Research Assistant - The Prison Consensus Project (Part Time 0.5FTE, Fixed Term)

Applications are invited for a 36-month Research Assistant position on The Prison Consensus Project, a research effort funded by the Leverhulme Trust. This project is concerned with the exponential construction of prisons in Brazil, who benefits, what implications there are for political and social life, and how prisons are justified amidst widespread recognition that they create social problems rather than solve them. The project will be carried out by an integrated team of researchers (PI, Co-I, Research Assistant and Research Assistant), with the Research Assistant playing a crucial role in desk-based gathering and analysis of information, as well as in project management.

The team is eager to receive applications from candidates with deep familiarity of Brazil and strong experience in archival and desk-based research. Candidates should have knowledge of Brazilian institutions, incarceration, criminalisation, and/or of land ownership, service contracts, local politics and governance across scales of the state. Fluency in Portuguese is a necessary skill since the Research Assistant will gather and analyse sources of information in this language.

The Research Assistant will participate in core activities of the project, focussing on desk-based research. Amongst other activities, this will involve: identifying and systematically gathering relevant information from grey media (e.g. newspaper articles on prison conditions, interviews with policymakers, etc.), from legislative and executive sources (e.g. congress debates on prison reform, reports in presidential archives, etc.), and from other online archives; collating and harmonising administrative data on prison management, including contractual and financial information from public institutions at different levels and from private actors; reviewing documents and scholarship from international financial institutions related to the Brazilian prison system and its management; identifying and gathering information from international financial markets related to the Brazilian prison system and its funding mechanisms; and the curation of all the information and evidence gathered across the lifetime of the project. The Research Assistant will also provide logistical and administrative support for the project as required, and there will be opportunities for the Research Assistant to co-author publications arising from the project.

Candidates for the post of Research Assistant should normally have a Masters' degree in a relevant field, but applicants without this degree who have other relevant academic or policy research experience, may exceptionally be considered. They should provide evidence of potential at the highest level, and of a willingness to work as part of a highly collaborative team.

This post will be based at the Centre of Development Studies (CDS), a world-leading teaching and interdisciplinary research Centre housed in the Department of Politics and International Studies. At CDS the Research Assistant will have desk space in an area to also include the Research Associate, however working presence in Cambridge can be negotiated. CDS has a vibrant graduate student community, including an MPhil and PhD program. The Research Assistant will ideally be based in Cambridge and will be hosted in this community and in the Department of Politics and International Studies that is also home to all of the Universities' area studies Centres (Latin American, South Asian, African Studies) as well as the Centre for Gender Studies.

To apply online for this vacancy and view further information about the role, please click the apply button.

Interviews to be held w/c 24 June 2024.

Informal enquiries about the role may be directed to Professor Graham Denyer Willis, gdw27@cam.ac.uk

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