Recruit

On behalf of the UC Merced Community and Labor Center, the assistant specialist will translate policy research on labor and compliance issues related to California court interpreting into public-facing documents and presentations. Under the supervision of the Principal Investigator, the assistant specialist will conduct research and public service that advances understandings of court interpretation work and its relevance to policymaking. The assistant specialist will analyze policies and language trends relevant to California court interpreters, translate these into brief documents in publicly accessible language, and share these materials with community organizations and policymakers.

I. Research & Writing (95%)

1. Collect, organize, and analyze information on policies and language trends related to court interpretation. This includes information from relevant federal and state statutes, regulations, executive orders, judicial decisions, and agency investigations. (15%)

2. Translate policy and language trend analyses into brief, publicly-accessible documents. This includes data visualization tasks for language access trends, as well as streamlining information collected under point (1) above (70%)

3. Disseminate findings by giving presentations to stakeholders with an interest in improving community and labor conditions related to court interpretation. This includes targeted outreach to community organizations affiliated with the language access needs identified in point (1) above. (5%)

4. Meet regularly with PI of the project (Meredith Van Natta) and provide frequent updates demonstrating progress toward data analysis and dissemination goals. Meetings will be conducted via Zoom, but the outreach meetings will likely take place in person. (5%)

II. Public Service (5%)

1. Attend meetings and events with community and labor organizations, to advance understandings of issues in court interpretation work and their policy relevance.

As a University employee, you will be required to comply with all applicable University policies and/or collective bargaining agreements, as may be amended from time to time. Federal, state, or local government directives may impose additional requirements. This includes the University of California Policy on Vaccination Programs: https://policy.ucop.edu/doc/5000695/VaccinationProgramsPolicy.

The University of California is an Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer and invites applications from all qualified applicants, including women, minorities, veterans, and individual with disabilities, who will enrich the teaching, research and public service missions of the university. All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age or protected veteran status. For the complete University of California nondiscrimination and affirmative action policy, see: UC Nondiscrimination & Affirmative Action Policy (https://policy.ucop.edu/doc/4000376/DiscHarassAffirmAction).

The University of California, Merced, is the newest of the University of California system’s 10 campuses. With over 9,000 undergraduate and graduate students (https://www.ucmerced.edu/fast-facts), UC Merced provides outstanding educational opportunities to highly qualified students from the heart of California, the nation, and abroad. The campus has special connections to nearby Yosemite National Park; is on the cutting edge of sustainability in construction and design; and supports the economic development of Central California. The Merced 2020 Project doubled the physical capacity of the campus, and enhanced academic distinction, student success, and research excellence (https://merced2020.ucmerced.edu/).

UC Merced is a smoke & tobacco free campus (https://smokefree.ucmerced.edu/).