Postdoctoral Research Associate

Position description

Applications are invited to cover a Post-Doctoral Research Associate position on the project, Mapping Injury, funded by UKRI and the Horizon Europe Guarantee for European Research Council projects. Working with the PI, Professor Vivienne Jabri, the PDRA is for a two-year duration, starting on the 3rd March 2025 and based in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London.  

There are four PDRA positions associated with the project. This particular post will focus on South Africa, and the successful candidate will join the PI and a postdoc team consisting of the existing 3 postdoc RAs, working on Colombia, Lebanon, and Nigeria.

The project takes a wide and interdisciplinary conceptualisation of ‘injury’ (from the embodied, to the cultural, to the physical or material aspect of lived spaces, including the environmental) and seeks understanding of the socio-cultural, socio-legal, material and political dynamics that relate injury to the emergence of political agency. We have a particular focus on the Global South, with research focused on Colombia, Lebanon, Nigeria and South Africa as well as regional and international institutions.

About the role

The Postdoctoral RA sought for this position will work on South Africa. Preference will be given to candidates with doctorates specialising in legal, political or social questions relating to the rights of South African citizens. Knowledge of South Africa’s judicial and political systems, and familiarity with the social, economic and political issues impacting the population are core requirements.

Candidates should hold a PhD in one of the following disciplines: Politics and International Relations, International Law, or Constitutional Law relating to South Africa, Sociology, Human Geography, Anthropology. Candidates are expected to have experience with at least two of the following qualitative research methods: ethnographic methods, archival research, institutional and discourse analysis, socio-legal methods, and visual methods.

This is a full time, fixed term position until 3rd March 2027

Please contact [email protected] for further information.

About you

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience: 

Essential criteria

1. PhD (in one of these disciplines: Politics and International Relations, International Law, Constitutional Law, Human Geography, Sociology, Anthropology)
2. Skills and experience in qualitative research methods (at least two of the following: archival and documentary research, socio-legal methods, ethnography, visual methods, discourse analysis, institutional analysis).
3. Experience of research in the Global South and South Africa in particular.
4. Knowledge of South Africa’s systems of government and law, and its sociocultural, political, and social-economic structures and dynamics.
5. Knowledge of and familiarity with research ethics.
6. Knowledge of critical, postcolonial, and feminist perspectives in the social sciences, humanities, and law.
7. Familiarity with online methods of dissemination of research outcomes.
8. Proven capacity to write and present conference papers.
9. Proven capacity to publish peer-reviewed research outputs.
10. Organisational and administrative skills.

Desirable criteria

1. Knowledge of South Africa’s political and judicial systems, of South Africa and international politics and law, and the sociocultural and political landscape of South Africa.
2. Knowledge of international institutions and practices, particularly relating to one or more of the following: human rights, indigenous rights, environmental international law and politics, resource exploitation and corporate responsibility.
3. Knowledge of research ethics and data protection procedures.

Full details of the role and the skills and experience required, can be found in the attached job description which provided on the next page.

Please note that this is a PhD level role and the appointment will be at Grade 6.

Application instructions

Please be sure to indicate you saw this position on globalvacancies.org