Something published under your name
If your track produces a brief, it goes out under your own byline, as a defined part of the placement.
Join us
Volunteering and internships
The EISS is run entirely by volunteers. Contribute remotely, at about a day a week over two months, and leave with something that carries your name: a brief under your own byline, or a credited contribution to the Anthology. Open to students and to recent graduates alike.
What you get out of it
All four are agreed at the start and written into your objectives.
Credited by name either way
Indexing and data work produce no byline. They are credited by name on this page and in the project's changelog, with a link to what you did.
A conversation with the board
Half an hour with a board member about your own research interests, scheduled in your first weeks.
A weekly call with the others
The group meets for a short call each week. Missing one is fine.
What you would work on
We match this to what interests you. Most volunteers take on one of these, and many move between them. Everything currently open is on the “help wanted” list.
Corpus and abstract indexing
Tracking down the abstracts of papers given at earlier conferences, checking them against the programme, and adding them to the Anthology so the record is complete.
You produce: a batch of recovered abstracts, credited to you by name.
Researching and writing a thematic brief
A short piece on one of the Anthology's research themes, drawn from the papers already in the corpus. A brief on deterrence starts from 46 tagged papers and their authors.
You produce: a brief on the blog, under your own byline.
Improving the database
Strengthening the data behind the Anthology: author names and affiliations, links to published versions, and the connections the Atlas draws between papers and people.
You produce: a reviewed dataset the site draws on, credited to you by name.
Annual Conference preparation
Helping the team get our flagship event ready, from the call for papers through to the programme. Everyone here takes some of this.
You produce: a conference that happened. Seasonal, and heaviest in spring.
How the placement works
The terms, stated in advance.
- About a day a week, over two months
- We agree the rhythm at the start, and you can change it as your term or your job demands. There is no minimum you owe us and you are free to stop earlier.
- Unpaid
- The EISS has no salaried staff. Everyone here is a volunteer, the board included. Expenses agreed with us beforehand are reimbursed against receipts, and nothing else is paid.
- Volunteering by default
- Most people join us as bénévoles. There is no contract, you choose which track you take, you set your own pace, and you can stop at any point without giving a reason.
- A convention de stage where your programme needs one
- French law treats a placement as a stage only where it sits inside a course carrying at least 200 hours of teaching a year. If yours does, we sign the tripartite convention with you and your institution and name a tuteur de stage. Tell us early: the paperwork goes through your university.
- Someone to ask
- You get a named point of contact from your first day, and the weekly call. Between those two, nobody here monitors your hours or asks for a status report.
- One published output
- One publishable output per person. It is edited before publication, and we may decline one. That leaves your credit for the rest of your work untouched.
The year at a glance
Placements starting in January suit the cycle best. The conference falls in June.
- January · Induction
- A short shared start on the corpus, the house style and the standard we publish to. You pick your track and we agree your single output.
- February to April · The substantive window
- The protected stretch. Track work, the weekly call, and a first draft due before April.
- April to June · The annual conference
- Logistics is heaviest here and everyone takes some of it, ourselves included. Expect the writing to slow down.
- July · Publication and credit
- Briefs go up, contributors are added to this page, and we ask the group what was worth doing and what was filler.
Get in touch
Write to us
Send a short note and a CV to contact@eiss-europa.com, telling us which of the four areas above appeals to you and roughly how much time you have. Mention a convention de stage if you need one.
Already started?
Start here
Six things for your first week, and nothing here is a test. If a step does not work, tell us and we will sort it out.
- You have a point of contact. They wrote to you when you joined. Ask them anything, including whether something is worth doing at all.
- Send us your GitHub account name, so we can add you to the repository. Never used GitHub? Say so. We set it up with you, and it is not a prerequisite.
- Put the weekly call in your calendar. It is short, and missing one needs no explanation.
- Pick something from the “help wanted” list. Comment to say you are taking it. Handing it back later is fine and counts against nothing.
- Read the handbook before your first task. It covers what each job actually asks of you, and where the judgement calls are.
- Read the house style before you write. British English, and short beats elaborate.