Research Fellow

As part of the Project you will be an active member of the ORA8-funded “Governing Jihad in Africa” project, directed by Prof. Eric Morier-Genoud (PI), Dr Corinna Jentzsch (co-PI), Dr Vincent Foucher (CI), and Dr Yvan Guichaoua (CI), with a team of 3 additional researchers.

The objective of the project is to understand how jihad in Sub-Saharan Africa governs and is governed in three different realms: ideology & norms, political economy, and violence & counter-violence. The successful applicant to the present post-doc will focus on the first element -- about ideology and norms.

The successful applicant will carry out extensive fieldwork research and some public engagement activities, to contribute individual and co-authored publications, and meet the overall research objectives of the project. You will do field research in two different terrains and your objective will be to explore the ideological make-up of the insurgencies (thinkers, training, and inspirations), analyse the existing corpus of texts (or video statements), and compare ideologies and variations across different conflicts to identify and unpack trends.

About the person:

Successful candidates applications should clearly demonstrate that you meet the following essential criteria. Applications should include: a CV, Cover letter (maximum 2000 words) to include 500 words describing your proposed research within the project and a single authored article of book chapter. Please note these must be uploaded as one document.

Essential Criteria:

• Have or be about to obtain (post-viva) a relevant PhD in History, Anthropology, Political Science or Sociology or another relevant discipline (with research focus on Africa as well as armed conflict and/or Islam).
• First or upper second-class honours degree (BA and MA) in History or cognate subject.
• Extensive doctoral-level experience of doing field work in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Academic publications in a relevant field (submitted, in press, in print) commensurate with career stage (at least one single-authored academic chapter or article).

To be successful at shortlisting stage, please ensure you clearly evidence in your application how you meet the essential and, where applicable, desirable criteria listed in the Candidate Information on our website.

Fixed term contract posts are available for the stated period in the first instance but in particular circumstances may be renewed or made permanent subject to availability of funding.

What we offer:

Beyond a competitive salary, the University offers an attractive benefits package including a holiday entitlement of up to 8.4 weeks a year, pension schemes and development opportunities. We support staff wellbeing with flexible working options, work-life balance initiatives and support for physical and mental health. You can find more detail on all of this and more on our website.

Queen's University is committed to promoting equality of opportunity to all. We subscribe to Equality Charter Marks such as the Diversity Charter Mark NI and Athena Swan and have established staff networks such as iRise (Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic and International Staff Network) and PRISM (LGBTQ+) which help us progress equality.

For further information on our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, please visit our website.

If you are an international applicant and don't already hold a visa that permits you to take up the role you are applying for, please use the information provided on our website to self-assess whether the University is likely to be able to support a visa application.

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