Postdoctoral Research Associate in Welfare Experiences & Mental Health

About us

This post is located within two innovative, interdisciplinary teams with an ethos of coproduction.

Firstly, it’s located within the WelfareExperiences project (see below) – a team of more than 30 people, including parallel post-doctoral researchers in four other countries, and led by Prof Ben Baumberg Geiger at King’s.

Secondly, it’s located within the Centre for Society and Mental Health  (‘CSMH’), a cross-Faculty initiative between the Faculty of Social Science and Public Policy (SSPP) and the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN).

Departmentally, the post is based with the Department of Global Health & Social Medicine (GHSM). Founded in 2012, we are now ranked within the top 10 sociology departments in the UK. The Department is currently based in the fabulous surroundings of Bush House in central London.

About the role

This is a more-than-3-year post, fixed-term until 31st August 2028 in the first instance. It contains two elements funded from different projects, both of which are qualitative, and both on welfare experiences and mental health.

Firstly, the post-holder will be the lead UK qualitative researcher on the major, innovative WelfareExperiences project. This is one of the first international comparisons of the experiences of individuals receiving working-age benefits. By ‘experiences’, we mean issues related to concepts such as justice, security, and dignity. The project is mixed-methods and coproduced; you can find out more at  https://welfare-experiences.org/

Your role will be to lead the UK qualitative fieldwork. You will be conducting innovative qualitative longitudinal research, which involves (i) an initial in-person interview; (ii) the person receiving benefits using an app to log every interaction they have with the system; (iii) responsive follow-up phone interviews. We expect that you will have capacity to do this with 15-18 diverse claimants. You will also be responsible for analysing this qualitative data, as part of an international team with the four other post-docs plus other researchers, as well as to do other tasks related to the project (inc. supporting coproduction, other work packages & wider impact work).

Secondly, you will do qualitative research with Prof. Ben Geiger and Prof. Karen Glaser as part of CSMH’s programme on ‘Work, Welfare Reform and Mental Health’. In particular, you will take forward pilot research on systems medicalisation and exclusion (some early thinking can be seen at  https://inequalities.substack.com/progressive-agenda-medicalisation-mental-health ). This involves collaborating closely with an interdisciplinary team of researchers as well as the Centre’s academic and community partners. There is also an expectation that the post holder will develop independent research (including fellowship applications) on this or related topics, with the support of the Centre.

The post holder will also commit a small amount of their time of their time to the delivery of teaching in the faculty. This will be agreed with your line manager and may include leading or teaching on one module for one term (once within the 3 years, not annually), plus supervising dissertations and student projects.

For further details about this post and to apply, please see https://www.kcl.ac.uk/jobs/114985-postdoctoral-research-associate-in-welfare-experiences-and-mental-health

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