Postdoctoral Research Associate

About the Role
We are seeking a Postdoctoral Research Associate for a 36-month position at the School of the Arts, Queen Mary University of London. This post is part of the Wellcome Trust funded project, ‘Autism in affinity spaces: Interest-driven social media practices during the transition to adulthood’, led by Professor Nelya Koteyko.

This project examines how autistic young people use social media to interact on topics of their focused interests. It is situated at the intersection of digital linguistics, visual studies, and critical autism studies.

About You
The primary task for the successful candidate will be analysis of two datasets (a) images and text-based captions provided by autistic young people to document their social media activities and interest-driven communication (b) semi-structured interviews with young people about these practices. Your tasks will include: applying qualitative and quantitative methods from visual studies, digital ethnography, and/or applied linguistics; managing the ongoing ethics and secure storage of the datasets. You will co-author high-impact academic publications and lead on translating these findings into accessible, practical resources for our partners (autistic young people, charities, and education professionals).

Essential criteria for the position include a PhD (or near completion) in a relevant field, demonstrable research expertise in analysing visual or multimodal data, and a strong theoretical understanding of ethnography and critical disability studies or critical autism studies. Applicants should also have experience in designing and delivering public engagement or impact initiatives, as well as secure and systematic data management practices. A record of creating accessible resources is desirable. Applications should include a motivation letter of no more than two pages explaining interest in the position, along with a CV that includes a full publication list.

About the School/Department/Institute/Project
The School of the Arts is a newly created School within the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. It has a range of both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, including programmes that are jointly run with other Schools. The School is located within the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences which comprises of seven Schools. The post-holder will be based in the School of the Arts.

About Queen Mary
At Queen Mary University of London, we believe that a diversity of ideas helps us achieve the previously unthinkable.

Throughout our history, we’ve fostered social justice and improved lives through academic excellence. And we continue to live and breathe this spirit today, not because it’s simply ‘the right thing to do’ but for what it helps us achieve and the intellectual brilliance it delivers.

We continue to embrace diversity of thought and opinion in everything we do, in the belief that when views collide, disciplines interact, and perspectives intersect, truly original thought takes form.

Benefits
We offer competitive salaries, access to a generous pension scheme, 30 days’ leave per annum (pro-rata for part-time/fixed-term), a season ticket loan scheme and access to a comprehensive range of personal and professional development opportunities. In addition, we offer a range of work life balance and family friendly, inclusive employment policies, flexible working arrangements, and campus facilities.

Queen Mary’s commitment to our diverse and inclusive community is embedded in our appointments processes. Reasonable adjustments will be made at each stage of the recruitment process for any candidate with a disability. We are open to considering applications from candidates wishing to work flexibly.

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