Opportunities

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Call for Undergraduate Individual Study (apply by March 8)

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The Science & Justice Research Center (SJRC) invites undergraduate students to apply as researchers for the Spring 2023 term. The SJRC will host up to 2 Individual Study students to collaborate on the LEED research project. The Individual Study course, can range from 2-5 units, be independent or group and will include directed readings, guided independent and collaborative research and project planning. 

Available Spring 2023

Leadership in the Ethical and Equitable Design (LEED) of STEM Research: Up to 2 students will work directly with Sociology Professor Jenny Reardon’s team of researchers and collaborators at Columbia University, University of Washington, and Stanford to facilitate the creation of a cross-sector, cross-national effort to reformulate the meaning of good science in ways that center diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), the ethical, legal and social implications (ELSI) of research, and the goals of advancing equity and justice. Specifically, students will work with the LEED Team to identify existing guidelines and best practices in a STEM area of interest to the student, and help to complete a systematic document review using qualitative research methods (including coding with MAXQDA software). This research will inform the development of LEED principles and practices. 

Learn more in this campus news article: National Science Foundation grant will help establish ethics and equity best practices for emerging forms of science and technology and in this CellPress publication, “Trustworthiness matters: Building equitable and ethical science” that announces the collaborative project.

To Apply:

By Wednesday, March 8, 2023 at 12 noon, students should email (scijust@ucsc.edu) with their resume/CV and a very brief letter of  interest. We’re excited to learn about you and teach you what we’ve learned from each other! Please let us know the following:

  1. your name, major(s), any faculty advisors.
  2. any experiences with related research, why you are interested in being involved, and how your curriculum, research, or career goals would benefit from the independent study.

November 02, 2022 | Giving Day

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Wednesday, November 2, 2022

All-Day

Join the Science & Justice Research Center at UC Santa Cruz on Wednesday, November 2nd, 2022 for Giving Day, a 24-hour online fundraising drive!

Help support the next cohort of Science & Justice student researchers by giving through one of the two below Science & Justice campaigns.

Share our Campaign for Justice!

Post on social media and tell your friends to join us on Wednesday, November 2nd.

Thank you for making a more just world possible!

Help support the next cohort of Science & Justice student researchers by giving through our Science & Justice campaigns. Your donation goes directly to supporting students and providing opportunities for them to gain valuable professional development experiences working with scholars, researchers, mentors and community members on meaningful projects.

ABOUT the SJRC

Scientific and technological discoveries increasingly shape societies, which today are simultaneously being roiled by rising inequality and injustice. The Science & Justice Research Center at UC Santa Cruz opens doors for dialogue across disciplines to address the resulting challenge of creating science and technology that serves a more diverse range of lives in the midst of these inequities. Scientists, engineers, social scientists, humanists, and artists all come together in SJRC projects to actively and urgently seek a way forward. We learn to work effectively with one another in order to create positive social change within the context of scientific and technological discovery.

Our mission is distinctive. The center’s broad systemic emphasis goes well beyond conventional bioethics and consent. We’re reimagining how justice perspectives can reshape all aspects of the scientific enterprise—from funding and agenda setting, to relationships with the corporate sector, to reward structures and scientific hierarchies to the ways in which we respond to crisis and critique.

Visit and share SJRC’s campaign page

ABOUT SJRC’s LEED Initiative

Through our Leadership in the Ethical and Equitable Design (LEED) of STEM Research initiative, it is our hope to facilitate the creation of a cross-sector, cross-national effort to reformulate the meaning of good science in a manner that creates sustained organizational culture and policy changes that advance equity and justice.

The project proceeds in three phases: background research; drafting of LEED Principles and Practices; and International Discussion and Write-Up of LEED Principles and Practices. Help us realize support a graduate student work with us and to realize LEED Principles and Practices!

Visit and share the LEED campaign page

Why Support S&J

As a Hispanic-Serving Research Institution, we’re engaging with an increasing number of young underrepresented scientists and engineers eager to integrate social justice challenges into their work.

Central to the success of our students is their ability to work on Science & Justice projects during the academic and summer terms. With your help, we can offer fellowships that support this critical dimension of the training of future leaders in the emerging field of Science and Justice.

