Sociology Undergraduate Research Program
SURP is a quarter-long program that gives current Sociology majors the opportunity to gain research experience and contribute to ongoing projects led by faculty and graduate students.
Participating students will receive course credit (SOC 499) according to the number of hours worked, or for completing specific tasks. Projects offer between 2 and 5 credits. All SOC 499 credits are graded C/NC.
SURP runs during Autumn, Winter, and Spring quarters. Please check this page for current project descriptions, which will update quarterly.
Applications for Winter 2026 close on November 16, 2025. Students may apply to up to three projects.
Application timeline:
- November 3–16: Accepting applications for Winter 2026
- November 24–28: Applicants receive offers
Please carefully review the project descriptions and requirements below before applying.
Winter 2026 Opportunities
Project 1: Enemy Aliens: German Internment During WWI
Professor Peter Catron (faculty supervisor)
Project Goals: This project is assessing the long-term consequences of German internment during the First World War. The data include information on all individuals who the U.S. interned during WWI under the Enemy Aliens Act.
Credits: 3
Hiring: 1–2 students
Research Work:
- Transcribe assigned number of historical records each week (involves using an app, which displays the record image and the fields that we need to transcribe from the record image.)
- Attend weekly research team meetings
Required Skills:
- Basic R skills
Preferred Skills:
- Interest in history
Project 2: The Childless Society? Adult Exposure to Children in an Era of Demographic Aging
Professor Audrey Dorélien (faculty supervisor)
Project Goals: One consequence of declining fertility is that intergenerational contacts between adults and children may be declining. This project will quantify patterns of contacts between adults and children (kin and non-kin) and document the settings in which these types of contacts take place. The project will use a novel type of datasets, social contact surveys, which define contacts as in-person conversation or physical contact between individuals, including strong and weak contacts. This matters because exposure to children may influence fertility intentions.
Credits: 2
Hiring: 1–2 students
Research Work:
- Literature reviews: social networks and fertility, intergenerational contacts and social capital, and more
- Data visualizations: using R or Strata
- Project meetings
- Research log/diary to record progress
Required Skills:
- Critical reading and analysis skills
- Ability to organize materials: Background, Evidence, Argument, and Methods/Theory sources
Preferred Skills:
- Strata or R experience
Project 3: Shephards and Kings: How Philanthropy Stymies Diversity's Potential
Professor Jelani Ince (faculty supervisor)
Project Goals: This is a book project under contract with Princeton University Press. It is a qualitative analysis of a Midwestern church congregation's attempt to make diversity a core practice of their community in the aftermath of the Black Lives Matter protests across the country. The goals will be to marry the contributions of subfields in sociology — the sociology of race, the sociology of religion, and the sociology of culture — to make sense of how and why this project was unsuccessful.
Credits: 2–3
Hiring: 1–3 students
Research Work:
- Identify key studies in subfields that are relevant for the project
- Outline and write a literature review for the book's chapters
- Transcribe follow-up interviews from recent fieldwork
- Specific progress benchmarks
- Maintain consistent communication with faculty supervisor
Required Skills:
- Familiarity with building a literature review for a sociological audience
- Typing (for transcription)
- Proficiency in English
- Good organization
- Patience
- Being a proactive team member
Preferred Skills:
- Interest in DEI, racial inequality, and churches more broadly
- Interest in qualitative methods
Project 4: Nature and the Life Course
Professor Sasha Johfre (faculty supervisor)
Project Goals: What is the value of nature across the life course? In this project, we are interviewing two groups of people: older adult gardeners and youth outdoor educators. We seek to better understand how nature and the outdoors are conceptualized and valued in the lives of people of very young and very old ages.
Credits: 2–5
Hiring: 2–4 students
Research Work:
- Transcribe interviews
- Identify potential interview participants
- Review scholarly literature
- Communicate with research team
Required Skills:
- Typing (for transcription)
- Proficiency in English
- Detail-orientation
Preferred Skills:
- Ability to find, read, and synthesize scholarly literature
- Fluency in Korean (not required)
Project 5: Procedural Justice from the State Level
Amber Burrell (graduate student supervisor)
Project Goals: In 2021, the Washington State Supreme Court’s State v. Blake decision found the law criminalizing drug possession unconstitutional. Blake-related convictions in Washington State qualify to be removed from individuals’ criminal records, and any legal financial obligations paid as a result qualify for financial reimbursement. Examining state agencies and organizations, this project investigates how Blake teams work as a whole to provide and serve the community. We will conduct focus groups with each agency/organization to understand how they provide justice in service to the impacted community given the legal structures of the state. These sessions will be held remotely over Zoom and will be semi-structured with specific agency questions, dependent on their specialty.
Credits: 3–5
Hiring: 1–3 students
Research Work:
- Assist with focus groups (attend and share reflections)
- Complete accurate transcripts and correct transcription errors
- Complete code analysis for 3–4 recordings
- Initial coding/memo
Required Skills:
- Interest in learning about qualitative research (beginners welcome!)
- Preferred Skills:
- Practice with qualitative analysis
- Experience attending a focus group
Project 6: Popular Feminism and Gender Politics in China
Celine Liao (graduate student supervisor)
Project Goals: Via information and communications technologies (ICTs), young feminists were able to raise consciousness and connect with others across the nation, creating a new wave of “Chinese feminist awakening” (Xiao 2015, Wu & Dong 2019). As feminism becomes popular in China, how do individuals from different social backgrounds and lived experiences interpret and practice “feminism”? In this project, you will identify and interview participants to explore their diverse feminist experiments—ranging from virtual communities to offline free spaces such as independent feminist bookstores, women’s co-living collectives, women’s bars, cinephile salons, and student groups.
Credits: 3
Hiring: 1–5 students
Research Work:
- Collect information of existing organizations/establishments
- Conduct interviews
- Write interview summaries and short reflections, submit memos
- Attend research meetings
Required Skills:
- Proficiency in Chinese
- Need an electronic device (e.g. computer or phone) for recording interview
Preferred Skills:
- Interview experience (not required)
Project 7: Cultural Citizenship in Tennis Clubs
Karthik Ramesh (graduate student supervisor)
Project Goals: In this project, we will use qualitative interviews to examine how tennis club community members experience institutional and cultural membership within the organization.
Credits: 2–4
Hiring: 1–2 students
Research Work:
- Support literature review
- Conduct interviews
- Code interviews
- Attend research meetings
- Depending on your interests, there may be opportunities to develop your own research or interview questions.
Required Skills:
- Literature review experience
- Preferred Skills:
- Experience conducting and coding interviews
Apply here: Winter 2026 SURP Application
Application will open on Monday, November 3rd at 8am and close on Sunday, November 16th at 11:59pm.