The Georgetown Initiative for Innovation, Development and Evaluation (gui2de) is looking for two undergraduate research assistants (RAs) interested in getting a hands-on data analysis experience this summer, by working with gui2de affiliated professors on data-related tasks, descriptive analysis, blog-writing or report-writing.

The opportunity is reserved for undergraduate students, and sponsored via the Global Development Studies Minor at the SFS. All undergraduates are welcome to apply, but students who are enrolled in the minor, or intend to enroll in the minor, will be given special consideration.

The students will be hired into hourly campus-based Research Assistant positions. This will be a part-time position, with about 15-20 hours of work expected over 6 weeks, from mid May to the end of June.

The summer fellows will be onboarded and trained with the larger cohort of gui2de field summer interns. If you are interested in the field summer internship instead of a data-based fellowship, please check out this announcement.

To apply, please fill out this google from 

The deadline for applications is Friday March 7, 2025.

Applicants may be asked to participate in several interviews with gui2de staff and faculty. The application form asks for coding and writing samples, but these are not mandatory to apply. They can be taken from classes, professional experiences, or any other context. Please note that the summer internship is an experiential learning opportunity, and there are no prerequisites. We hope that the experience serves as an opportunity for students to learn new skills and continue to strengthen pre existing skills. We are looking for students who are eager to get involved in both the logistical and analytics components of empirical research projects, and who demonstrate strong abilities to work collaboratively with diverse teams, problem-solve, and work with self-direction. No previous international experience is required. 

We will be two fellows. We describe below the projects that are likely to recruit fellows this summer. Please note other projects may be added to the mix, and students will be informed of them during the interview process.

Please contact Béatrice Leydier (bl517@georgetown.edu), WWHGE Research Director at gui2de, with any questions. 

Project Descriptions

Supernatural on Trial: How Indian Courts Navigate Witchcraft Accusations – Shareen Joshi

This research examines how India’s legal system addresses witchcraft accusations by analyzing approximately 20,000 cases from the eCourts District Courts portal. By systematically documenting patterns in prosecution, conviction rates, and judicial reasoning, we investigate how a modern constitutional democracy navigates cases involving supernatural allegations. The project combines comprehensive judicial data with district-level socioeconomic indicators from the SHRUG (Socioeconomic High-resolution Rural-Urban Geographic) Platform to understand the spatial and temporal distribution of witchcraft cases across India’s diverse regions. Through this analysis, we aim to identify patterns in case-loads, judicial outcomes, and their relationship to local development indicators.

Foundational Literacy in South Africa – Jacobus Cilliers

You will contribute to a new project looking at long-term impacts of a foundational literacy program implemented in South Africa, called the Early Grade Reading Study (EGRS), which was implemented in 2015-2017, targeting successively grade 1, 2 and 3 classes. Previous research has shown that the initial interventions were effective at improving student literacy (Cilliers et al, 2020). A follow-up study assessed students at the end of grade 7 and found persistence in home language literacy skills, transference of skills to English literacy, and reduction in grade repetition rates (Cillers et al, 2023). This project will continue tracking the same students through the end of their 12th year of school to test for longer-term impacts on school performance, literacy and a broader set of skills, and to examine heterogeneity in long-term impacts.