With your support we can also:

  • Support students in integrating social justice perspectives into scientific inquiry as they gain experience in critical cross-disciplinary collaborative projects and take these experiences into their professional lives.
  • Bring scientists, activists, and other thought leaders to UC Santa Cruz to expand the range of research projects, teach and work with students, and enrich campus discussion.
  • Support projects that connect community groups and agencies with the sophisticated science and data analytics capabilities of UCSC faculty and students, integrating a wider range of social perspectives into research models to address urgent local and national issues.

Share our Campaigns for Justice!

Post on social media and tell your friends to join us on Wednesday, November 2.

Thank you for making a more just world possible!

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Call for Prospective Stem Cell Justice Graduate Students

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The Departments of History and Sociology at UC Santa Cruz are recruiting PhD students to begin in Fall 2023 to pursue research on stem cells.

UC Santa Cruz is known for its reputation as a center for the study of science (e.g. feminist science studies, multispecies studies, the study of race and genomics, science and justice). 

In pursuing a research agenda situated in Stem Cell Justice, PhD students will have the opportunity to become part of our cross-divisional community of scholars. Students will participate in various transdisciplinary forums that may include the Center for Cultural Studies (CCS), the program in Global and Community Health (GCH), the Institute for the Biology of Stem Cells (IBSC), the Science & Justice Research Center (SJRC), and events regularly sponsored by the Departments of History of Consciousness, Anthropology, Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, Feminist Studies, History, Sociology, and Politics.

In addition to university support coordinated by the departments, successful PhD applicants are invited to apply for a fellowship in a future year of study. Fellowship funding is provided from a grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine overseen by the UCSC Institute for the Biology of Stem Cells (IBSC) who coordinates opportunities for training and research related to the biology of stem cells. IBSC Directors Lindsay Hinck (Professor, MCD Biology) and Camilla Forsberg (Professor, Biomolecular Engineering) lead the institute’s stem cell training and career development programs.

History and Sociology mentoring faculty are particularly interested in the following areas of study:

  • Jennifer Derr (History) My research agenda engages the relationship between the histories of science and medicine and those of capitalism. A portion of this agenda relates to questions of bioethics and the social relations that undergird particular research agendas, such as those bound up with stem cell research. My own research is situated in the Middle East and North Africa. I am particularly well-suited to advise trainees on the implications of stem cell research for the Global South.
  • Jenny Reardon (Sociology) My research draws into focus questions about identity, justice and democracy that are often silently embedded in scientific ideas and practices. My training spans molecular biology, ecology, the history of biology, science studies, feminist and critical race studies, and the sociology of science, technology and medicine. I am also the Founding Director of the Science & Justice Research Center, and oversee the Science & Justice Training Program, a nationally and internationally recognized training program that teaches graduate students in science and engineering how to respond to the places where questions of ethics and justice meet questions of science and knowledge. I am particularly well-suited to advise students on the governance of stem cell science and the emergence of novel uses of stem cell research in areas such as agriculture.

More information about the funding can be found in this campus news article: Stem cell agency funds research training program at UC Santa Cruz

CONTACT

Further information about each research center or department’s PhD program can be found on their websites. Please contact the faculty mentor, center manager or department graduate program coordinator with questions regarding participating in their research group or applying to their program.

Institute for the Biology of Stem Cells (IBSC) | Directors Lindsay Hinck (lhinck@ucsc.edu) and Camilla Forsberg (cforsber@ucsc.edu); IBSC Program Manager (ibsc@ucsc.edu)

https://ibsc.ucsc.edu/ibsc-home

Science & Justice Research Center (SJRC) | Founding Director Jenny Reardon (reardon1@ucsc.edu); Manager Colleen Stone (colleen@ucsc.edu)

https://scijust.ucsc.edu/

History | Professor Jennifer L. Derr (jderr@ucsc.edu); Coordinator Cindy Morris (morrisc@ucsc.edu)

https://history.ucsc.edu/graduate/index.html

Sociology | Professor Jenny Reardon (reardon1@ucsc.edu); Coordinator (socyga@ucsc.edu) 

https://sociology.ucsc.edu/graduate/prospective-students/index.html

APPLICATIONS

The UC Santa Cruz online PhD application for Fall 2023 will be available beginning October 1st (unless otherwise noted), and closes at 11:59 pm PST on the day of the program’s deadline (available here). Admission is for fall quarter only, there is no year-round admission.

