Research Associate - The Prison Consensus Project

Applications are invited for a 36-month Research Associate position on The Prison Consensus Project, a research effort funded by the Leverhulme Trust. This post will be based at the Centre of Development Studies (CDS), a world-leading teaching and interdisciplinary research Centre housed in the Department of Politics and International Studies

This project is concerned with the exponential construction of prisons in Brazil, who benefits, what implications there are for political and social life, and how prisons are justified amidst widespread recognition that they create social problems rather than solve them. The project will be carried out by an integrated team of researchers (PI, Co-I, Research Associate and Research Assistant), with the Research Associate playing a crucial role in fieldwork, analysis and publication.

The team is eager to receive applications from candidates with deep familiarity of Brazil, strong qualitative fieldwork experience and knowledge of Brazilian institutions, incarceration, criminalisation, and/or land ownership, service contracts, local politics and governance across scales of the state. Fluency in Portuguese is a necessary skill since the Research Associate will undertake in depth fieldwork in Brazil with the Team and on their own.

The Research Associate will participate in all project activities, and especially in carrying out fieldwork for sustained periods of time ¿ up to 90 days per year. In order to interrogate the social, economic and political changes associated with the prison consensus, this fieldwork is likely to include formal and informal interviewing of state employees, local stakeholders and politicians, archival inquiry and ethnographic fieldwork in states such as Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso and Ceará. The Research Associate will work closely with the PI (Graham Denyer Willis) and Co-I (Pedro Mendes Loureiro) to gather this evidence, analyse and examine its scope and to generate compelling co-authored publications, outputs and public engagement.

Appointment at Research Associate level is dependent on having a PhD, or an equivalent research doctorate. Those who have submitted but not yet received their PhD will be appointed at Research Assistant level, which will be amended to Research Associate once PhD has been awarded. Candidates who exceptionally do not have a PhD will be appointed at Research Assistant level.

Salary Ranges: Research Associate: £36,024 - £44,263 (Grade 7). Appointment at Research Associate level is dependent on having a PhD. Those who have submitted but not yet received their PhD will initially be appointed as a Research Assistant (Grade 5, Point 38 - £32,982) moving to Research Associate (Grade 7) upon confirmation of your PhD award. Candidates who exceptionally do not have a PhD will be appointed at Research Assistant level (Grade 5).

Fixed-term: The funds for this post are available for 36 months in the first instance.

Please ensure that you upload your Curriculum Vitae (CV), a covering letter, and a recent writing sample (maximum 10,000 words) in the Upload section of the online application. Please also include the names of two potential referees, who may be contacted at shortlisting stage.

Further information about the Centre, Department and School can be found at https://www.devstudies.cam.ac.uk/ , www.polis.cam.ac.uk and www.hsps.cam.ac.uk

We particularly welcome applications from women and /or candidates from a BME background for this vacancy as they are currently under-represented at this level in our department.

To apply online for this vacancy and to view further information about the role, click 'Apply' above.

The University actively supports equality, diversity and inclusion and encourages applications from all sections of society.