Skip to main content

This job has expired

Research Assistant

Employer
MAYNOOTH UNIVERSITY
Location
Maynooth, Ireland
Closing date
2 Jan 2023

Department : Arts & Humanities Institute
Vacancy ID : 019081
Closing Date : 02-Jan-2023

Maynooth University is committed to a strategy in which the primary University goals of excellent research and scholarship and outstanding education are interlinked and equally valued.  

We are seeking a Research Assistant to work on the research project 'Full Stack Feminism in Digital Humanities' (FSFDH) based in MUAHI. The Research Assistant will support the project in its qualitative research activities that deal with community-led organisations and amplifying marginalised voices in Digital Humanities archival practice and development. They will work with the project team and the postdoctoral researcher to help achieve this within research project deliverables.  

This research project will embed intersectional feminist methodologies in Digital Humanities (DH). It will achieve this by developing an interoperable 'Full Stack Feminist' (FSF) methodology and toolkit. It develops this approach by focusing on 3 areas, referred to as stacks: data & archives; infrastructure, tools & code; access, experience & integration. We use 'full stack' as a metaphor, with the understanding that this term has specific uses and meaning in software development - we use it in a similar but not precisely equivalent way. Our high-level objective is to highlight and address specific points in project development that, often unconsciously, manifest inequalities or bias in, for example, data models, archival descriptions, access rights, and tool functionality.  

FSFDH will have substantial impact in the local cultures of the partner universities (Maynooth University in Ireland and Sussex University in the U.K.) by building the capacity to develop partnerships with cultural and heritage institutions, organisations and practitioners: in Dublin via the relationship with the IMMA, the DRI and the Cork LGBT archive; in Sussex via the engagement with multiple creative companies and digital artists; in Cambridge via the inclusion of collections and material culture specialists; and together, via its international networks. An additional impact of the project lies in capacity development in relation to digital practitioners (e.g., digital artists, digital archivists, technicians, developers) and their capacity to create new DH projects, resources and spaces that are more inclusive.  

Our main objective is to develop an interoperable FSF methodology that software teams, programme managers, database designers, digital arts practitioners, data scientists, and more, can review and apply to their work. This will enable DH practitioners to re-evaluate the structures in which they work and will create new intersectional DH spaces. We want DH practitioners to consider a feminist methodology throughout their work and the development life-cycle - not as a post- reflection. In this sense, we want to expand the field of DH by engaging with new contributors and fostering new ways of developing projects - changing what we produce and how we produce it. FSF is positioned in pluralities and in collective narratives and data; working in collaboration with community-led organisations and amplifying marginalised voices is a central priority and focus. As such this project will:  

  • Expand nationally and internationally the network of academics, digital artists, community archivists, developed and fostered through the AHRC-IRC network, 'Intersections: Feminism, Technology & Digital Humanities'(IFTe) to realise a more inclusive and responsive model for DH.
  • Develop and publish an interoperable FSF methodology and toolkit, that can be applied by DH communities & organisations helping to create more inclusive and representative tools, archives, and projects.
  • Foster intersectional feminist digital coding practices (e.g. literacy, coding) that encourages and supports capacity building within DH communities.
  • Integrate the FSF toolkit to shape current and future DH policies and ethics.
  • Work in collaboration with community archives, organisations, and arts practice to develop methods that better reflect intersecting voices.
  • To develop a public understanding of FSF methods and praxis in DH, disseminated through a series of public workshops, talks, exhibitions, and publications.
  • Demonstrate the practical application of our FSF methodology through case studies and applications.
  • Create a collection of intersectional feminist objects and writings in the Digital Repository of Ireland.

The project, lasting 24 months, runs from October 1st 2021 to September 30th 2023 and is funded by the UK-Ireland Collaboration in the Digital Humanities Research Grant (Grant Ref: AH/W001667/1 and IRC/W001667/1).  

(0.2 FTE) Research Assistant Level 2 : €33,394 p.a. pro rata 

Appointments will be made in accordance with public sector pay provisions.

Closing Date:   23:30hrs (local Irish time) on Monday January 2nd.  

Please note all applications must be made via our Online Recruitment Portal at the following link:   https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/human-resources/vacancies  

Applications must be submitted by the closing date and time specified above. Any applications which are still in progress at the closing time on the specified closing date will be cancelled automatically by the system.  

Late applications will not be accepted.  

Maynooth University is an equal opportunities employer  

The position is subject to the Statutes of the University

Get job alerts

Create a job alert and receive personalised job recommendations straight to your inbox.

Create alert