Application process: Students should discuss their proposed area of research in stem cells in their Personal Statement. Upon being accepted to a PhD program, students will apply to the IBSC CIRM training program fellowship as a current UCSC PhD student. To participate in the next IBSC program cohort beginning in January, application forms will be made available in late summer and can be found at the bottom of the following webpage: https://ibsc.ucsc.edu/graduate-student-training/cirm-training-graduate-students. 

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Call for UCSC Stem Cell Justice Graduate Students (apply by October 7)

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The Departments of History and Sociology at UC Santa Cruz are recruiting PhD students to pursue research on stem cells.

UC Santa Cruz is known for its reputation as a center for the study of science (e.g. feminist science studies, multispecies studies, the study of race and genomics, science and justice).

In pursuing a research agenda situated in Stem Cell Justice, PhD students will have the opportunity to become part of our cross-divisional community of scholars. Students will participate in various transdisciplinary forums that may include the Center for Cultural Studies (CCS), the program in Global and Community Health (GCH), the Institute for the Biology of Stem Cells (IBSC), the Science & Justice Research Center (SJRC), and events regularly sponsored by the Departments of History of Consciousness, Anthropology, Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, Feminist Studies, History, Sociology, and Politics.

Current UCSC PhD students are invited to apply for a fellowship. Fellowship funding is provided from a grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine overseen by the UCSC Institute for the Biology of Stem Cells (IBSC) who coordinates opportunities for training and research related to the biology of stem cells. IBSC Directors Lindsay Hinck (Professor, MCD Biology) and Camilla Forsberg (Professor, Biomolecular Engineering) lead the institute’s stem cell training and career development programs.

History and Sociology mentoring faculty are particularly interested in the following areas of study:

  • Jennifer Derr (History) My research agenda engages the relationship between the histories of science and medicine and those of capitalism. A portion of this agenda relates to questions of bioethics and the social relations that undergird particular research agendas, such as those bound up with stem cell research. My own research is situated in the Middle East and North Africa. I am particularly well-suited to advise trainees on the implications of stem cell research for the Global South.
  • Jenny Reardon (Sociology) My research draws into focus questions about identity, justice and democracy that are often silently embedded in scientific ideas and practices. My training spans molecular biology, ecology, the history of biology, science studies, feminist and critical race studies, and the sociology of science, technology and medicine. I am also the Founding Director of the Science & Justice Research Center, and oversee the Science & Justice Training Program, a nationally and internationally recognized training program that teaches graduate students in science and engineering how to respond to the places where questions of ethics and justice meet questions of science and knowledge. I am particularly well-suited to advise students on the governance of stem cell science and the emergence of novel uses of stem cell research in areas such as agriculture.

More information about the funding can be found in this campus news article: Stem cell agency funds research training program at UC Santa Cruz

CONTACT

Further information about IBSC research groups that work on stem cell biology topics can be found on their websites. Please contact the faculty mentor, center manager or department PhD program coordinator with questions regarding participating in their research group or applying to their program.

Institute for the Biology of Stem Cells (IBSC) | Directors Lindsay Hinck (lhinck@ucsc.edu) and Camilla Forsberg (cforsber@ucsc.edu); IBSC Program Manager (ibsc@ucsc.edu)

https://ibsc.ucsc.edu/ibsc-home

Science & Justice Research Center (SJRC) | Founding Director Jenny Reardon (reardon1@ucsc.edu); Manager Colleen Stone (colleen@ucsc.edu)

https://scijust.ucsc.edu/

History | Professor Jennifer L. Derr (jderr@ucsc.edu); Coordinator Cindy Morris (morrisc@ucsc.edu)

https://history.ucsc.edu/graduate/index.html

Sociology | Professor Jenny Reardon (reardon1@ucsc.edu); Coordinator (socyga@ucsc.edu) 

https://sociology.ucsc.edu/graduate/prospective-students/index.html

APPLICATIONS

To participate in the next IBSC program cohort beginning January 2023, current UC Santa Cruz PhD students should apply to the IBSC CIRM training program fellowship in Fall 2022; by October 7. Application forms will be made available in late summer 2022 and can be found at the bottom of the following webpage: https://ibsc.ucsc.edu/graduate-student-training/cirm-training-graduate-students.

