Postdoctoral Research Associate

About us 

The Department of Global Health & Social Medicine is a unique interdisciplinary community of students, teachers and researchers. Together, we explore the complex social determinants of health, illness and ageing.

Founded in 2012 (and formerly known as the Department of Social Science, Health & Medicine), we are now ranked within the top 10 sociology departments in the UK. Our internationally-recognised expertise, consultancy work and contributions to policy development are utilised by a myriad of organisations and networks.

By connecting social scientists, biomedical researchers and clinicians, we deliver research-led teaching that investigates the ways in which advances in biomedicine and biotechnology are changing expectations on life and health, as well as the nature of medical practice.

About the role 

From 1920 to 1975, Brazil was pitted against an unprecedent phenomenon: the wild diseases. Plague and yellow fever, two urban diseases, progressively advanced towards the Brazilian hinterland, where they infected rural populations and wild animals, such as rodents, marsupials, and primates. The history of diseases moving from cities to wild spaces complexifies current mainstream interpretations about emerging infectious diseases. Exploring this difference, the Wellcome Trust-funded project “How Did Infectious Diseases Become Wild?: Plague, Yellow Fever, and Disease Ecology in the Brazilian Hinterland (1920-1975)” asks three main questions: which knowledge about wild diseases emerged in Brazil? How did Brazilian health authorities control wild diseases? What were the social and environmental consequences of anti-wild disease measures in Brazil? In reconstructing the epistemological, political, social, and environmental dimensions of wild diseases in Brazil, the project will advance empirical knowledge on the history of disease ecology from a Global South perspective.

The Department of Global Health & Social Medicine invites candidates interested in developing a ground-breaking postdoctoral research project within Dr Matheus Alves Duarte da Silva Wellcome Career Development project “How Did Infectious Diseases Become Wild?: Plague, Yellow Fever, and Disease Ecology in the Brazilian Hinterland (1920-1975)” for 36 months, with a focus on Brazil, infectious diseases, zoonosis, rural communities, environmental and animal history. The two successful candidates will assist Dr Duarte da Silva on answering his project’s main questions and will develop their own research projects and agendas, helping to provide new empirical frameworks critically engaging with cutting-edge research on zoonosis and emerging infectious diseases.

This is not an applied research project.

The successful candidates will be expected to spend considerable time in Brazil carrying out research.

The successful candidates will be expected to contribute to the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine and actively participate in Department meetings and research groups. Contribution expectations are outlined in the GHSM Departmental research staff policy. 

This is a full-time post and you will be offered a fixed term contract until September 2029

Research staff at King’s are entitled to at least 10 days per year (pro-rata) for professional development. This entitlement, from the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers, applies to Postdocs, Research Assistants, Research and Teaching Technicians, Teaching Fellows and AEP equivalent up to and including grade 7. Visit the Centre for Research Staff Development for more information.

Advert information