Not all faculty members have funds to hire student research assistants. Those who do frequently do not have sufficient funding or may not want or need full-time student assistance. Faculty who do hire student assistants are generally very selective. They tend to approach students whose work they know well, and whose critical and mechanical editing skills are impeccable.

But you don't have to wait to be approached either. It never hurts to make your interest known to a professor whose field of study inspires and excites you. You may also give your name to the Department's Administrative Assistant, who keeps a list for faculty to consult. Just send an e-mail to english@williams.edu.

What kind of work can you expect to do? Proof-reading, reference checking, and xeroxing are probably the most common tasks. Depending on your skills, you might also be sent on detective adventures: compile a list of books or articles that discuss a particular topic, track down what textual scholars know about the stage directions in a Shakespeare play, compile a list of manuscripts of the Romance of the Rose in England in the fourteenth century.

Your best bet for a full-time research assistantship is one of the
College's Division I and II Summer Research Fellowships
-- click on Prizes and Fellowships to find out more.