Call for Applications: Research Assistant Position with the Children and Age-Appropriate Game Design Project, working with Professor Sara Grimes, Faculty of Information, University of Toronto
Job Description
Approximately 7.5 hours/week from September 08, 2022 – March 7, 2023 (with a possibility of renewal); anticipated rate of pay $35-$40/hour.
Dr. Sara M. Grimes, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Information, is seeking a Research Assistant to help in the design, background research, and data collection for a cross-cultural comparative study of age-based regulations, design standards, and player perceptions, relating to digital games. The RA will assist with recruitment and moderating a series of play-based focus groups, some with children and some with game developers; assist with the design and orchestration of follow up interviews; as well as collect, archive, and organize the data collected concurrently by teams in Canada and the UK. The RA will also aid in design and preparation for data collection, e.g., contributing to the drafting of the research ethics application and determining the interview script. Data collected will be used to foster a more informed and balanced discussion of how to best support children’s rights, needs, and interests within both game development and regulation moving forward, by highlighting the unique perspectives and expertise of both child players and children’s game developers.
Responsibilities:
- Assist with the literature review and review of relevant policies (regulatory and industry), guidelines, and age-based ratings systems;
- Assist with the preparation of the study ethics application;
- Assist with participant recruitment;
- Assist with designing, moderating and recording focus groups with children and focus groups with children’s game/app developers (data collection);
- Assist with inputting, cleaning, and managing the collected data in a secure database;
- Contribute to the preparation of academic and impact outputs, including co-authoring relevant published articles and reports, and presenting or co-presenting papers at academic conferences and/or community outreach events;
- Attend regular virtual meetings with the research team;
- Submit a weekly record/documentation of your work, process, progress, and findings (weekly research memos).
Qualifications:
- Previous experience working with children, or strong/demonstrated knowledge of children’s studies, children’s media and/or children’s literature theories;
- Formal training in common qualitative social science research methods (e.g., interviews, focus groups);
- Strong to excellent research skills, especially relating to qualitative research methods and modes of analysis, and relevant tools (e.g., NVivo, etc.);
- Strong to excellent skills in data management, and knowledge of relevant tools and software (e.g. SPSS, Excel, OneDrive, etc.);
- Strong to excellent written and verbal communication skills;
- Committed, reliable, organized, ability to work both independently and as part of a team.
Qualified applicants must be legally entitled to work in Canada for the duration of the contract and may be required to complete work remotely as needed. Preference will be given to current PhD students in Information or a comparable discipline. The University of Toronto is strongly committed to diversity within its community and especially welcomes applications from racialized persons / persons of colour, First Nations, Inuit, and Métis people, persons with disabilities, LGBTQ persons, and others who may contribute to the further diversification of ideas and perspectives.
Please note that start and end dates are negotiable (to some extent). If you have any questions, concerns, or require assistance completing this application please contact sara.grimes@utoronto.ca
How to apply:
Email sara.grimes@utoronto.ca with brief cover letter and CV.
Applications are open until the position is filled. Please note that only qualified, short-listed applicants will be selected for an interview.