About the Program: The Social Science Summer Writing Internship Program (SWIP) is a collaboration between the Center for Innovation in Social Science (CISS) and the Writing in the Disciplines program. SWIP provides summer writing internships to undergraduate students studying social sciences by placing interns at a social science research institute on the BU campus for a nine-week period in the summer. Interns work about 15 hours per week and attend a 90-minute weekly writing workshop/seminar led by Writing Program Senior Lecturer Dr. Stephen Hodin. Interns also attend an orientation during the first week of the program, and a concluding program which includes interns’ presentations and guest speakers. SEE BELOW FOR APPLICATION FOR 2025.
Eligibility: Summer interns must be rising-juniors or rising-seniors in Summer 2025. Students must be currently enrolled at Boston University. Priority will be given to applicants majoring or minoring in a social sciences or related program in the College of Arts & Sciences.
Stipend: Each intern will receive a stipend of $2,500. The program does not provide housing.
Work Expectations: Interns work closely with their site supervisor, and carry out tasks including:
- Writing news, feature, and personality profile articles, that describe the research, teaching or outreach activities carried out at their site. The student interns develop story ideas through their own research and through consultation with their site supervisor.
- Interviewing faculty and students affiliated with their site, and producing short videos and/or podcasts (to be hosted on the site’s website) that showcase the research, teaching or service activities of the featured personnel.
- Assist with the institute’s website updates, including writing brief news items, summaries of recent research publications, brief statements publicizing events and achievements, and more.
- In consultation with their center supervisor and workshop leader Stephen Holdin, the interns design and compose a summer writing project based on their own social science research interests.
- Attend the seminar, held in the CISS conference room (704 Commonwealth Ave). Seminar dates will be (roughly) June 3-August 7.
Interns will bring to the internship a summer writing project that will be revised and remediated for a new audience. These projects may lead to developing a UROP proposal based on existing research, initiating an Honors thesis, or transforming existing research or course work into a scholarly journal article to be submitted to one of the BU student-run academic journals, such as Arché.
APPLICATION PROCESS: Applicants must submit: a resume and a brief (1 page) cover letter describing their interest in the program. These documents should be submitted as a single PDF file to JOTFORM. In addition, please have one faculty member submit a reference letter on your behalf to Shannon Landis (ciss@bu.edu), Center administrator (CISS) with the applicant’s name in the subject line. Finalists will be asked to submit a writing sample at a later date.
Timeline: Applications must be uploaded by 5 pm ET on Monday, March 10, 2025. Finalists will be notified during the week of March 17 and interviews will be scheduled over two weeks. Offers will be extended in late March.
Partners: Our 2025 partners are on the BU campus will include Center for Innovation in Social Science, Center on Forced Displacement, and others.
Questions: See here for more information about SWIP or reach out to CISS Director Deborah Carr (carrds@bu.edu) or Associate Director for Writing in the Disciplines, David Shawn (dshawn@bu.edu).
2024 Highlights: See the SWIP ’24 Showcase and the article from Arts + Sciences magazine about the 2024 SWIP internship, written by one of the program’s participants.
Nathaniel Clizbe, CAS ’25
Rayea Jain, COM ’26
Anne Joseph, CAS ’25
Devin Rauscher, CAS ’26
Mika Yao, CAS ’25
Funding for the Social Science Summer Writing Internship Program comes from Jennifer Simpson’s generous gift through the Psalm #103 Foundation.