The Immigrant Wellbeing and Technology (IWT) Lab is a community of people working on the intersection of immigrant wellbeing and technology. We meet biweekly on Fridays at 1pm. Members bring their own research to the group, present it, and get feedback on it. Some also work with me on my projects.
JOINING
Most people join as volunteers. Paid research assistantships come up occasionally, usually for U-M MSW students, and depend on project funding. At this time I do not have open RA positions, but I am building an interest pool and may reach out when opportunities arise.
You do not need prior research experience. What you work on depends on what you already know and what you want to learn: reading and coding text data, cleaning and mapping administrative data, building surveys, or writing. If you are volunteering, I will make sure the work is worth your time and teaches you something. Students who make substantial contributions can be involved in conference presentations and publications, and the lab has a written authorship policy that sets out how that works.
WHAT WE WORK ON
The lab’s studies use a few core methods. Depending on your interests and skills, you might work on:
- NLP and LLM based analysis of text data, such as administrative records and social media data
- Survey design
- Quantitative analysis of secondary and survey data
- Field research, including IRB preparation, interview guide design, conducting interviews, and analysis
- Literature reviews and review papers
You can see the projects currently underway on the Research page. Members usually join one of these, or bring a related question of their own.
CONTACT
Dr. Nari Yoo, Assistant Professor of Social Work