The National Center for Disaster Preparedness (NCDP), Columbia University invites K-12 educators join the team during summer 2021 to do research on racial inequalities and disasters. This is a unique opportunity for K-12 educators to gain experience translating scientific research and government policy into curriculum and practice. This program provides a $6,000 stipend, and all of the work will be conducted virtually. Applications are due April 9, 2021 and can be submitted here.

About the project:

COVID-19 has impacted communities of color and the working class with severe gravity. Navigating recovery in the context of COVID-19, as well as all disasters, surfaces several social disparities and unignorable racial inequalities that have recharacterized the role of the sciences to investigate policy and critically assess how data is collected, utilized, and implemented in the United States. NCDP has served as a thought leader on these social themes throughout the pandemic by analyzing housing protections as part of COVID-19 response and recovery, domestic violence amid the pandemic, and the increasing rate of evictions in several U.S. states. Additionally, NCDP has a wealth of data from previous longitudinal studies for which an intern could provide valuable quantitative and qualitative analyses. It is critical that this work on both COVID-19 and other disasters are continued and disseminated widely in the long-term. Interns will have the opportunity to adopt several different research lenses to address these challenges with the objective of understanding that science cannot be separated from the deeply embedded social obstacles in the United States.

Analysis Required:

K-12 educators will be encouraged to use statistical analysis software such as Dedoose and SPSS, geospatial tools such as ArcGIS, and qualitative research software such as ATLAS.ti to analyze a combination of NCDP datasets as well as publicly available datasets. However, both the student and the supervisor will design the research program, and therefore individual projects may contain variable amounts of data collection and data analysis. Multiple web-based courses on housing and economic recovery are also available to the student.

Prerequisites:

Applicants should have an interest in conducting research involving natural hazards, disaster recovery and preparedness, economic recovery as well as housing and urban planning.

The program features:

• A hands-on research project under the supervision of a Columbia-affiliated research scientist;
• Special lectures, workshops
• Mentors: Dr. Thomas Chandler (tec11@columbia.edu) and Joshua DeVincenzo (jld2225@columbia.edu), National Center for Disaster Preparedness