Associate Lecturer in Qualitative Social Research Methods

Do you have a passion for qualitative research methods and teaching? Birkbeck, University of London, has an excellent opportunity for an Associate Lecturer to teach this coming academic year. 

The School of Social Sciences is looking to recruit a part-time, Associate Lecturer to teach on the module:

• Qualitative Social Research Methods
• 15 hours of contact time (plus marking and other duties relating to the role)
• Friday 6-7.30pm, October to December 2025.

As Associate Lecturer you will have knowledge of the theory and principles of qualitative research methods, experience of this in practice and be qualified to the corresponding level of the award as required to teach (or demonstrate equivalent professional/industry level experience).

You will prepare and deliver weekly seminars (face-to-face, on campus) on a Friday evening. In seminars, you will be required to lead discussion on the module content each week, to facilitate seminar exercises (including the practice of different qualitative research methods) and to answer any questions from students related to each week’s content. You will also mark students’ assignments.  

Further to the person specification, essential requirements for this role are: 

• Experience of undertaking research using at least two qualitative research methods (e.g. interviewing, focus groups, ethnography, discourse analysis etc.), either in an academic or non-academic setting; 
• Ability to teach the theory and practice of qualitative research methods to postgraduate students, covering weekly topics such as: research philosophies, designing qualitative research, depth interviews, focus groups and workshops, observation and ethnography, document analysis, discourse analysis, case studies, analysing and writing up qualitative data, qualitative data analysis software (Nvivo).
• Effective oral and written communication skills, to convey both simple and more complex information and academic concepts;
• Educated to degree level or equivalent and have a postgraduate research degree or be studying towards a research degree. 
• A good level of information and communication technology skills particularly in application to standard packages (e.g. word processing, spreadsheets, e-mail and internet use); 
• Ideally, the candidate would also be familiar with online teaching and learning resources such as Moodle.

Please refer to the person specification for further selection criteria.

If you have knowledge in these areas above, and you are an excellent and innovative teacher with a track record of student engagement, and want to contribute to an impactful educational experience - apply with us at Birkbeck today. 

Remuneration:

Payment is based on an hourly rate depending on length of continuous service with the College (starting rate £68.13 per hour inclusive of pro-rata London Allowance and holiday pay) for contact hours worked. This hourly rate is based on the starting point of Grade 7 and is inclusive of a ‘Duties Related to Teaching Multiplier’ at 2.5, which covers preparation, teaching, administration, assessment marking and other examining duties in connection with the course.

Contract: 

Fixed-term, October '25 - December '25, part-time contract.

Please submit a CV and statement for consideration. 

Closing date: Monday 4 August 2025, interview date: Monday 18 August 2025. 

Enquiries:

If you would like to know more about the role, please contact:

Dr Laura Richards-Gray, at l.richards-gray@bbk.ac.uk.

If you have difficulty using the recruitment portal, please contact jobs@bbk.ac.uk providing your name and the job reference number of the position. While we are happy to respond to all informal enquiries, only formal applications through the online system will be considered - www.birkbeck.ac.uk/jobs

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