J.J. Pickle Research Fellowship

The J.J. “Jake” Pickle Undergraduate Research Fellowship is an undergraduate research program in American institutions and public policy. The Fellowship, located in the Department of Government, provides students with the opportunity to participate in a year-long course on political science research and data analysis, which includes the development of an original research project and an appointment as a research assistant for a faculty member or doctoral candidate. It is run by Professors Derek Epp and Sean Theriault and includes the following components:

• Enrollment in two formal courses associated with the program over both semesters of an academic year. In the Fall course, students learn the development of research topics and questions, measurement of key variables, and development of a research plan. In the Spring course, students focus on the analysis of data, the interpretation of results, and academic writing.
• Appointment as research assistants for faculty or doctoral candidates. As research assistants, students may work on the collection, coding, and analysis of data on American institutions and public policy. In this capacity, students are required to work approximately 8 hours per week, in line with the number of hours expected for the course’s credit hour count.
• Writing applications to various grants available to undergraduates so they may execute their research projects.
• The development and execution of a high quality independent research project. The project takes two forms: an academic-quality poster that is presented at the yearly spring Longhorn Research Poster Session and a written paper. Examples of previous posters are available on our Past Fellows page.

Please contact Professor Epp (depp@austin.utexas.edu) or Professor Theriault (seant@austin.utexas.edu) with any questions.