Sociology '14 working with Professor Mary Brinton

I started working as a research assistant with Professor Brinton during the summer of 2013. My initial responsibility included translating interviews from Spanish to English for her project on gender equity and low fertility rates in post-industrial societies. During the fall semester, however, my responsibilities shifted to conducting qualitative analysis of the interviews. Although I had had several research experiences prior to working with Professor Brinton, being a part of her research team was a unique experience that strengthened my analytical skills and gave me greater exposure to the day-to-day workings of a large-scale research project.

Because we were working with a large set of qualitative data, our research team had to strategize on the different methods we could use to analyze the interviews. I thus had the opportunity to write memos that summarized the main themes of each interview, use software to code for specific themes across interviews, and translate certain parts of the interview to gain a broader understanding of the overall picture. Through our weekly research team meetings, I was also able to contribute to the theoretical framework, which sharpened my ability to think critically about the various lenses used to frame a research project. Furthermore, working with Professor Brinton made me more attuned to how data collection and analysis ultimately shape the type of conclusions that are drawn from the data. Thus, working as a research assistant to Professor Brinton was a wonderful opportunity to put my academic sociological training into practice, and motivated me to continue pursuing research opportunities after graduation. I would therefore highly encourage any undergraduate, regardless of whether they have experience conducting research, to consider working on faculty research projects.