I'm Me: Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Contract duration: Fixed term for 26 months

Hours: 25.9

Interview date: Tuesday 28^th March t2023

Fixed term opportunity - 1^st May 2023 – 30^th June 2025

Location: The role will be located between York and Bradford.

0.7 FTE - 25.9 Hours per week

Salary: £ per annum pro rata

We are looking for a creative and inclusive researcher who will bring strong organisational and communication skills to an exciting AHRC funded research project.  

I'm Me is a 26 month project that will work with learning disabled and autistic artists as peer and creative researchers to explore questions of identity, representation and voice.

Learning disabled and autistic people are amongst the most marginalised and voice-less within our society. They are often perceived as vulnerable and requiring protection or care, while rarely having a prominent voice within public discourses, even with issues that directly relate to disability. The disability arts are a rare forum where these relationships are challenged, with learning disabled and autistic artists utilising their creativity to assert their agency and identity.

I’m Me will engage with insights emerging at the intersection of identity between learning disability and artist. It will do so through the use of peer research techniques, through working with people with lived experience and insider knowledge, and the use of creative research methods. In particular, we will work through a reflexive methodology based on the 'Creative Doodle Book', a resource that uses open and playful tasks to encourage reflective self-expression. Through this approach the perceptions, insights and creative understandings of the peer researchers will be at the heart of both the process and the outcomes.

I'm Me will be conducted in collaboration with Mind the Gap (MTG) and in partnership with a network of six disability arts companies across the UK.

The role

This postdoctoral research fellow role will be a core part of the delivery of I’m Me. The candidate will work closely with the project PI and Mind the Gap to design, deliver, document and disseminate the project. The candidate will work with learning disabled and autistic artists to develop appropriate research methodologies, collect documentation, conduct interviews and develop creative and reflective outputs. The candidate will also support the six partner arts organisations, primarily remotely but also through visits, and help coordinate events, publications and the project ending I’m Me Festival. The candidate will be provided with training and mentoring, be fully integrated into the research team, and be a core element of all publications. They will emerge with a very desirable and unique skill set in co-production in disability arts research.

We are particularly keen to receive applications from candidates from backgrounds under-represented in higher education and/or with lived experience of the issues at the centre of this research.

Additional information

Interviews will take place at Mind the Gap Studios, in Bradford.

The role will be located between York and Bradford.

For informal enquiries please contact: Matthew Reason m.reason@yorksj.ac.uk

If you require a reasonable adjustment in order to apply for this position please contact vacancies@yorksj.ac.uk.  Within the application form there is an opportunity for you to request a reasonable adjustment at the interview stage of the process, however if you wish to discuss this in further detail at any point  in the process please do not hesitate to contact us.

We offer a wide range of employee benefits including:

• Excellent annual leave entitlement, including five discretionary university closure days over the Christmas period
• Pension scheme
• Health Cash Plan after one years' service
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Relocation expenses package for certain roles

We offer a range of family friendly and inclusive policies and facilities to support staff from different backgrounds. As part of our commitment to providing an inclusive working environment, consideration is given to all requests for job share or flexible working arrangements. 

Please note that CVs are not accepted in place of the application form.