Religious Origins of Educational Inequality Project

Opportunity Description:

Dr. Tessa Huttenlocher (Assistant Instructional Professor, Sociology) is recruiting an undergraduate research assistant for her work on religion and higher education through the Quad Research Fellowship, a prestigious university-sponsored research fellowship program for novice researchers.

Primary Responsibilities: 

Quad Research Fellowship:
This position is paid $16.60/hour (up to a maximum of $5,000) and will run from January-June of 2026. Fellows are strongly encouraged to enroll in CCRF’zero-credit research course (HUMA 10001: Undergraduate Research: What, Why, and How), if their schedule permits. Fellows and their faculty advisors will present their findings at the University’s Undergraduate Research Symposium during Spring Quarter. More information on the Undergraduate Research Symposium can be found here: https://ccrf.uchicago.edu/undergraduate-research/undergraduate-research-.... For more about the Quad Research Fellowship, see https://ccrf.uchicago.edu/office-undergraduate-research/quad-faculty-res...

The Religious Origins of Educational Inequality Project:
Dr. Huttenlocher’s research uses archival data to examine how the inequalities embedded in the American religious field shaped the American system of higher education during the early 20th century. Using archival sources in combination with an original dataset linking schools to the religious organizations that founded and formally controlled them, this study is the first systematic examination of the role of religious inequality in shaping our highly diversified--and highly unequal--system of higher education.

Working on this project may appeal to students interested in learning comparative historical research design, qualitative coding and content analysis, archival research, quantitative data analysis, and/or database construction/management. It may also appeal to students with substantive interests in religion, higher education, early 20th century American history, race, gender, social class, and/or philanthropy. Students need not have previous experience with any of these methods or topics, and the research assistantship can be tailored to accommodate a variety of students' methodological and substantive learning goals.

Minimum Qualifications and/or Eligibility Requirements: 

Student research assistants will perform data collection and analysis tasks supporting one or more of the following sub-projects:

Women’s Colleges: Which religious groups invested in higher education for women, and which ones didn't? Which groups prioritized women-only institutions versus co-education? What were the differences between women-serving colleges founded by different groups?

HBCUs: Which religious groups invested in higher education for Black students, and which ones didn't? How did HBCUs founded by Black religious groups differ from those founded by White religious groups, or those founded by the State and by nonsectarian groups?

Junior Colleges: Which religious groups founded junior colleges, and which ones didn’t? How did junior colleges founded by different religious groups differ from one another?

College Mergers: Which religious groups merged their colleges in the early 20th century, and which ones didn’t? Did mergers contribute positively to institutions’ survival and/or resources?

Philanthropy: Which religious and formerly religious colleges were able to benefit from Carnegie and Rockefeller philanthropy in the early 20th century, and which were not? When did these philanthropies stated preference for non-sectarianism play a role, and when was it overlooked?

To be eligible for this position, you must be a full-time enrolled undergraduate in good standing at the University of Chicago, and eligible to work in the United States of America. This program prioritizes students who have not previously held paid research positions with faculty.

This position is designed to be accessible to novices. Tasks will be assigned based on the student's previous experiences and coursework; and in light of the student's goals for their research fellowship.

Knowledge or skills gained from the experience: 

This project is an excellent site for students looking to develop a wide variety of research and communication skills along with substantive expertise in American history, religion, and education.

Students involved in the qualitative component of my project will locate, request, and organize early 20th century documents produced by religious denominations and higher education institutions. These archival and library research skills will be beneficial to students studying history or any other discipline that contends with history. Additionally, students will perform qualitative analyses of these documents, learning qualitative coding skills and data management in Atlas.ti, NVivo, or similar softwares.

Students involved in the quantitative component of my project will perform novel analyses on an original dataset that I've created, which links every higher education institution that existed in the early 20th century to the religious groups that formally controlled them in the preceding decades. Students will learn data management in Excel and Stata/R, basic cross-tabulation and logistic regression, and how to speak/write about emerging analyses. Student may also be asked to add to this dataset by locating and inputting new sources of information into spreadsheets. My dataset is comparatively simple (it only contains 900 schools) making it an easy entry point for students wanting to build quantitative data literacy and database design/management skills.

Finally, all students will immerse themselves in a rich historical case, which involves two important field of organizations at a crucial turning point in U.S. history. Students will develop topical expertise about organized religion, higher education, and early 20th century American history through the lenses of race, gender, social class, and philanthropy.

Application Deadline: 

Application Requirements: