Postdoctoral Research Associate

The King’s India Institute is part of the Global Institutes housed at the School of Global Affairs under the Faculty of Social Science and Public Policy. The Faculty is one of the largest, most international and most highly regarded faculties of its kind in the United Kingdom. The SGA is a vibrant hub of multi-disciplinary scholarship that seeks to address and resolve the most pressing issues facing our world today. By drawing together a unique cohort of scholars, our School covers expertise in global environmental governance, climate change, global health, cross-border migration, emerging economies and politics. The School is comprised of the Departments of Geography, International Development and Global Health & Social Medicine, the African Leadership Centre and the Global Institutes (Lau China, India, Brazil and Australia).

 

Established in 2011, the King’s India Institute has a mission to serve as a world-leading centre for multi-disciplinary research, teaching and public engagement on contemporary India. We foster understanding of India’s political, social and economic life, and its role as a global actor. We have a core group of academic staff and also serve as a hub for the growing community of scholars and students working on India (and South Asia) across King’s. We also host a multidisciplinary PhD programme focused on contemporary India, a joint PhD programme with the National University of Singapore and a visiting Inlaks-King’s India Institute PhD fellowship programme. We have a growing cohort of Postdoctoral fellows and are committed to providing appropriate mentorship and support for career development. The CRITCASTE project is one of several ongoing research projects at the India Institute. It works closely with civil society partners and stakeholders across USA, UK, and South Asia, with a focus on mapping the role of caste in contemporary labour migrations and their entanglements with legal frameworks in the receiving countries. 

The PDRA will be employed in the European Research Council funded project Critical Caste Geographies (CRITCASTE). The project seeks to map the labour geography, legal geography, and social mobility aspects of caste relations between South Asia, UK, and USA. It will document the role of caste in diasporic labour practices and investigate how they relate to extant legal protections in host countries. The PDRA will focus on the legal geography approach within the project. They will undertake a systematic mapping of the knowledge claims and categories emerging out of legislations across contexts with varying histories of race relations, such as the UK and the USA, trace the evolving ontological status of caste, and the role it plays in anti-discrimination jurisprudence. The PDRA will work closely with the PI and other members of the project team, while also developing independent research objectives and deliverables. Their key responsibilities will include conducting literature reviews and archival searches, identifying key litigations and legislations for in-depth analysis, writing up findings and producing research outputs both independently and collaboratively, and building and maintaining professional relationships with actors, organizations, and networks within the field.

 

This is a full-time post (35 hours per week), and you will be offered a fixed term contract for 12 months with the possibility of extension.

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