Shorenstein Center Student Research Assistants
Current Openings
Research Assistant for Kira Pollack, Walter Shorenstein Media and Democracy Fellow
Project Description:
Kira Pollack, an Emmy-award winning photo editor, and former creative director for Vanity Fair and deputy editor for TIME, is seeking a research assistant. Kira is currently a fellow at the Shorenstein Center at the Harvard Kennedy School.
During her fellowship at the Shorenstein Center, Kira is exploring how AI driven tools can help deepen our understanding of visual history, support authorship and legacy, and provide new solutions for image analysis and discovery. Her research will not only explore broader applications for the photojournalism industry, but also examine potential risks, including unauthorized AI training, inherent biases, and ethical challenges.
The research assistant will support a fellowship that examines AI’s ability to interpret and organize photojournalistic images, with implications for newsroom workflows, archiving, and ethical AI deployment. The ideal candidate will have an interest in photography, a working knowledge of AI models, and skills in prompt engineering.
Duties and Responsibilities (include, but not limited to):
Research AI applications in image recognition, metadata generation, and media archiving.
- Develop and refine AI prompts to optimize image analysis.
- Assist in testing AI models and documenting results.
- Summarize key AI policies related to journalism, copyright, and ethical concerns.
Ideal Candidates Will Have:
- Interest in photography, visual media, or journalism.
- Basic understanding of AI models and prompt engineering.
- Research experience in media, technology, or policy.
- Awareness of ethical and legal considerations in AI-generated content.
Time Commitment: Between 10 – 14 hours per week, starting April 1, 2025 (flexible) through August 31, 2025.
Pay: $22/hour
To apply, please email a brief cover letter and resume to Emily Roseman at Emily_Roseman@hks.harvard.edu.
Content Management and Social Media Research Assistant Positions
The Shorenstein Center is looking for students to gain practical experience working in web content creation and social media management. These two positions will work directly with the center’s core Communications and Events team, focused on two particular channels of the center’s communications outputs.
Social Media Research and Production Assistant:
The Shorenstein Center engages directly with its core external audiences of journalists and policy makers primarily through email and social media channels. We are looking for a very digital-savvy, creative Research & Production Assistant to join the team to help monitor our current social media channels, create native content (posts, graphics, and short video clips), and maintain a regular cadence of scheduled posts about our work and upcoming events, as well as helping the Communications team with launch campaigns for new publications and other research products. This person may also help with media monitoring and tracking interviews and other media hits for Shorenstein Center affiliated faculty, fellows, and staff.
Successful applicants for both roles will have an interest in media, technology, and/or public policy relating to the information ecosystem, be highly organized, reliable, and able to work independently between regular check-ins with the manager and team, and have excellent written and verbal communication skills. Students with experience in communications, digital media, and/or journalism are encouraged to apply, but we also encourage applications from people without this direct experience, but an excitement to learn from and be part of a collegial communications team.
RAs may work up to 20 hours per week, but we expect the average workload to be approximately 10-12 hours/week. RAs may start at any time during the semester, but are expected to stay in the position for at least 3-4 months (one semester) or more.
Pay: $22/hour
To apply for either role, please fill out this form. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.
