inese Urban Foraging Research Assistantship [NYC]
Start date: February 20, 2014 (flexible)
End date: May 20, 2014 (flexible)
Responsibilities:
The research assistant will work part@time 10@20 hours a week to help the field researcher collect data by contacting and conducting ethnographic interviews, focus groups and outdoor field observations with Chinese urban foragers in New York City. The research assistant will also help to enter and analyze data by translating and transcribing interviews from Chinese to English and organizing plant data.
Requirements:
– Ability to fluently converse, read and write in Chinese (both Cantonese and Mandarin)
– Excellent verbal communication and listening skills
– Positive, friendly attitude
– Responsible, adaptable, organized, and detail@oriented
– Ability to work independently and collaboratively
– Local to the New York City area
Additional desired attributes:
– Ability to converse in Taishanese and/or Fujianese a plus
– Experience in interviewing and/or other social science research methods
– Experience in Chinese@English translation
– Interest in anthropology, botany and/or urban ecology
About the project:
Urban residents long have turned to their immediate environs for small volumes of plants and fungi to use as food, medicine, ceremonial materials, and other purposes. Research suggests that contributions from foraging may include maintenance of traditional cultural practices, as well as physical and mental health and wellbeing, and the protection of common space in urban settings. However, how the practice of urban foraging relates to personal, social, and ecological resilience for urban immigrant communities is still understudied. Chinese immigrants are one of the major foraging populations in New York City. This research project expands our understanding of the social ecological systems of urban green space use through the study of foraging by Chinese Americans in New York City.
This study will catalog of the species commonly foraged by the New York City Chinese community, together with their specific cultural uses, and examine the social, political, spatial and temporal nature of foraging habits.
Understanding these social@ecological systems offers a grounded opportunity to probe theory and advance practice in resilience and sustainable cities. This research is part of the joint New York City Parks U.S. Forest Service s New York City Urban Field Station program on Resilience, Health, and Wellbeing (http://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/nyc/focus/resilience_health_well_being/urban_foraging/).
Compensation: $15/hour (up to $3000 over the course of the assistantship)
To apply:
Please submit a resume and a cover letter which includes the following:
– Statement of interest
– Experience and skills related to interviewing, translation and social research
– Relevant courses taken (anthropology, botany, environmental studies, etc.)
Please email application materials by February 5th to:
Joana Chan
School of Natural Resources, University of Nebraska@Lincoln
jchan@huskers.unl.edu
