research assistant Loughborough, England
Job description
School of Social Sciences and Humanities
Communication and Media
Postdoctoral Research Associate (Everyday Misinformation Project)
Part-time (0.6 FTE/ 22 hours per week) and fixed term from 18th September 2023 until 29th February 2024
The Online Civic Culture Centre (O3C) at Loughborough University is seeking to appoint an enthusiastic and highly motivated postdoctoral researcher to work with Professor Andrew Chadwick and Professor Cristian Vaccari on the Leverhulme-funded Everyday Misinformation Project (http://everyday-mis.info).
This is a part-time (0.6 FTE) postdoctoral research role that runs until February 29, 2024. The vacancy arises due to the appointment of current PDRA, Dr Brendan Lawson, to a Lectureship. The researcher’s main responsibilities will be to contribute to project management; gather, organize, and analyze quantitative and some qualitative data; arrange events and meetings relating to research online and/or in person; and contribute actively to the writing and sharing of the research findings in high quality academic publications and public reports and at conferences and workshops. Quantitative skills, including experience of multivariate analysis of longitudinal survey data using regression with lagged variables, autoregression, and similar techniques, are essential. Experience of using either SPSS, or STATA or R is essential. Familiarity with NVivo for qualitative analysis is desirable but not essential.
In addition to working with the team, the appointee will have the opportunity to lead on publications based on their own analyses of survey data gathered by the project.
The successful applicant will be an experienced researcher with PhD-level social science training in either communication and media, journalism studies, political science, sociology, social psychology, or a cognate discipline or interdisciplinary field, such as behavioural science. They will have substantial knowledge of research on misinformation, be a team player, have excellent written and spoken English, presentational, and time management skills, be highly technologically literate, and be committed to the development of original social science theory and concepts. An awarded PhD at time of application is an essential criterion. This is not a remote working position, but requests to work away from campus will be considered in light of the University’s Dynamic Working policies.
The researcher will primarily work with Professor Andrew Chadwick (Principal Investigator) and Professor Cristian Vaccari (Co-Investigator). They will also collaborate with the project’s full-time postdoctoral researcher Dr Natalie-Anne Hall.
In the latest UK Research Excellence Framework (2021), Communication and Media at Loughborough was ranked 5th in the UK and submitted 40 researchers. Overall, 65% of its research was assessed as “world leading”—the highest possible rating of 4 stars. Its research environment and research impact were both awarded the maximum possible rating of 100% 4-star quality. The department is ranked top in the Complete University Guide, and third in both the Times/Sunday Times Good University Guide and the Guardian guide.
Full job description, person specification here.
Informal queries
Professor Andrew Chadwick, director, Online Civic Culture Centre (O3C), Communication and Media, Loughborough University: [email protected]
Application closing date: 11th August 2023.
Late applications will not be considered.
Visa Sponsorship:
For candidates who would require sponsorship to work in the UK to achieve sufficient points under the Points Based Immigration System, it is likely that you will either need to:
- Have completed a PhD in a subject relevant to the job.
OR
- Qualify as a “new entrant”. For more information on this please see paragraphs SW 12.1 - SW 12.7 of the Immigration Rules Appendix Skilled Worker.