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Research Associate in the Department of English

Employer
KINGS COLLEGE LONDON
Location
London (Central), London (Greater) (GB)
Salary
£38,304 per annum
Closing date
13 Jul 2021

Job Details

Applications are invited to fill a temporary (36 months) full-time research position in the field of qualitative ageing studies. This is a key post in a cross-disciplinary research programme funded by a UK Research and Innovation Future Leaders Fellowship on the Sciences of Ageing and the Culture of Youth. The position is available from 1 October 2021.

The Sciences of Ageing and the Culture of Youth focuses on cultural pessimism about ageing as shaping perceptions of the worth and value of human beings and as directing decisions about care, research and funding priorities. The project is hosted in the Department of English (Centre for the Humanities and Health) at King’s College London, but evolves at the cross-disciplinary nexus of literary study, medical sciences and empirical research. Like the PI, Dr. Martina Zimmermann, with a dual background in neuropharmacology and health humanities, the PDRA working on this project will be keen to cross disciplines and faculties.

You will co-create and progress research objectives in the field of ageing health sciences. You will explore experiences and meanings of ageing and the role of cognitive decline in shaping these experiences, and interrogate concepts like positive ageing and health in ageing, using qualitative research methods. In capturing the lived experiences of service users and low service users you will engage with project partners in the third sector, especially local community organisations in the centre of London as well as outside London. You are also invested in exploring the boundary between the humanities and social sciences, seeking out opportunities and strategies for enhancing the conversation between these fields, including looking beyond discipline-specific methodological frameworks.

Under the guidance, where required, of the PI, you take responsibility for the organisation and delivery of your work activities, including obtaining ethics approval, data collection and analysis, refinement of methods and analytical approaches. You will write up research findings and outcomes, and contribute to the wider organisation of the project. You will work synergistically with other members in the team in their engagement with local community groups and their users.

The department is committed to building an equitable and diverse academic environment. We therefore welcome applicants from underrepresented communities.

Candidates interested in applying for this post are encouraged to contact the PI (martina.zimmermann@kcl.ac.uk) for informal enquiries prior to the application deadline.

This post will be offered on an a fixed-term contract for 36 months.

This is a full-time post - 100% full time equivalent

Key responsibilities

  • Undertake qualitative research (interviews, with scope for the development of multifaceted and/or creative methods), including responsibilities, under the guidance, where required, of the PI, for drawing up an application to the ethics review committee, sampling and recruitment strategies, development of methodological and analytical approaches, data collection, management and protection;
  • Ensure that the research project is carried out in line with King’s Guidelines on Good Practice in Academic Research and following the application you help prepare to the College’s Social Sciences, Humanities and Law Research Ethics Subcommittee;
  • Engage with external stakeholders (third sector) to explore meanings and experiences of ageing (qualitative interviews and potentially focus groups);
  • Write up research findings for publication, including contextualising them in an interdisciplinary review of the literature; 
  • Attend and present research findings and papers at international academic meetings and external academic conferences;
  • Work with the wider project team and contribute to the organisation of participatory public engagement activities and dissemination activities via the project website, blog and other social media channels.

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 

1. A PhD in social sciences, in areas that relate to ageing, dementia or the life course;

2. A successful track record in publishing your research findings in internationally peer-reviewed journals;

3.  Established independence and high level of experience and practice in using qualitative approaches in social research (including interview techniques, participatory methodologies, focus groups, and methodologies for data analysis including coding);

4  Experience in research project management; 

5. Excellent communication (written and verbal) and presentation skills, including with external stakeholders, directly and via web and social media;

6. The ability to work independently as well as in a team;

7. A desire to work cross faculty, within an interdisciplinary team of researchers and in an environment removed from your home discipline, e.g. evidence of publishing beyond the core requirements and expectations of your field.

Desirable criteria 

1. Experience of research in social gerontology;

2. Experience of conducting research on sensitive topics; experience with mental capacity legislation and its implications for cognition research; and awareness of ethical and legal requirements regarding data protection, management and confidentiality, and high level of experience in drawing up applications to research ethics committees;

3. Evidence of community engagement and a commitment to community development, including experience of collaborative research, working with older service users and those who don’t reach out to support services;

4. Awareness of policy developments and an interest to engage with policy makers;

5. Experience with public engagement activities, such as workshop- and theatre-based techniques and of communications activities targeted at non-academic publics. 

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.

Company

King's College London is one of the top 20 universities in the world and among the oldest in England. King's has more than 27,600 students (of whom nearly 10,500 are graduate students) from some 150 countries worldwide, and some 6,800 staff.

King's has an outstanding reputation for world-class teaching and cutting-edge research. In the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF) King’s was ranked 6th nationally in the ‘power’ ranking, which takes into account both the quality and quantity of research activity, and 7th for quality according to Times Higher Education rankings. Eighty-four per cent of research at King’s was deemed ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’ (3* and 4*). The university is in the top seven UK universities for research earnings and has an overall annual income of more than £684 million.

King's has a particularly distinguished reputation in the humanities, law, the sciences (including a wide range of health areas such as psychiatry, medicine, nursing and dentistry) and social sciences including international affairs. It has played a major role in many of the advances that have shaped modern life, such as the discovery of the structure of DNA and research that led to the development of radio, television, mobile phones and radar.

King's College London and Guy's and St Thomas', King's College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts are part of King's Health Partners. King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) is a pioneering global collaboration between one of the world's leading research-led universities and three of London's most successful NHS Foundation Trusts, including leading teaching hospitals and comprehensive mental health services. For more information, visit: www.kingshealthpartners.org.

King’s £600 million campaign, World questions|KING’s answers, has delivered huge global impact in areas where King’s has particular expertise. Philanthropic support has funded new research to save young lives at Evelina London Children’s Hospital; established the King’s Dickson Poon School of Law as a worldwide leader in transnational law; built a new Cancer Centre at Guy’s Hospital; allowed unique collaboration between leading neuroscientists to fast-track new treatments for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, motor neurone disease, depression and schizophrenia at the new Maurice Wohl Clinical Neuroscience Institute; created the Cicely Saunders Institute: the first academic institution in the world dedicated to palliative care, and supported the King’s Sierra Leone Partnership in the Ebola crisis. Donations provide over 300 of the most promising students with scholarships and bursaries each year. More information about the campaign is available at www.kcl.ac.uk/kingsanswers.

Company info
Mini-site
KINGS COLLEGE LONDON
Telephone
+(44)02078365454
Location
STRAND
LONDON
WC2R 2LS
United Kingdom

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