CURI Academic Year Student Researcher – Shih

Job Type: Location Type: Not Specified

 

Job Description

Job Title: CURI Academic Year Student Researcher

Classification: Student Employee (non-exempt)

Name and Address of Employer: St. Olaf College, 1520 St. Olaf Ave, Northfield, MN 55057

If the position requires the student to work off campus, provide the name and address here:

Department Name: CURI

Unit Number (5 digits): 16118

Length of Position: See Employment Authorization

Contact Person/Supervisor: Faculty advisor

Wage Range: $11.75-12.75

Description of the Position: (Purpose of the Position): Students work together with a faculty member on scholarly or artistic projects.

Project Title: Translating the Creativity, Adaptivity, and Sustainability of a Foraging Community in Japanese Colonial Taiwan

Faculty Mentor: Hsiang-Lin Shih

Project Description: Literary and artistic works about foraging show distinct features from those about agriculture. Not only do the main figures physically transgress imperial, colonial, or other institutional farmsteads, but also do the literary and artistic expressions about them tend to adopt an alternative platform, a subcultural genre, and a translanguaging practice. How to read and translate them while weathering the storm of AI? This project will be carried out by a team of one faculty supervisor and three student researcher-translators, each with an unique expertise, background, and personality. As a team of four interesting human beings, we will read and translate the first six chapters of a manga, Mararum:山間料理人, in a way that embodies the creativity, adaptivity, and sustainability of a foraging community in Japanese colonial Taiwan. The first few weeks will be exploratory and team-building, the middle weeks on the main task of translation, and the final weeks an opportunity to reflect on the process. Both the translation and the translating process will be integrated into my research on foraging literature.

Requirements:

Completion of CHIN 320/351 or JPN 302; interest in translation; experience in manga translation is preferred

Contact:

Professor Hsiang-Lin Shih (shih@stolaf.edu)

Start and end dates:

Thursday, February 5, 2026 through Tuesday, May 12, 2026

Transferable Skills: Research and presentations.

Duties and Responsibilities: Each project has its own timing (number of hours per week and number of weeks), as determined by the individual faculty mentor. See the CURI Digital Olaf database for individual project descriptions and details.

Qualifications: (Education/Experience/Skills) A student interested in applying for the CURI academic year program must be enrolled as an on-campus St. Olaf student. There is no GPA requirement that must be met in order to apply for the program, but a student’s academic record will be considered during the selection process. Skills are dependent on individual projects.

If you don’t have a work award and select, No, to the application questions your application will be automatically rejected by the system. If you apply and are rejected please contact Erin Eltonga to resolve this for you.

This job description is for general information purposes. It is not intended to list all duties and responsibilities of the position. This job description is subject to change at any time by St. Olaf College, with or without prior notice.