The BYU Political Affairs Society in conjunction with the Salt Lake Chapter of our department’s alumni association is hosting its annual speed networking event at the state capitol on Friday, January 20th. At this event, you'll get to meet with a variety of professionals working in state politics, such as Utah's lieutenant governor, chief election officer, and various lobbyists, legal counsel, and other representatives.
We will provide a carpool with vans that will leave at 1:30pm from the McKay parking lot, though you are welcome to drive up separately. We’ll tour the capitol at 3pm and have a networking event at 4pm with a variety of BYU alumni working in state politics. Afterward, we will have a dinner at the capitol at 5pm and then return to BYU.
If you would like to participate in this event, you will need to RSVP in person at the receptionist desk in the political science department office on the 7th floor of the KMBL by Wednesday, Jan 18th.
|
|
|
Take POLI 379R- Introduction to Open Source Intelligence!
POLI 379R is a unique seminar course that is only offered annually. It has proven especially valuable for students with language skills [not necessarily language majors.] The course is a one-credit-hour seminar that meets only four times between Jan 17 and Jan 26.
In this one credit hour seminar we will instruct students on how to become information specialists for their foreign area of interest. They will learn how to systematically find press, broadcast, governmental, educational, political and social media sources for research and area knowledge. We will encourage them to push their language skills so as to be able to make maximum benefit of these resources. We will also give them potentially valuable insight into the workings of US foreign affairs and intelligence agencies.
|
|
|
Job and Internship Opportunities
|
|
RA Opportunity:
Drs. Argyle, Busby, and Gubler are looking for 2 or 3 students to work as Research Assistants. The project is a collaboration with Computer Scientists to study how advances in artificial intelligence, particularly large language models like GPT-3 and ChatGPT, can be used in social science research. We’re particularly interested in the potential uses of these models to better understand political psychology, and whether there are applications that can help depolarize people’s opinions around highly contentious political topics.
Qualifications: We are looking for students who are comfortable with quantitative statistical analysis and interested in computational methods or artificial intelligence, but previous familiarity with large language models is not required. Most statistical work will be done using R, and we will provide training as needed. Any background in, or willingness to learn, coding in Python is also a plus. Students will need to be available for at least 10-15 hours per week, for the full 2023 calendar year, with possibilities for more hours or work beyond that timeframe.
Responsibilities: Students will be expected to help with a wide variety of research tasks, most of which will involve issues of research design, execution, and data analysis. This will include testing different survey and experimental tools, working with the computer science team to deploy specific uses of the language models, cleaning and organizing data, data analysis, and writing up research findings. There will be numerous opportunities for presenting the research at academic conferences and poster competitions throughout the calendar year.
Compensation: Research assistants will be paid $13.50 an hour.
Anyone interested in the position should send a resume/CV, unofficial transcript, and short statement (paragraph or two) of their availability and interest to Prof. Argyle at lpargyle@byu.edu. Please feel free to contact Prof. Argyle with any questions.
|
|
|
Internship opportunity with a Mapleton City Council member.
The main tasks will be research, strategy, and messaging. Mapleton is a small town with limited funding options. You will be researching options and developing a strategy to fund parks & rec projects. Campaign research/strategy/messaging will also be needed for a future campaign. The student will learn about local government, campaigning, strategy, messaging, etc. Hours are flexible to student’s schedule and will probably range between 2 and 5 hours per week (negotiable). Pay will be $500 for the winter semester. For additional information or to express interest, please email kbeck@mapleton.org.
|
|
|
|
|
