Research Fellow

Part time - 28 hours per week

Fixed term contract duration: 28 months - Available from 01/05/2023 to 31/08/2025

Location: 23 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh and Usher Building at Edinburgh Bioquarter (from early 2024).

The Centre for Biomedicine, Self and Society, at the Usher Institute within The University of Edinburgh is looking for a research fellow to work in the ESRC-funded “Viral Memories: from HIV to COVID-19 and beyond” project led by Dr Jaime Garcia Iglesias. The project will explore how COVID-19 has altered gay men’s experiences of risk and wellbeing, comparing it to the changes caused by the AIDS crisis in the 1980s and 90s. It seeks to understand how gay men have turned to their experiences and memories of HIV to understand and live through COVID-19. Through interviews with younger and older gay men, the project analyse how they remember HIV during COVID-19, and how their memories and experiences of HIV help them navigate COVID-19 risk in the UK. The project includes working with community organizations to develop better ways of communicating about risk and writing a new chapter in the history of gay communities.

The opportunity:

We are seeking a Research Fellow to support the project and work alongside the principal investigator. This role will be based at the University of Edinburgh. The person appointed will have access to a wide array of career-development opportunities (including funds for conference attendance and research visits) and will have access to a mentoring scheme.  

Informal enquiries may be directed to Dr. Jaime Garcia-Iglesias, Principal Investigator (jgarcia6@ed.ac.uk).

Your skills and attributes for success:

• PhD (or equivalent) in relevant social science subject (e.g. sociology, anthropology) or humanities (e.g. history, cultural studies), or able to demonstrate comparable experience. 
• Knowledge of research approaches to social sciences.
• Ability to produce written deliverables for academic, public and policy audiences
• Experience of conducting qualitative research and semi-structured interviews
• Knowledge of sexual health, history of HIV/AIDS, and sexuality

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