Postdoctoral Research Associate

About the role

As a member of Swansea University, you will join colleagues conducting world-class research in disability studies and neurodiversity studies across disciplines. You will hold a fixed term 2 year post on the project AMEND – Early Modern European Neurodivergence. AMEND is a 6-year project funded by the Wellcome Trust that centres neurodivergent people’s ways of reading and engaging with texts.

We are seeking a qualitative researcher, interested in working with neurodivergent people to explore neurodivergent ways of engaging with texts. We will supply a bank of texts for you to use, in various formats (for example, modernised English, audio or BSL for accessibility, and different languages, depending on what your research participants need). 

The project’s definition of neurodivergence is broad and inclusive and encompasses research into areas such as voice-hearing, addictions, and dementia alongside what might more commonly be thought of as ‘neurodivergent conditions’ such as autism and into the concept of neurodivergence itself. We aim to explore and value the diversity of neurodivergence, and to foreground often marginalised neurodivergent communities such as non-speaking people and neurodivergent people of colour.

You will contribute to the second phase of AMEND, working with the PI and Administrator to answer two research questions:

1. What new understandings of literature do we gain when we allow our neurodivergent ways of reading to flourish and develop instead of suppressing them?
2. How can early modern texts help us understand our lived experience of neurodivergence?

No expertise in early modern literature is required for this postdoctoral position, as the historical and literary research is conducted by other members of the project team. For this position, we are seeking someone to run a qualitative research project. You may have a background in social sciences, or you may have a humanities background that includes experience at conducting qualitative projects (interviews, focus groups, questionnaires). You may have experience at working with neurodivergent research participants, or with other marginalised groups, though this is not essential.  

This second phase of the project involves:

• Qualitative research interviews and focus groups with 150 neurodivergent participants, which you would conduct alongside the PI. As part of this, you would design, deliver, and write up your own sub-project investigating how neurodivergent people engage with texts gathered by the research team during the first phase of the project.
• Running a workshop as part of a series of workshops on neurodivergent engagements with literature, and co-editing with the PI a special issue of articles arising from this workshop series. Other workshops in the series deal with topics such as sensory engagements with books, book-making, silence and reading, and embroidery as restful resistance. 

The project grant provides you with financial support to visit archives and attend conferences as part of your role, and funded training in areas relevant to the project. You will receive regular mentoring from the PI, and the opportunity to have a second or alternative mentor at Swansea. 

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