Research Fellow in the Ideas of Anti-Autocratic Movements

About the role

NEWREPUBLIC is a €1.5 million research project funded by the European Research Council. It asks: what ideas animate anti-autocratic movements in Africa? You will play a central role in that project alongside the principal investigator, another research fellow, a PhD student and a communication officer.

You will co-lead the project's content analysis. You will generate and analyse a large multi-country dataset of movement speech. In parallel, you will undertake your own autonomous research project on the ideas of anti-autocratic movements in Africa, which will extend, enrich or complicate the foundational ideas of NEWREPUBLIC. Altogether, you will coauthor at least three articles for publication in respected peer-reviewed journals.

More widely, you will be pivotal to the success of NEWREPUBLIC. You will present at conferences, contribute to international dissemination and feed into follow-on funding applications. The role is intended to set you up for a career in academia.

You, and NEWREPUBLIC has close ties to Sussex’s prestigious Centre for the Study of Corruption, world-leading Institute for Development Studies, and pioneering School for Progressive Futures. You will receive proactive support oriented towards early-career researchers through the Sussex Researcher School.

About you

The ideal candidate will want to put the animating ideas of anti-autocratic movements at the heart of their research agenda, for the duration of the project, and for years to come.

You will be fluent (to at least C1 level) in a language spoken in Africa, other than English. It would be particularly advantageous if you were fluent in French, Portuguese, Luganda, or Swahili.

You will have:

A PhD in political science or a closely related subject

A record of publications in peer-reviewed journals, commensurate with career stage.

Expertise in autocratic politics and/or democratic struggle in Africa.

Expertise in methodologies of rule-bound content analysis of text.

Expertise in the analysis of ideology, discourse, performance or another lens onto meaning-making.

An excellent proposal for an independent research project to extend, enrich or complicate the foundational ideas of NEWREPUBLIC (no more than 1,000 words, excluding references).

It would be advantageous if you had:

Expertise in the politics of francophone, lusophone, or eastern Africa

Experience in management, supervision, or quality-control within or beyond the academy.

Experience of public engagement, for example in op-eds, policy briefs, or public seminars.

About our School

Please find further information regarding the School of Law, Politics and Sociology on our website.

Why work here

Find out more about our reward and benefits package.

Find out about our equality, diversity and inclusion.

Further Key Information

Please contact NEWREPUBLIC principal investigator, Dr. Dan Paget, at d.paget@sussex.ac.uk for informal enquiries.

Please submit a cover letter (two pages), a CV, a writing sample (<10,000 words), and a research proposal (<1,000 words, excluding references).

For full details and how to apply, click the 'Apply' button above.

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