Viral Imaginations: COVID-19 Graduate Student Assistantship Call for Applications

The Penn State Bioethics Program is pleased to share this graduate student assistantship position announcement and call for applications in support of the Viral Imaginations: COVID-19 project.

Specifically, the project is an interdisciplinary, Penn State-sponsored, web-based gallery and archive featuring Pennsylvanians’ coronavirus pandemic experiences expressed through creative writing and visual art.  The project establishes a repository for these expressive, first-person reflections during a time of uncertainty, illness, loss, and healing.  It also gathers a body of creative responses to COVID-19 for future study by the public, health providers, scholars, and policy makers.  (For more information, see: viralimaginations.psu.edu) 

The project graduate assistant will play a key role in the endeavor during the course of the 2-semester, 20-hour-per-week assistantship, starting in the fall of 2020.  In this role, the student will:

• provide ongoing, front-line curation for the project
• respond to project inquiries;
• update the project website;
• create an archive of Pennsylvania-based news coverage of the pandemic;
• search for project grant opportunities; and
• support project faculty in grant applications, research, and presentations related to the project, and as well as continued site development.   

Eligibility and Nomination/Application

To be eligible, students must be on track in their Penn State graduate program and be able to commit 20 hours per week for the course of 2 semesters, starting in the fall of 2020.  

Nomination/Application Procedures:  Nominations/Applications must include:

• a letter of intent from the student discussing why this position and participation in the Viral Imaginations: COVID-19 project would provide mutual benefit to the project and to the student’s educational/career goals;
• a current CV; and
• a short letter of recommendation and support from the student’s advisor or director of graduate studies. 

The application deadline is May 1, 2020.  Application materials should be submitted electronically to mmekel@psu.edu.  Please include “Viral Imaginations: COVID-19 Project Graduate Assistantship Application” in the subject line.

The Viral Imaginations-COVID-19 project is an interdisciplinary endeavor by the Penn State Bioethics Program, the College of Arts and Architecture, the College of the Liberal Arts, the College of Medicine, and the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences. 

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