Dr Roberto Filippello (UBC-O) is hiring a graduate or undergraduate student to work as a research assistant on the project ‘Queer Threads: Critical Fashion Practices in Contemporary Palestine’. The research assistant must be a UBC student and have fluency in Arabic. The work will be conducted virtually.
Over a period of six months, the graduate research assistant (GRA) will:
1) Compile an annotated, comprehensive bibliography of scholarly sources on online community formation and digital/social media activism, with a particular focus on the MENA region and/or feminist/queer groups.
2) Monitor and assemble an archive of online media posts circulated by members of the feminist Palestinian fashion community (usernames will be shared by the supervisor). The Instagram posts will be saved as screenshots and the TikTok videos will be described in a written form. Everything will be saved in a safe folder shared with the supervisor.
3) Present their research as part of an advanced undergraduate course, taught by the research supervisor, titled “Queer Visual Cultures” in January or February, and deliver a poster presentation (with the support of the supervisor) at MEICON-BC, or, alternatively, at an annual event organized by the Middle East Studies program.
The research assistant will be hired at $25/hour for 8 hours weekly (graduate student) or $18/hour x 10 hours weekly (undergraduate). The start date is early September.
Please, email Dr. Roberto Filippello at roberto.filippello@ubc.ca if you are interested in the position, briefly explaining what your academic interests are, whether you can read Arabic, if you are active on and comfortable using the aforementioned social media platforms, and why you think you would be a good fit for this research project.