| Faculty Advisor |
Ashley Votruba
|
|---|---|
| Contact Email | ashley.votruba@unl.edu |
| Website | |
| Advisor College: |
Arts and Sciences
|
| Potential Student Tasks |
Undergraduate Research Assistants who work on the project may participate in many aspects of the research process including: (1) study material development, (2) literature reviews, (3) data coding and data analysis, etc. In the 2025 – 2026 year, RAs will spend most of their time assisting with future project development, literature reviews, and assisting interdisciplinary research advancing access to civil justice. RAs attend bi-weekly lab meetings, may be asked to work specific hours, and are generally expected to complete the assigned work on time. In addition to the research experience, the CC&L lab provides professional development workshops and discussions. |
| Student Qualifications |
The most important qualification is a keen interest in law-psychology, and in particular the desire to gain a better understanding of civil justice. (The best research experiences are the ones you are excited about!) Applicants should also be organized and willing to put in the necessary time to ensure attention to detail. Members of the lab typically work in an interdisciplinary team environment and are encourage to have good communication skills. General knowledge of social psychology and/or law are useful but not a requirement. |
| Training, Mentoring, and Workplace Community |
Students in this program will be integrated into the lab along with other undergraduate research assistants, graduate students, and myself. We meet biweekly as a large group to discuss ongoing projects, professional development, and generally “check in” on how everything is going in the lab. In addition, I meet individually, or in small groups with students, to advance individual projects. Students should expect an experience where they get to work closely with advanced graduate students and myself. |
| Available Positions |
2
|
For many, “Civil justice” brings to mind famous, high-dollar cases. But civil justice encompasses much more, including family, contract, landlord-tenant, and personal injury disputes. These issues impact the majority of households and result in more case filings in the United States than the criminal justice system. Yet there is relatively little law-psychology research focused on civil justice. Adopting a human-centered civil justice design perspective that focuses research on the experiences of parties, the CC&L lab examines the early stages of civil legal conflict decision-making, including examining legal assistance seeking behavior for civil justice problems. Our goal is to better understand why and under what conditions people seek legal assistance for their civil justice problems. We examine this through a social psychological lens, considering how motivation, knowledge, and perceptions influence decision-making.
The CC&L lab produces empirically informed scholarship relying on both quantitative and qualitative methodology. Our approach to this work integrates three underlying principles:
• Justice and public policy related research benefits from a convergence approach to research. We integrate diverse areas of knowledge, methods, and expertise to generate novel ideas for how solve problems and address important and challenging issues in legal contexts.
• Empirical research should embrace methodological rigor and appropriate open-science practices. The CC&L lab strives to produce high quality empirical research. Because we often work in novel contexts, we often develop and validate new measures and paradigm as part of our research. When appropriate, we implement open science practices, including preregistration of protocols and analyses, as well as sharing materials and data.
• Society benefits when law-psychology researchers collaborate with the people impacted by the research. Our lab collaborates with local communities, legal practitioners, and policymakers to produce meaningful scholarship that can have a positive impact.