Postdoctoral Research Associate in Critical Environmental Policy Studies

About the role 

Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) is seeking to appoint a PDRA to investigate how evidence shapes the environmental policy making process as part of a £3m transdisciplinary, UKRI/Defra funded project entitled “Resilience of Anthropocene Coasts and Communities (RACC): assessing and responding to urban and post-industrial coastal risks”.

The RACC project is investigating the interlinked risks of climate change, coastal flooding and erosion, and the UK’s historic waste legacy due to coastal landfills to develop coastal community and ecosystem resilience.

The new PDRA position will focus on the processes by which different types of evidence influence decision makers at different levels of governance who work on these emerging risks, and support the evaluation of any changes in perceptions and understanding of stakeholders of these interacting risks, that arise from our engagement with them.

A fundamental assumption of the RACC project is that decision makers interpret evidence from different sources, including community engagement, in a rational manner and have the capacity to make logical decisions.

The successful candidate for this new post will work to test that assumption with the aim of tracking the impact that evidence derived from community engagement has on policy change in the context of the range of evidence that can potentially influence policy decisions at different levels of government in England and Scotland.

We anticipate that the PDRA will largely use ethnographic methods within the spatial and engagement constraints of the wider RACC research, but we are open to applicants from a wide range of disciplines proposing other or complementary approaches from those disciplines e.g. political science, public policy analysis, human geography, anthropology, sociology, critical policy studies, arts-based approaches.

About You

The post holder will undertake research investigations in collaboration with, and under the supervision of, https://www.qmul.ac.uk/geog/staff/russella.htmlDr Andy Russell (QMUL, School of Geography), , Dr Megan Clinch (QMUL, Wolfson Institute of Population Health),  Prof Patrick Diamond (QMUL, School of Politics) and the wider RACC research team (which includes the University of Glasgow, King’s College London, University of Bradford and University of Sunderland) in order to realise the objectives and development of the research programme into the resilience of Anthropocene coasts and communities.

About Queen Mary

At Queen Mary University of London, we believe that a diversity of ideas helps us achieve the previously unthinkable.

Throughout our history, we’ve fostered social justice and improved lives through academic excellence. And we continue to live and breathe this spirit today, not because it’s simply ‘the right thing to do’ but for what it helps us achieve and the intellectual brilliance it delivers.

We continue to embrace diversity of thought and opinion in everything we do, in the belief that when views collide, disciplines interact, and perspectives intersect, truly original thought takes form.

Benefits

We offer competitive salaries, access to a generous pension scheme, 30 days’ leave per annum (pro-rata for part-time/fixed-term), a season ticket loan scheme and access to a comprehensive range of personal and professional development opportunities. In addition, we offer a range of work life balance and family friendly, inclusive employment policies, flexible working arrangements, and campus facilities.

Queen Mary’s commitment to our diverse and inclusive community is embedded in our appointments processes. Reasonable adjustments will be made at each stage of the recruitment process for any candidate with a disability. We are open to considering applications from candidates wishing to work flexibly.