Internships at Social Media Collective, Microsoft Research New England

Microsoft Research New England is looking for PhD candidates to become interns in their Social Media Collective—focusing on sociotechnical research questions—for Summer 2014. Internships will last 12 weeks, on-site in Cambridge, MA. Fields of interest include communication, sociology, anthropology, media studies, information studies, science and technology studies, and other social science and humanities disciplines. Focus areas of interest include:

1. The ethics and politics of big data, algorithms, and computational culture
2. Entertainment and news industries and audiences
3. Affective, immaterial, and other frameworks for understanding digital labor
4. Critical accounts of urban informatics and crisis communication
5. Personal relationships and digital media

The expectations of interns are also elaborated:

PhD interns at MSRNE are expected to devise and execute a research project during their internships. The expected outcome of an internship at MSRNE is a publishable scholarly paper for an academic journal or conference of the intern’s choosing. The goal of the internship is to help the intern advance their own career; interns are strongly encouraged to work towards a publication outcome that will help them on the academic job market. Interns are also expected to collaborate on projects or papers with full-time researchers and visitors, give short presentations, and contribute to the life of the community. While this is not an applied program, MSRNE encourages interdisciplinary collaboration with computer scientists, economists, and mathematicians.

The application deadline is January 31, 2014. For more details and how to apply, view the full announcement on the Social Media Collective Web site.