well as other parts of the United States.

Job requirements qualifications/skills: Undergraduate students of all majors are welcome to apply with preference given to students with a background in History.  There is no specific training required as this will be provided through the lab experience.

Research opportunities will include work in digital and physical archives and sites. Lab students will record their experiences as researchers for use on social media and the Lab website, and Lab discoveries will contribute to our ongoing project, “Native Americans and African Americans in and out of the U.S. Body Politic,” a multi-year initiative funded by the Mellon Foundation.

Summer Praxis Lab:

The History Praxis Lab will begin in Columbus, OH on the OSU campus in person June 30-July 3, 2025.  Dr. Niiyokamigaabaw Deondre Smiles will then be leading the student researchers on a trip to their homelands in Northern Minnesota, the Leech Lake Reservation, home of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, where students will learn about historical questions of Indigenous citizenship in the United States during the 19th and 20th centuries. Students will stay in the area, working in archives there and engaging with historical sites that further underpin the shifting identities that Ojibwe band members faced during this dynamic time. Travel to Minnesota will take place from July 3-10, 2025. The lab will cover all costs associated with travel (i.e. transportation, lodging, and some meals) as well as hourly pay during the in-person sessions. During the final two weeks of the lab (July 14-July 25, 2025), students will work virtually and shift to research in digital archives.

Additional Information:

The Department of History within the College of Arts and Sciences seeks an Undergraduate Student Research Assistant to join our team. The College of Arts and Sciences is the largest college and the academic heart of the university. The College hosts 81 majors. With 38 departments, 20+ world-class research centers, and more than 2,000 faculty and staff members, students have the uniq