Research Associate

About us

The Centre for Language, Discourse and Communication is a friendly, vibrant research centre within the School of Education, Communication and Society in the Faculty of Social Science and Public Policy. We are renowned for our expertise in discourse studies, psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics.

For more information about the centre, please see our website:  https://www.kcl.ac.uk/research/centre-for-language-discourse-communication

About the role

We are seeking to recruit an organised, reliable and enthusiastic researcher with a background in linguistics to work on the three-year, Leverhulme Trust-funded project: Discursive Framings of Insects and their Effects on Urban Public Perceptions. The project explores which framings of insects circulate in public communication in the UK and how different framings may affect public perceptions of insects and their intentions to engage in conservation actions to support insects, particularly in urban areas.

The responsibilities of the postholder will be to contribute to the design, compilation and analysis of a corpus of public communication (e.g. media articles, TV documentaries) about insects, with a view to analysing the different framings of insects in public discourse.

Additionally, the postholder will recruit to, organise and hold interviews with professionals (e.g. entomologists) and focus groups with the general public about their perceptions of and responses to different framings of insects. They will also analyse the focus groups, interviews and additional key texts from the corpus using methods for qualitative discourse analysis.

The postholder will also contribute to the design, management and quantitative analysis of two surveys and a reaction time test that will be developed to test the effects of different framings of insects.

In collaboration with the project team, the postholder will co-author academic conference papers, peer-reviewed journal publications and reports based on the research findings. They will also support the dissemination of findings through the creation of accessible materials.

Additional responsibilities of the role include liaising with the project team, attending project meetings, contributing to regular reports for the funding body, reviewing relevant literature and engaging in training that may be necessary for the research activities.

The researcher will be responsible to the Principal Investigator, Dr Olivia Knapton, and be an active member of the wider interdisciplinary project team of linguists, psychologists and entomologists.

The successful candidate will have a PhD* in Linguistics, Discourse Analysis or other relevant discipline. They will show evidence of excellent communication skills in written and spoken English and high-quality academic writing.

This is a full-time post that will be offered on a three-year, fixed term contract from 01/09/2026 until 31/08/2029

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.

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