La révolution épidémiologique

Postdoctoral Research Fellows - The Epidemiological Revolution 

 

Call for applications

Job Identification 

798 

Job Category 

Academic 

Locations 

High School Yards, Edinburgh, EH1 1LZ, GB 

Posting Date 

03/24/2021, 9:16 AM 

Apply Before 

05/07/2021, 12:00 PM 

Job Schedule 

Full time 

Job Posting Requirements 

External (includes internal) 

Health and Safety Requirements 

No key hazards identified for this post 

Criminal Record Check 

No criminal record check required 

Contract Type 

Fixed Term 

Job Description 

UE07 - £33,797 - £40,322 

STIS / School of Social and Political Science 

Fixed Term, 35 Hours per week 

01/10/2021 – 30/06/2025 

Number of posts - 2 

We are looking for two Postdoctoral Research Fellows to play an important role within the ERC-funded research project The Epidemiological Revolution: A History of Epidemiological Reasoning. Both post-holders will work closely with Dr Lukas Engelmann over the next four years to pursue research on the history of epidemiology in the twentieth century. 

The Opportunity: 

Each of the two positions offers the opportunity to shape the project’s research agenda and to collaborate in developing novel digital methods. You will be expected to lead one of two research themes (‘Correlation’ or ‘Configuration’ – see below), to design and deliver historical case studies independently, and to contribute to digital research plans within the overall research agenda of the project. 

Research theme 1 (Correlation): The history of data practices in epidemiological reasoning. You will work on the research practices of epidemiologists and investigate how the collection, storage and retrieval of data enabled the correlation of variables. Case studies might look for instance at the paper technologies with which epidemiological information was collected, how social categories (eg. age, race, gender, profession) were tabulated as epidemiological data, or how reports, forms and surveys have structured research questions and outcomes. This theme is concerned with the data infrastructures of epidemiology and seeks to develop a critical perspective on the field’s politics of standardisation and digitalisation. 

Research theme 2 (Configuration): The history of transdisciplinary networks in epidemiological reasoning. Your position will be focused on the question of who was empowered to speak in the name of epidemiology, and who had the authority to produce and disseminate epidemiological knowledge. Beyond the mere history of a discipline, your case studies might follow bidirectional influences of the social and medical sciences in epidemiology and investigate how epidemiological methods and theories travelled beyond the study of infectious and chronic diseases. This theme is concerned with the social networks in which epidemiological knowledge is produced and will map the historical distribution of the field’s methods and theories. 

Please refer to the project website for further information on the themes http://theepidemy.net or get in touch with the PI. 

Your skills and attributes for success: 

· PhD (or near completion) in relevant historical or social science subject 

· Experience in archive-based or oral historical research, or historical sociology 

· Experience in working collaboratively 

· Experience in digital research methods is highly desirable but not necessary 

Click here for a copy of the full job description 

How to apply: 

You can only apply to one theme. Please include your CV and a supporting statement with details of how you meet the knowledge, skills and experience required for this post. Please also include a one-page sketch of a sample case study for the research theme to which you are applying. Please direct any informal questions to the PI, Lukas Engelmann, lukas.engelmann@ed.ac.uk

As a valued member of our team you can expect: 

You will be based in the Science, Technology and Innovation Studies (STIS) subject group, located within the School of Social and Political Science. STIS is home to a growing cluster of historians and sociologists of biomedicine and the life sciences. Research within STIS ranges widely across the history and sociology of science, technology and medicine including studies of and with information and communication technologies, and the sociology of environment, energy and sustainability. You will be encouraged to join the Centre for Biomedicine, Self and Society, which brings together researchers from STIS, the Social Studies of Health and Medicine group in the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, and a growing group of medical lawyers and bioethicists in the School of Law. 

The University of Edinburgh offers an exciting, positive, creative, challenging and rewarding place to work. We provide you with support, nurture your talent and reward success. You will benefit from a competitive reward package and a wide range of staff benefits, which includes a generous holiday entitlement, a defined benefits pension scheme, staff discounts, family friendly initiatives, flexible working and much more. Access our staff benefits page for further information and use our reward calculator to find out the total value of pay and benefits provided.

The University of Edinburgh holds a Silver Athena SWAN award in recognition of our commitment to advance gender equality in higher education. We are members of the Race Equality Charter and we are also Stonewall Scotland Diversity Champions, actively promoting LGBT equality. 

If invited for interview you will be required to evidence your right to work in the UK. Further information is available on our right to work webpages. 

The University is able to sponsor the employment of international workers in this role. If successful, an international applicant requiring sponsorship to work in the UK will need to satisfy the UK Home Office’s English Language requirements and apply for and secure a Tier 2/Skilled Worker Visa. 

About Us 

As a world-leading research-intensive University, we are here to address tomorrow’s greatest challenges. Between now and 2030 we will do that with a values-led approach to teaching, research and innovation, and through the strength of our relationships, both locally and globally. 

About the Team 

The School of Social and Political Science (SPS) is one of the largest and most successful schools of social science in the UK, with global reach and local and global impact. Our goals are to promote excellence in education, research and innovation. The School comprises six Subject Areas plus a number of research and teaching centres and institutes, and a number of cross-Subject consortia and other units. The academic staff complement currently numbers c.200fte. Our staff profile is multi-disciplinary across the key social sciences with a strong and growing international orientation. The School has c. 1,100 undergraduate students on its programmes of study, over 500 taught postgraduates, and over 300 doctoral researchers. 

The School's primary aim is the advancement and dissemination of knowledge and understanding of social science. We provide an outstanding educational environment and support the highest quality research. We deliver excellence in discipline-based and interdisciplinary programmes. In addition, as a School, we play a leading role in delivering learning opportunities for students across the University to engage with current global challenges and uncertainties and in equipping students with the social science tools and lenses they need to become active, responsible and critical global citizens and leaders. Building upon established strengths in the cross-subject areas of sustainable development, international development, quantitative methods, and global health the School is centrally involved in the University's Global Development Academy and Global Justice Academy, and contributes to the Global Academies of Health and of Environment and Society. 

In REF 2014, the School returned 96% of its eligible staff from Professors to early career researchers; a strategy that combined excellence with inclusion. All four Units of Assessment to which SPS contributed were rated amongst the top eight in the UK, and number one in Scotland, for their breadth and quality of research. Overall 36% of our research activity was classified as world leading with a further 41% assessed as internationally excellent. For two of those four Units of Assessment – Politics and International Relations, and Social Policy and Social Work – the whole of the research environment achieved the highest possible rating and was judged to be world leading. 

For further information about our school please visit http://www.sps.ed.ac.uk/