JOB Announcement | Assistant or Associate Professor Critical Race Science and Technology Studies

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The Critical Race and Ethnic Studies (CRES) Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) is pleased to announce the following position up to Associate Professor III in Critical Race Science and Technology Studies (STS).

We seek a scholar whose research falls in any area of Critical Race STS—including scholars trained in indigenous, critical ethnic, Black, gender, and/or trans studies whose work critically engages the embedded racism, sexism, and colonial violence of science and scientific worldviews and their correlate, enlightenment humanism. A demonstrated record of research that de-centers Western scientific ways of knowing and challenges extractivist capitalist practices is especially welcome as are commitments to queer and indigenous ecologies, trans-species studies, and race-radical approaches to STEM.

In addition to teaching responsibilities for the new Science and Justice minor, which CRES is developing in collaboration with the Science and Justice Research Center, this position requires a clear commitment to and willingness to lead programmatic and curricular development for the new interdisciplinary minor.

Ideal applicants will demonstrate an approach to science and technology grounded in histories of and innovative methods of analyzing anticolonial, decolonizing, liberationist political thought and praxis, push the boundaries of the fields they inhabit, ask provocative questions, and relate critically and creatively to norms of knowledge production.

Potential areas of research and teaching focus, among various areas of expertise, include but are not limited to environmental racism; climate justice; genomic justice; war technologies; medicine; public health; governance of science and technology; science policy; criminology, surveillance, and policing; border control; educational technologies; new media studies; critical data studies; histories of antiracism and anticolonialism in science, including the impact of grassroots collective and communal movements against racist science; and CRES engagement with the creative arts that facilitates a nexus between creative and critical inquiry.

TO APPLY: 

For full details and application, visit: https://recruit.ucsc.edu/JPF01367

Initial review date is Monday, November 02, 2022 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time).

For more information about this recruitment contact tainslie@ucsc.edu, please refer to position #JPF01367 in all correspondence.

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Call for 2022-2023 SJRC Graduate Student Researcher

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Interested in the Intersections of Science and Justice?

Want to Develop Responsible Collaborative Research and Public Events?

Science & Justice seeks a graduate student researcher who:

  • has successfully completed the Science & Justice Training Program;
  • is able to attend SJWG meetings typically on Wednesday’s from 4-6PM and create rapporteur reports;
  • actively participates in building science and justice research and has an interest in mentoring others on research projects;
  • is interested in helping to develop Science and Justice curriculum;
  • and can translate trending news items that integrate components of real world applications with science and justice concerns into blog pieces that are posted on the S&J website and shared on social media.

The Graduate Student Researcher (GSR) is offered a 50% appointment.

To Apply: submit materials to scijust@ucsc.edu 

By: Friday, July 15, 2022 12noon

Applicants should email their CV and a 1-2 page application that presents:

  • what experiences they have that would make them good for this position;
  • their interests in the Center’s research and how their work/research/career goals would benefit from the position;
  • their ideas about cross-divisional and interdisciplinary collaborations, especially among humanists, engineers, natural scientists, artists and social scientists as well as ones that are community/academia partnerships;
  • and what ideas they would bring to S&J.

Key Items for 2022-2023

RESEARCH PROJECTS – Assist in Science & Justice research projects (for example: LEED, Building Diversity, Theorizing Race After Race); assist with developing and maintaining collaborations among humanists, engineers, natural scientists, artists and social scientists as well as community/academia partnerships at all scholarly levels. Help to engage undergraduates in faculty led collaborative projects. Help prepare partnership grant proposals.

CURRICULUM – Assist with developing undergraduate curriculum including a minor and linkages between the social sciences, African Diaspora Studies, history, politics, and genomic science to better understand questions of diversity.

Fall/Winter/Spring Programming – Work with a planning committee on Science & Justice programming.

