The College wishes to recruit a Postdoctoral Research Fellow for a Leverhulme Research Project Grant, ‘Warnings from the Archive: A Century of British Intervention in the Middle East’, led by Dr Owen Thomas and Prof Catriona Pennell. This interdisciplinary project encompasses International Relations, History, and Political Science. It is a systematic archive-based comparison of two official inquiries, one hundred years apart, into British military intervention in Iraq: the Mesopotamia Commission (1917) and the Iraq Inquiry (2016). The project will deconstruct these inquiries to understand the contexts, values, cultures and beliefs that have shaped British grand strategy, the lessons learnt and lost from a century of intervention, and the voices heard and unheeded.

The successful applicant will work under the direction of Dr Thomas and Prof Pennell to conduct literature reviews, exploration of physical and digital archives, and discourse analyses. The post will include co-authoring peer-reviewed journal articles, disseminating findings, coordinating a workshop and journal special issue, producing an open-access digital catalogue of the project’s archival, and developing a project website (including podcasts and teaching materials).

The successful applicant will possess:

- a relevant PhD or equivalent qualification/experience in a related field of study, including but not limited to Political Science, International Relations and History;

- knowledge of the broad history and workings of the British state and government, with specific reference to imperial/foreign policy (diplomatic, political, colonial) in the 20th century);

- extensive archival experience (including working with digital archives), and possess sufficient specialist knowledge and track record of engagement with critical theoretical and methodologies approaches to History and/or International Relations

- track record of engagement with critical theoretical and methodologies approaches to History and/or International Relations (including poststructuralist and postcolonial approaches);

- ability to work collaboratively, independently or as a supervisor of research assistants to execute and develop project workstreams.

- commitment to dissemination and outreach.

For more information on salary and how to apply, please visit: https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/CCE216/postdoctoral-research-fellow

Closing deadline: 19th November 2020