King's College London

About us

The School of Security Studies at King‘s College London is dedicated to the understanding of security issues in an increasingly complex and uncertain world. Harnessing the depth and breadth of expertise across the War Studies and Defence Studies Departments, and the King’s Institute for Applied Security Studies, we are one of the largest multi-disciplinary communities of scholars in the world engaged in the teaching and research of all aspects of conflict, war, security and defence.​   

About the role

The Post-Doctoral Research Associate will work on the project Mapping Injury: The Embodied, Socio-cultural and Material Sites of Political Emergence. The PI is Professor Vivienne Jabri, and the project is a UKRI Frontier Research Grant (funded as part of the UKRI Horizon Europe guarantee) The Postdoctoral position is for a 2-year duration and will be based in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. 

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.

The Postdoctoral RA sought for this position will work on Colombia. Knowledge of Colombia’s political and juridical systems, its socio-cultural and economic context, and issues relating to the indigenous peoples of Colombia is essential.

The PDRA will conduct fieldwork in Colombia and will use qualitative and visual methods in the conduct of fieldwork, and in the interpretation and analysis of research results. They are expected to write research papers for peer reviewed journals, and/or edited volumes, attend conferences, and contribute to the project’s online materials. The PDRA is also expected to work in a team, with the PI, the other PDRAs, and the project’s visual curator. They are expected to attend team and one to one meetings, as required, and be willing to collaborate with the team and contribute towards the administrative side of the project.

This is a full time post and you will be offered a fixed term contract for 24 months from date of appointment.

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. Disciplines in the arts and humanities will also be considered if related to the case-study.
2. Skills and experience in qualitative research methods, including 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 Colombia in particular.
4. Knowledge of Colombia’s systems of government and law, and its sociocultural, political, and social-economic structures and dynamics.
5. Language requirement: Spanish.
6. Knowledge of and familiarity with research ethics.
7. Familiarity with online methods of dissemination of research outcomes.
8. Proven capacity to write and present conference papers and publish peer reviewed articles.

Desirable criteria

1. 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.
2. Knowledge of research ethics and data protection procedures.
3. Organisational and administrative skills.

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 but candidates who have submitted their thesis and are awaiting award of their PhDs will be considered. In these circumstances the appointment will be made at Grade 5, spine point 30 with the title of Research Assistant. Upon confirmation of the award of the PhD, the job title will become Research Associate and the salary will increase to Grade 6. 

Further information 

We pride ourselves on being inclusive and welcoming. We embrace diversity and want everyone to feel that they belong and are connected to others in our community.

We are committed to working with our staff and unions on these and other issues, to continue to support our people and to develop a diverse and inclusive culture at King's. We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the advert. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible.

To find out how our managers review your application, please take a look at our ‘How we Recruit’ pages.

This role does meet the requirements of the Home Office and therefore we are able to offer sponsorship for candidates who require the right to work in the UK.