General Scope – In consultation with the Center Manager and Director(s), the GSR will assist to implement Center programming and research. Correspond with Project Leaders on the development of research projects and help oversee undergraduate student researchers. Responsibilities may include: organizing, planning, and co-facilitating groups; training and coordinating teams of undergraduate researchers who may also be co-facilitating groups and assist with documentation, interviews, transcription and data analysis; fostering collaboration and teamwork among researchers; reviewing research relevant to Center themes and areas of inquiry; creating infographics, outreach materials, and reports and articles based on findings or events; develop and contribute to Center communication channels (ie: blog posts, news articles) for sharing research findings on campus and to the broader public; and participating in core SJRC activities and happenings.

Call for Participation

Summer 2022 | Undergraduate Student Researcher Opportunity (PAID)

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The Science & Justice Research Center and the Sociology Department are now accepting applications for a:

Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow

This position and the research conducted is supported by a Faculty Research Grant provided by the Committee on Research from the University of California, Santa Cruz awarded to Principal Investigator James Doucet-Battle (Assistant Professor of Sociology) under the project titled, “Building Diversity in Sociology and Science and Technology Studies”. The opportunity was established to support summer research conducted by a UCSC Sociology Undergraduate Student.

In consultation with Colleen Stone at the Science & Justice Research Center (SJRC) and the PI (Doucet-Battle), one undergraduate student researcher enrolled in the UCSC Department of Sociology will be awarded $2000 to develop and implement the proposed research project.

The researcher will: 1) assist developing and conducting a local study that compiles campus literature, conduct interviews and collect updates from relevant parties and those leading campus efforts, and helps identify novel mechanisms for strengthening diversity in Sociology and STS in our department, 2) assist with organizing a one day workshop to brainstorm/develop a 1-year action plan to implement at UCSC. Responsibilities may also include: assisting with organizing, planning, and co-facilitating groups and assist with documentation, reviewing research relevant to proposed themes and areas of inquiry, preparing for and conducting interviews, transcription and data analysis, creating outreach materials and reports based on findings or events including infographics, charts, and diagrams, developing and contributing to available communication channels (ie: blog posts, news articles) for sharing research findings. 

More information about the “Building Diversity in Sociology and Science and Technology Studies” project can be found in the plan narrative for the UC-HBCU small grant initiative submitted in 2022 (pending award). 

The Student Must:

  • Be currently enrolled as an undergraduate student at UC Santa Cruz and declared as a Sociology major (all Sociology majors may apply; enrollment during summer is not required).
  • Be interested in strengthening diversity and participation in sociology, science and justice, and science and technology studies.

The Ideal Candidate:

  • Will be interested in continuing the project beyond Summer 2022 and through the 2022-2023 academic year.
  • Will be interested in using this research as part of a senior thesis which could be overseen by Doucet-Battle. 
  • Will meet the eligibility requirements for the UC Santa Cruz Building Belonging Program.

The Student Will:

  • Be awarded $2000 [$1000 distributed at the beginning of summer and $1000 upon submitting an end-of-summer report. Equals a 25% effort (10 hrs/week) from July 1 – Sept 30 at $15 per hour].
  • Be offered a summer fellowship with the SJRC and listed on the Project’s webpage.
  • Adhere to IRB standards for working with human research subjects, if applicable.
  • Work closely with a team to develop clear goals, research methods, and intended outcomes with an outline of items to be completed over Summer 2022.
  • Submit an end-of-summer report of project status and/or research findings with suggestions for next steps.

To Apply:

By Monday, May 23 at 12 Noon, email (scijust@ucsc.edu) expressing interest, letting us know and sending the following:

  1. Your name, major, academic faculty advisor(s).
  2. Your resume/CV.
  3. Why you are interested in the project and how your learning/research/career goals would benefit from the fellowship.
  4. Your experiences with the project topic, if any.
  5. Any ideas briefly describing potential research to be developed or completed over Summer 2022.

October 21, 2021 | Theorizing Race After Race

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Thursday, October 21, 2021

4:00 – 5:30pm

Zoom

Join Science & Justice scholars for an open discussion of Theorizing Race After Race!

At this session we’ll discuss our collective reading and writing projects.

Those interested in learning more or developing a dialogue or framework for grappling with race and racism in this so-called “post-racial” era, should join us. For the Zoom link, please contact Jenny Reardon (reardon1@ucsc.edu) or Camilla Hawthorne (camilla@ucsc.edu).

The first two dialogues are linked below.

