Research Assistant

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.

Due to recent success in obtaining ERC Consolidator funding, we are seeking a Research Assistant (RA) to join the DANCING project team. The project titled DANCING- Protecting the Right to Culture of Persons with Disabilities and Enhancing Cultural Diversity through European Union Law: Exploring New Paths,** is a 5-year project led by Prof. Delia Ferri. DANCING will investigate the extent to which the protection of the right to take part in culture of people with disabilities and the promotion of cultural diversity intersect and complement each other in the European Union (EU) legal order. It will disrupt the conventional approach adopted by EU law scholarship by using a combination of legal, empirical and arts-based research to pursue three complementary objectives; experiential, normative and theoretical respectively.

We are looking to appoint a candidate to support the Principal Investigator, Prof. Delia Ferri and post-doctoral researchers in conducting their research.  The focus of the RA will be related in particular but not exclusively to Work Package (WP) 1 and 2 and will require support in the organization of interviews with national and European stakeholders, as well as transcription of those interviews, and research assistance in the review of relevant EU law sources and relevant scholarship​ ​.

For this particular position, we are looking to appoint a candidate with basic knowledge of qualitative research methods, legal methods and EU law and with an interest in cultural studies and/or disability studies. Experience of working in interdisciplinary research projects is desirable.   

Overview of the DANCING project

The right of people with disabilities to participate in cultural life - which encompasses the rights of access to, and to be involved in cultural activities, as well as the recognition of disability identities, such as Deaf culture – has been for long denied. The cultural exclusion of disabled people has engendered their marginalisation. It has also entailed a loss for society as a whole, because of the lack of cultural diversity resulting from an inaccessible and exclusionary cultural realm. DANCING will investigate the extent to which the protection of the right to take part in culture of people with disabilities and the promotion of cultural diversity intersect and complement each other in the European Union (EU) legal order. It will disrupt the conventional approach adopted by EU law scholarship by using a combination of legal, empirical and arts-based research to pursue three complementary objectives, experiential, normative and theoretical respectively. First, it will identify and categorise barriers and facilitators to cultural participation experienced by disabled people and how they affect the wider cultural domain. Secondly, it will provide a normative exploration of how the EU has used and can use its competence to combat discrimination and its supporting competence on cultural matters, in synergy with its wide internal market powers, to ensure the accessibility of cultural activities, to promote disability identities, while achieving cultural diversity. In doing so, it will bridge, in an unprecedented way, the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. Thirdly, it will advance the understanding of the legal concept of cultural diversity, which stems from the intersection of different sources of law, and will propose a new theorization of the promotion of cultural diversity within the EU legal order.

Salary

Research Assistant Level 1 (2022):     € 28,701 - € 29,906 per annum (3 Points)

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