Research Associate in the Department of Law

Job ID: 013305

Salary: £38,304 to £45,026 per annum pro rata, including London Weighting Allowance

Posted: 18-Jan-2021

Closing date: 08-Feb-2021 

Business unit: The Dickson Poon School of Law

Department: Law School

Contact details: Davina Cooper, davina.cooper@kcl.ac.uk 

Strand Campus   Research    

Job description
This is an exciting opportunity to play a key research role in the dissemination stage of a high-profile, ESRC funded, interdisciplinary research project. The project critically explores the options and implications of reforming how legal gender status is assigned and regulated in Britain.

The project started on 1 May 2018. We are seeking a 60% FTE research associate for the final stage of the project, now extended until 31 March 2022 (11 months). The research associate's main responsibilities are to help organise public and stakeholder engagement and exchange, including through workshops and our website, to manage and coordinate project activities on a day-to-day basis, and to be responsible for data management and archiving. We also hope to appoint someone who will contribute to the analysis and dissemination of the research.

ESRC Project on The Future of Legal Gender

In the global north, sex and gender are changing. With these changes come new dilemmas for governance structures that use sex and gender as key markers of personhood. Drawing on diverse academic fields, including gender, feminist, trans, and socio-legal studies, this project asks: should government retain the current system of legal sex/ gender assigned at birth? What reform options are available and what might be the legal, cultural and policy implications of introducing legal change? This 47-month interdisciplinary project takes England and Wales as its primary jurisdiction, in light of international developments and debates. It has explored different law reform options through a public survey, over a hundred interviews, and different focus group events. At this stage of the project, we are critically considering 'decertification' (the abolition of a system of assigned legal sex/ gender) alongside designing an experimental statute. Social justice, multi-dimensional inequality, same-sex provision, statutory law, and different conceptions of gender are central to this study.

This post will be offered on an a fixed-term contract for 11 months

This is a part-time post - 60% full time equivalent

Key responsibilities

• Organise meetings, events, and end of award conference,
• Maintain project files, database, and correspondence,
• Liaise with Advisory Group, stakeholders, and interviewees,
• Work closely with PI and Co-Is, with regular consultation, discussion and updating meetings, discuss lines of research, carry out agreed plans,
• Contribute to the analysis of qualitative data,
• Maintain the website and help develop its use as a platform for wider engagement with the project
• Support the dissemination of research findings and analysis through academic publications, social media, and professional and policy outputs,
• Take responsibility for data management, including preparation of data for archiving,
• Play a key role in drafting reports for funders and others
• Assist with budgetary oversight and management

The above list of responsibilities may not be exhaustive, and the post holder will be required to undertake such tasks and responsibilities as may reasonably be expected within the scope and grading of the post.

Skills, knowledge, and experience
Essential criteria 

• PhD awarded in or near completion in a relevant area of research.
• Good knowledge of law, gender, & feminism
• Excellent written and spoken English
• Experience in running a research project
• Excellent time management and ability to complete agreed work commitments on time
• Ability to manage and sustain multiple ongoing responsibilities of a complex research project
• Effective understanding of the complex and contentious issues raised by the project, and ability to work with people holding different, including passionately contrasting, views
• Ability to work collaboratively, to contribute to decision-making and carry out agreed plans to a high level
• Readiness and ability to actively participate in research analysis
• Analysis and writing to academic publication standard

Desirable criteria

• Advanced knowledge of basic principles of the law of England & Wales or a comparable common law jurisdiction
• Website development and management experience and skills
• Analysis of qualitative data
• Experience in researching, or otherwise working with, NGOs and policymakers

Please note that this is a PhD level role but candidates who have submitted their thesis and are awaiting award of their PhDs will be considered. In these circumstances the appointment will be made at Grade 5, spine point 30 with the title of Research Assistant. Upon confirmation of the award of the PhD, the job title will become Research Associate and the salary will increase to Grade 6. 

For further details on the research project, please visit https://futureoflegalgender.kcl.ac.uk/