More information on the cluster can be found at: https://scijust.ucsc.edu/2019/05/17/theorizing-race-after-race/.

Call for Participation

Prospective Student Opportunity | history of science, medicine, environment in the Global South

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The Department of History at UC Santa Cruz is recruiting two PhD students to begin in the fall of 2022 to pursue research on the histories of science, medicine, and/or the environment in the Global South. Applicants may specialize in the study of the Middle East and North Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, South Asia, East Asia, or indigenous communities across the globe. Applicants may – but need not be – from the geographies that fall within the broad category of the Global South as long as their research agenda is focused on the geographies described.

UCSC is known for its reputation as a center for the study of science (e.g. feminist science studies, multispecies studies, the study of race and genomics). The successful applicant will become part of an interdisciplinary community of scholars whose work focuses on questions of science, medicine, and the environment. In pursuing a research agenda situated in the Global South, they will have the opportunity to join researchers across the university and to participate in various transdisciplinary forums that include the Science and Justice Research group, the Center for Cultural Studies, the program in Global and Community Health, the Center for Southeast Asian Coastal Interactions, and events sponsored by the Departments of Politics, Sociology, History of Consciousness, Feminist Studies, Anthropology, and Critical Race and Ethnic Studies. In addition to university support, successful applicants will receive funding for language training and research from a CAREER grant from the National Science Foundation on the theme of “The History of Science at the Interface of Biomedical and Environmental Concerns,” whose Principal Investigator is Jennifer L. Derr (History).

Further information about the history department’s graduate program can be found on their web page (https://history.ucsc.edu/graduate/index.html).

Please contact Jennifer L. Derr (jderr@ucsc.edu) or the Graduate Program Coordinator for the Department of History, Cindy Morris (morrisc@ucsc.edu) with any questions regarding applying or the graduate program.

Applications must be submitted no later than December 11, 2021.

Call for Participation

Fall 2021 Undergraduate Student Researcher Opportunity

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The Science & Justice Research Center is pleased to announce we are now accepting applications for a:

Undergraduate Individual Study

The Science & Justice Research Center (SJRC) invites undergraduate students to join a cohort of researchers for the  Fall 2021 term. The Individual Study can range from 2-5 units and are part of a group. Independently, students can also work on senior thesis projects in areas related to Center themes (ie: forensic genomics, queer ecology, CRISPR, data privacy and biosurveillance, health care disparities and incarceration, the future of public goods, artificial intelligence and ethics, reproducibility and diversity in research).

SJRC student researchers help inform collaborative research, contribute to co-authored developing blogs, podcasts, and websites, opinion pieces, papers and proposals as well as help design Center programming. Students may track, collect, and organize articles from prominent theorists of race, inequality, and science and technology studies to continue our study of the social, political, and economic dimensions of the COVID-19 pandemic. More specifically, opportunities include: working with a current cohort of students, staff and faculty affiliates to continue work in progress, conduct interviews and prepare transcriptions, edit interviews, create outreach materials sharing findings of research activities with the broader public (ie: writing blogposts, articles or reports, creating infographics, podcast episodes, animations, illustrations, interactive documentary websites, etc.).

Those interested in broadcast journalism, social documentation, digital and online student and public engagement via blogs, podcasts and additional mediums (ie: animations, soundscapes, illustrations, etc.) and promotion methods (ie: social media, charts, graphics, photographs, maps, other new or historical oral and written materials) are especially encouraged to apply.

 

Available Fall 2021

Incarcerated Care – up to 4 students will work directly with Film and Digital Media Professor Sharon Daniel’s team of researchers to expand the Unjustly Exposed interactive documentary website on COVID-19 in prisons and jails. Learn more: Unjustly Exposed, Public Art and Carcerality.

To Apply:

By Tuesday, October 12 at 12 noon, students should email (scijust@ucsc.edu) with their resume/CV to express interest. We’re excited to learn about you, teach you what we’ve learned from each other, and incorporate your ideas! Please let us know the following:

  1. your name, major(s), any faculty advisors.
  2. any experiences with related items, why you are interested in being involved and how your curriculum, research, or career goals would benefit from the internship.
  3. propose any ideas or intended outcomes you would be interested in completing over Fall 2021, including your preferred methods and mediums.