Undergraduate Training Programs and Resources
REU Site Summer Institute 2013: Race, Ethnicity, and the Demography of Crime and Punishment
The Population Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin, in collaboration with the Department of Sociology, is hosting the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program in Race, Ethnicity, and the Demography of Crime and Punishment for the summer of 2013. This eight-week summer program, which is held during June and July and is funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation (but also with significant contributions from the UT Population Research Center, Department of Sociology, and College of Liberal Arts), offers eight very selective upper-division undergraduate students from both UT-Austin and from around the country the opportunity to study social demography through course work and a mentored research experience with senior PRC graduate students. The program pays for tuition, room and board, and computer expenses. REU students also receive a $4,000 stipend for participation in the program, which allows the selected students to fully concentrate on their REU experience over the 2-month program. Students participate in a 3-hour summer course during the first half of the program, then dedicate the second half of the program to their own projects in collaboration with their graduate student mentor and under the overall guidance of the faculty co-directors, David Kirk and Keith Robinson. Student papers are then presented at the fall meeting of the American Society of Criminology. Former students from the REU program are now on the faculties of Johns Hopkins University, Rice University, Pennsylvania State University, Vanderbilt University, University of Texas at Austin, University of Pennsylvania, and more, and currently in social science graduate programs at the Universities of Wisconsin, Chicago, Michigan, North Carolina, Texas, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and California at Los Angeles, as well as Harvard University, Stanford University, Princeton University, Northwestern University, Duke University, and more. This program is specifically geared toward students with junior standing who are seriously thinking about attending graduate school in the social sciences and, particularly, in sociology or demography.
Undergraduate student participants must be citizens or permanent residents of the U.S. or its possessions.
*Federal funding for this program is pending until we receive official notification from the National Science Foundation.*
The application period for the summer 2013 REU program is closed. The deadline for applications was February 28, 2013.
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. SMA-1262384.
UT Undergraduate Certificate Program: "Social Inequality, Health, and Policy"
UT's Bridging Disciplines Program (BDP) is an interdisciplinary certificate program that helps students organize area requirements, electives, major requirements, internships, and research experiences around an interdisciplinary theme. One of the eight interdisciplinary themes, "Social Inequality, Health, and Policy," introduces students to the statistical study of human populations, with fundamental attention to issues of social and economic inequality. Through courses in Sociology, Educational Psychology, Anthropology, Social Work, Economics, Government, and Geography, students develop their skills in demography and policy analysis. Students may create specializations related to Family, Fertility & Human Development, Migration & Diaspora Population Studies, Public Health & Social Ethnology, and Social Inequality & Public Policy.
Undergraduate students accepted into the Social Inequality, Health, and Policy BDP have the opportunity to intern on faculty research projects at the PRC, better preparing them for graduate school, and for careers with governmental agencies, nonprofit organizations, and corporations.
For more information on this program, please visit the BDP program's website.
EUREKA!
The University of Texas at Austin has a Web-based resource called EUREKA! to inspire undergraduate students to become involved in research and innovation and to enhance communication among faculty members across colleges and schools. The site features a university-wide directory of the research interests of more than 1,500 faculty members. With EUREKA!, students can find professors with expertise on subjects ranging from "adolescence" and "aging" to "urban studies" and "viruses." The Web site also allows students and faculty to identify areas of expertise by browsing according to college, department, research projects and research/academic unit.


