Volunteer Researchers — Rock & Art | Remote, Worldwide

Rock and Art UK • Berlin, CT

2d • Remote

About The Position

Rock & Art is seeking Volunteer Researchers to join their international volunteer community. This role is central to the platform's research-driven, long-form journalism, focusing on investigating subjects, locating meaningful sources, identifying knowledge gaps, establishing context, and supporting writers in building arguments on solid foundations. Researchers will contribute to individual articles, long-term editorial clusters, larger research projects, or the development of Rock & Art’s permanent knowledge base. The position is fully remote and worldwide, with a flexible time commitment. All positions are voluntary and unpaid.

Requirements

• Strong research skills
• Excellent written English
• Curiosity and persistence
• Ability to evaluate sources critically
• Attention to detail
• Good documentation habits
• Ability to distinguish primary from secondary sources
• Comfort working with complex or contradictory material
• Intellectual honesty
• Respect for attribution and citation
• Understanding that absence of evidence is not necessarily evidence of absence
• Willingness to communicate uncertainty rather than fill gaps with assumptions
• Ability to collaborate remotely and communicate effectively with the team

Nice To Haves

• Experience with academic databases, archives, libraries, oral histories, institutional records or specialist publications
• Knowledge in areas such as: music and sonic cultures; art history and visual culture; literature; film and media; fashion and subcultures; gender and sexuality; bodies and kinky culture; political and cultural history; social movements; identity and representation; cultural memory; countercultures; radical and experimental art; cultural theory; emerging cultural practices; digital and contemporary culture.

Responsibilities

• Research cultural, historical, political and social subjects.
• Locate and evaluate primary and secondary sources.
• Identify academic literature, books, archives, institutional publications, interviews and reliable journalism.
• Research historical context and timelines.
• Investigate the origins and development of cultural movements, practices and ideas.
• Identify relevant people, organisations, works, events and concepts.
• Build research dossiers and source lists.
• Create annotated bibliographies.
• Extract relevant information from longer sources.
• Identify conflicting interpretations or gaps in available evidence.
• Flag claims that require further investigation.
• Provide researchers and writers with contextual material.
• Help identify perspectives that are missing or underrepresented.
• Contribute research to editorial clusters and longer-term knowledge projects.
• Organise research so that it can be reused in future Rock & Art work.
• Follow relevant Rock & Art Editorial System (RAES) research and documentation standards.

Benefits

• Clear research assignments and objectives
• Relevant RAES research frameworks and documentation standards
• Collaboration with writers and editors
• Opportunities to work on long-form cultural research
• Exposure to a range of cultural and interdisciplinary subjects
• The opportunity to develop research and documentation skills
• Recognition of research contributions where appropriate
• The opportunity to contribute to a permanent cultural knowledge resource
• The possibility of developing into specialist research or knowledge-curation roles

What This Job Offers

• Career Level: Entry Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed