About the Program: The Social Science Summer Writing Internship Program (SWIP) is a collaboration between the Center for Innovation in Social Science (CISS) and the Writing in the Disciplines program. SWIP provides paid summer writing internships to undergraduate students studying social sciences by placing interns at a social science research institute on the BU campus for a ten-week period in the summer and providing guidance to interns on their own individual writing projects. Interns work at their placement 15 hours per week and commit to an additional five hours per week, which includes participation in a 90-minute weekly writing workshop/seminar led by Writing Program Senior Lecturer Dr. Stephen Hodin. All interns develop an individual writing project and come together to collaborate and share their work at the seminar. Interns attend an orientation prior to the first week of the program and participate in a concluding program that features interns’ presentations and guest speakers. Applications for Summer 2026 DUE February 15, 2026.

The application for Summer 2026 is available here.

Eligibility: Summer interns must be rising-juniors or rising-seniors in Summer 2026. Students must be currently enrolled at Boston University. Priority will be given to applicants majoring or minoring in a social sciences or related program in the College of Arts & Sciences.

Stipend: Each intern will receive a stipend of $2,500. The program does not provide housing.

Work Expectations: Interns work closely with their site supervisor, and carry out tasks including:

  • Writing news, feature, and personality profile articles, that describe the research, teaching or outreach activities carried out at their site. The student interns develop story ideas through their own research and through consultation with their site supervisor.
  • Interviewing faculty and students affiliated with their site, and producing short videos and/or podcasts (to be hosted on the site’s website) that showcase the research, teaching or service activities of the featured personnel.
  • Assist with the institute’s website updates, including writing brief news items, summaries of recent research publications, brief statements publicizing events and achievements, and more.
  • In consultation with their center supervisor and workshop leader Stephen Holdin, the interns design and compose a summer writing project based on their own social science research interests.
  • Attend the writing workshop, held in the CISS conference room (704 Commonwealth Ave).

Interns will bring to the internship a summer writing project that will be revised and remediated for a new audience. These projects may lead to developing a UROP proposal based on existing research, initiating an Honors thesis, or transforming existing research or course work into a scholarly journal article to be submitted to one of the BU student-run academic journals, such as Arché.

Dates: The internship will take place for ten weeks from May 26-July 31. An online orientation for all new interns will take place the week prior to the start of the internship (scheduled online this year on May 19). While interns will participate in their assigned Center for ten weeks (May 26-July 31), the Writing Workshop will run on Tuesday mornings for eight weeks, (June 2 to July 21), concluding with a Showcase presentation of work by the interns.

APPLICATION PROCESS: Applicants must submit: a resume and a brief (1 page) cover letter describing their interest in the program. These documents should be submitted as a single PDF file to JOTFORM. In addition, please have one faculty member submit a reference letter on your behalf to Shannon Landis (ciss@bu.edu), Center administrator (CISS) with the applicant’s name in the subject line. Finalists will be asked to submit a writing sample at a later date.

Application timeline: Applications must be uploaded by 5 pm ET on February 15, 2026. Finalists will be notified during the week of February 23 and interviews will be scheduled over two weeks. Offers will be extended in early March.

Partners: Our 2026 partners on the BU campus will be the  Center for Innovation in Social Science, Center on Forced Displacement, Institute for Global Sustainability, and CAS Communications.

Questions: For more information, reach out to Associate Director for Writing in the Disciplines, David Shawn (dshawn@bu.edu) or CISS Director Deborah Carr (carrds@bu.edu).

Publications and news about SWIP and SWIP Interns:
Gross, Sydney and Jain, Rayea. “Stories that Matter: How one alumna’s gift is furthering BU students research and writing” arts X sciences magazine  2025
Jain, Rayea. “Experiential Learning in the Social Sciences” arts & sciences August 21, 2024.
Carr, Deborah. “CISS Hosts 2025 Social Science Writing Internship Program Showcase” CISS News Post. August 6, 2025.

2025 Highlights: See the SWIP ’25 Showcase to learn about our interns and their projects.

Shayla Brown, CAS ’26
Joshua Emokpae, CAS ’26
Sofia Sanchez, CAS ’26
Yousseff Souyah, CAS ’27
Xiaowei “Kiwi” Yang, CAS ’27

2024 Highlights: See the SWIP ’24 Showcase.

Nathaniel Clizbe, CAS ’25
Rayea Jain, COM ’26
Anne Joseph, CAS ’25
Devin Rauscher, CAS ’26
Mika Yao, CAS ’25, Pardee ’26

Funding for the Social Science Summer Writing Internship Program comes from Jennifer Simpson’s generous gift through the Psalm #103 Foundation.