Pew Research Center: Research Associate, Global Attitudes (USA)

“JobResearch Associate, Global Attitudes, Pew Research Center, Washington, DC, USA. Deadline: open until filled; posted 3 December 2024.

Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes team conducts cross-national survey research on major international issues such as attitudes toward the U.S. and American foreign policy, views of China, democracy, religious practice and attitudes, as well as how people view conditions in their countries and their own lives. The bulk of the team’s work focuses on one large annual survey (25+ countries) but periodically the team also employs secondary data, qualitative data and experimental data.

The Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes team has an immediate need for a Research Associate. This position will be involved in all aspects of the survey research process, including: drafting a questionnaire, script testing, managing a cross-national translation and verification process, data quality control, vendor relations, reviewing fieldwork and technical reports, and more. Ideally, a Research Associate will gradually be able to not only participate in but manage these tasks.

A Research Associate will also be involved in analysis and writing reports and other products. Reports on the Global Attitudes team are highly collaborative and a Research Associate will be expected to assist in background research, producing charts and tables, statistical analysis, and number checking, in addition to writing. The Research Associate may serve as a spokesperson for the Global Attitudes team and will discuss our research with key audiences such as the media and policymakers.

This position works closely with other researchers on staff and reports to the Associate Director of Global Attitudes Research.

USA Far Behind Europe in Language Learning

Applied ICDMcCarthy, Niall. (14 August 2018). The transatlantic divide in language learning. Forbes.

The infographic tells the story of just how few in the USA are bi- or multilingual,  summarizing a Pew Research Center report using Eurostat data, thus the focus on Europe vs the USA:

The explanation for the gap comes from an earlier Pew Research Center report, this one on the state of jobs in the USA, which showed that only 36% of Americans reported that knowing a foreign language was an extremely or very important trait for workers to be successful in today’s economy, ranking it last out of eight skills for workers’ success.

CID and Social Media

About CIDIn addition to the Facebook group page developed several years ago, the Center for Intercultural Dialogue now has a social media presence that includes LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, and Google+.

social media logos

Nearly all of this activity is due to the efforts of Minh Cao, Assistant to the Director.  Minh also learned the required format to post on Wikipedia – an entry on CID is currently under review and will be described in a post once it is public. [UPDATE: CID is now on Wikipedia as well!]

Several colleagues have asked why a broad social media presence is valuable (and whether it is worth the considerable time it takes). The short answer is that social media permit CID to meet interculturalists on whatever platform they choose to spend their time. A further question might be: are so many people really using social media today? The answer to that comes from the Pew Internet and American Life Project which just posted their Social Media Update for 2013. They conclude:

Some 73% of online adults now use a social networking site of some kind. Facebook is the dominant social networking platform in the number of users, but a striking number of users are now diversifying onto other platforms. Some 42% of online adults now use multiple social networking sites.

Substantial thanks are due to Minh for making the CID accessible across multiple platforms in 2013. The goal for 2014 will be to determine what content best fits each of these contexts, and to expand the impact of the CID as a result.

Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz, Director
Center for Intercultural Dialogue