Research Associate in Comparative and Creative Desert Research

ABOUT THE ROLE

The Department of History at Lancaster University are seeking to appoint a Research Associate to join the British Academy-funded Desert Disorders project team. We are looking for a highly motivated postdoctoral researcher to undertake creative digital design and dissemination work. You will work with a range of data (texts, images and sound recordings) from Somalia, the UK and India and will create digital presentations and expositions of the major research findings.  

The role is 18.75 hours per week for thirteen weeks. Flexibility around working patterns is possible.  The post will be based at Lancaster with agile working principles. You must have right to work in the UK. 

ABOUT THE PROJECT AND TEAM  

Desert Disorders: Comparative Approaches to Asian and East African Desert Regions, is led by Professor Katherine Baxter, in collaboration with Professor Deborah Sutton (Lancaster University) and Professor Farhana Ibrahim (IIT Delhi). The project takes a comparative, global perspective on deserts and arid regions as spaces of perceived ‘disorder’ and uses literary, historical and ethnographic methodologies to explore and explain the imperial and postcolonial anxieties that such regions, and their inhabitants, provoked. The project aims to recover alternative, possibly resistive, forms of sovereignty established in desert and arid contexts, which exist beyond the conditions of normative state and citizenship regimes. 

The Research Associate will be affiliated to the Department of History at Lancaster University. Lancaster University is highly ranked and research-led and situated near the historic city of Lancaster. The North West of England offers high standards of living, beautiful countryside, including the Lake District, and excellent national and international transport connectivity. www.lancs.ac.uk  For more information about the department, see: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/history/  

ABOUT YOU  

You will make a positive contribution to our project by developing creative and analytical work with our project data. You will hold a PhD or equivalent in a Humanities or Social Science discipline. Preference will be given to candidates with an interest in creative design, mapping and landscape studies. Candidates with Hindi or Somali language skills are particularly encouraged to apply. We particularly encourage applications from Black, Asian and/or Minority Ethnic backgrounds. 

If you would like an informal discussion about the role, please contact Professor Deborah Sutton, d.sutton@lancaster.ac.uk 

Please note: unless specified otherwise in the advert, all advertised roles are UK based.

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