Associate Professorship of the Comparative Politics of Africa

Salary: Combined University and College salary from £57,986 to £77,366 per annum, plus substantial additional benefits including a College housing allowance of £11,798 per annum (2025-26 figure), plus other benefits. A University allowance of £3,199 per annum would be payable upon award of Full Professor title.

The Department of Politics and International Relations (DPIR) are seeking to appoint an Associate Professor of the Comparative Politics of Africa, in association with St Peter’s College. The successful candidate will be appointed to a Tutorial Fellowship at St Peter’s College, and will be a trustee and member of its Governing Body, to start from 1 September 2026.

The post-holder will be expected to conduct internationally excellent research in the area of comparative politics, with a particular focus on the comparative politics of Africa. They will also teach and supervise at the graduate and undergraduate level; contribute to admissions, examining, and assessment; and contribute fully to academic administration in the DPIR and the College.

We invite applicants with a strong research background in the comparative politics of Africa. The successful candidate will be expected to teach and supervise in the comparative politics of Africa, in addition to comparative politics more generally, at the undergraduate and graduate level. They will also be expected to contribute to the graduate research design or methods teaching sequences in the Department, and to teach comparative politics, in the tutorial format, to undergraduate students studying Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) and History and Politics (HPol). The post will be held in conjunction with a Governing Body Fellowship at St Peter’s College.

We strongly encourage applications from women and/or candidates from a BME background as they are currently under-represented in academic posts.

If you would like to discuss this post and find out more about joining the academic community at Oxford, please contact Professor David Doyle, Head of Department and Professor of Politics at the Department of Politics and International Relations (david.doyle@politics.ox.ac.uk). All enquiries will be treated in strict confidence and will not form part of the selection decision.

Applications for this vacancy are to be made online. You will be required to upload a CV and a cover letter, and a separate research statement and teaching statement. You are also required to arrange for three referees to submit confidential reference letters directly to vacancies@politics.ox.ac.uk by the stated deadline for applications. You will also be asked to state which referees these are on your online application.

Circumstances such as caring responsibilities, ill health or disability may result in the quantity of a candidate's outputs being less than might otherwise be expected, therefore when considering candidate's research and publication record, career breaks will be taken into consideration.

Only applications received before 12:00 midday (UK time) on Wednesday 21 January 2026 can be considered. Please quote reference 183880 in all correspondence.

Committed to equality and valuing diversity.

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