Part-Time Fellowship Coordinator

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Department:

School of Public Affairs

Time Type:

Part time

Work Modality:

Union:

Excluded

Job Description:

Summary:

To address the growing crisis of democratic erosion worldwide, the Democratic Erosion Consortium (DEC) was created to develop partnerships among a diverse set of stakeholders—academics, students, funders, policymakers, and practitioners—through which data, theories, research questions, and practices can be discussed, evaluated, and improved with the goal of deepening understanding of democratic erosion and evidence-based strategies for mitigating it. The Fellowship Coordinator will report to the Research Director. The DEC recently received a large grant that is enabling it to dramatically scale up its activities over the next three years, plus an addition to our original budget in 2024: it now seeks a Part-Time Fellowship Coordinator to support DEC activities related to documenting democratic erosion, in particular under pillar 2 as below.

The DEC’s activities fall under four main pillars:

1. Improve education on democratic erosion for academics, policymakers, and practitioners;

2. Document democratic erosion trends and dynamics by building a unique dataset;

3. Marshal existing research through policy briefs and workshops to inform more evidence-based interventions; and

4. foster learning, discussion, and academic-practitioner partnerships.

The DEC Fellowship Program is a key component of activity 2 above: it will facilitate the annual updating, expansion, and validation of our unique Democratic Erosion Event Dataset (DEED), which captures events related to democratic backsliding and resistance across the globe beginning in 2020, as well as contribute to its effective use and dissemination. The primary responsibility of the Fellowship Coordinator is to manage the DEC Fellowship Program in such a way that it meets the DEC’s goals for the expansion and quality control of the DEED.

Essential Functions:

1.) Managing the expansion and quality control of the DEED Dataset

• The Fellowship Coordinator is responsible for coordinating the ongoing development of the Democratic Erosion Event Dataset (DEED).
  
  
• Since the creation of the DEED, the dataset has been continually evolving as the DEC improve and expand it.
  
  
• Specific tasks the Fellowship Coordinator is responsible for include: evaluating the on-going needs related to advancing and creating quality controls for the DEED dataset and developing a concrete plan for meeting those needs—examples of these needs are identifying ways to improve how events are coded, how to create efficiencies for how to go back and double check previous coding, how to create new event categories that more accurately capture democratic erosion, etc.
  
  
• The coordinator will spearhead designing the Fellowship Program and the workplans for the PhD-level Research Assistants (RAs) and undergraduate research assistants (Fellows) in order to meet the needs of the DEED dataset; ensuring the work of both the RAs and Fellows is harmonized and focused on addressing DEED’s ongoing needs; and seek out new partnerships and opportunities in order to continually expand DEED and its use; managing current institutional partners and seeking out new partnerships to manage and expand the Fellowship Program.
  
  

2.) Managing PhD-level and undergraduate research assistant team

• The Fellowship Coordinator will manage a team of both PhD-level Research Assistants (RAs) and undergraduate research assistants (Fellows).
  
  
• This team will expand the contents of the Democratic Erosion Event Dataset by coding new case studies; improving the data quality of the current dataset; developing the Authoritarian Consolidation Event database; and supporting other initiatives of the Democratic Erosion Consortium.
  
  
• This position supervises non AU student RAs and Fellows from our partner universities as they code and analyze data, and as RAs supervise undergraduate Fellows.
  
  
• Holding virtual weekly meetings with the team.
  
  
• Supervising independent research projects of RAs and fellows.
  
  
• Integrating progress from the Fellowship program into DEED.
  
  
• Helping RAs and Fellows prepare presentations to network partners. Currently there are 2 Data Ras and 11 Fellows during the year, with 15 over the summer.
  
  

3.) Fellowship Recruitment and Training

• The Fellowship Coordinator will establish the work protocols, team structure and work plans of the PhD-level Research Assistants and Undergraduate Fellows.
  
  
• Training and supervising the PhD-level Research Assistants that work on the dataset and who themselves directly supervise the Undergraduate Fellows.
  
  
• Recruiting and train Undergraduate Fellows for the Fall, Spring and Summer Fellowship terms, including a one-week in-person training for the summer cohort.
  
  
• Administrative aspects of team management will include, but are not limited to, project onboarding and research training, weekly meetings, ongoing guidance and communication surrounding research tasks, review of work performed, and providing feedback.
  
  

4.) Other duties as required.

Supervisory Responsibility:

• Supervise Graduate-level Data RAs and Undergraduate Fellows.
  
  

Competencies:

• Displaying Creativity.
  
  
• Prioritizing and Organizing.
  
  
• Acquiring and Analyzing Information.
  
  
• Supporting Coworkers.
  
  
• Managing Performance.
  
  

Position Type/Expected Hours of Work:

• Part time.
  
  
• Non-Exempt.
  
  
• 10-20 hours per week depending on variation in programming needs across the academic year and summer (i.e. more hours needed during more intensive periods of activities).
  
  
• Two-year position potentially renewable pending additional funding. The grant will end in September of 2026.
  
  
• Remote position.
  
  
• This position is externally funded for three years and will be assessed for future work beyond this dependent on external funding availability.
  
  

Salary Range:

• $30 per hour.
  
  

Required Education and Experience:

• PhD.
  
  
• This position is appropriate for a recent doctoral graduate, with experience gathering and analyzing quantitative data sets and supervising research assistants, and substantive expertise in democratic erosion.
  
  

Preferred Experience and Experience:

• Familiarity with working in a Higher Education and/or research context.
  
  

Additional Information:

• The ideal candidate will be well-organized, capable of working independently, and will have excellent communication skills.
  
  
• Hiring offers for this position are contingent on the successful completion of a background check.
  
  
• To ensure the health and safety of our community AU requires COVID-19 vaccinations for faculty and staff. Click here to learn more about our health and safety directive .
  
  

Benefits

AU offers a competitive benefits package including a 200% matching retirement plan, tuition benefits for full-time staff and their families, several leadership development certificates, and has been recognized by the American Heart Association as a fit-friendly worksite. Click here to learn about American University's unique benefit options .

Other Details

• Hiring offers for this position are contingent on successful completion of a background check.
  
  
• Employees in staff positions at American University must deliver their services to the university from either the District of Columbia, Maryland, or Virginia, or perform work on-site at the university.
  
  
• Please note this job announcement is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time with or without notice.
  
  
• American University is an E-Verify employer.
  
  

Current American University Employees

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Contact Us

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