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Postdoctoral Research Fellow (Socio-legal/Empirical)

Employer
Global Academy Jobs
Location
United Kingdom
Salary
Full time starting salary is normally in the range £30,395 to £39,609. With potential progression on
Closing date
Jun 2, 2019

Job Details

Job Purpose

We are now recruiting a Postdoctoral Research Fellow to work on an exciting research project titled Everyday Cyborgs 2.0: Law's Boundary-work & Alternative Legal Futures. There will be three Postdoctoral Research Fellows on the project, with another also being recruited in the current round and the third to be recruited in Autumn 2020.

Everyday cyborgs are persons with attached and implanted medical devices; e.g., joint replacements, pacemakers, insulin pumps, and limb prostheses. Increasingly, these devices are smart devices. They run software and have wifi capabilities. They collect, analyse, and transmit data. Because the law takes a bounded approach to person and objects, the integration of medical devices with persons creates unexpected practical, conceptual, and normative problems for the law. This project, funded by the Wellcome Trust, aims to tackle these by challenging law's boundary-work and radically (re)imagining its approach to the assemblage of integrated persons and integrated goods.

Some unanswered questions include:

(1) Should internal medical devices which keep the person alive be viewed as part of the person or mere objects (or something else)?;

(2) Is damage to neuro-prostheses personal injury or damage to property?;

(3) Who ought to control/own the software in implanted medical devices?; and

(4) How should the law deal with risks around unauthorised third party access and hacking?

Building on preliminary research, the project team will answer such questions, using written documents, interviews, and focus groups to better understand the challenges, and test a series of imagined legal futures to assess what is practically possible and suggest solutions. The project will investigate where and why boundaries occur, examine what the pitfalls and opportunities are when these are transgressed and dissolved, and go beyond the bounded selves conception of persons to develop a novel account of the everyday cyborg. The research will draw on literatures and methods from a range of disciplines, including law and policy, regulatory and governance studies, political theory, philosophy, sociology, and science and technology studies.

This post is offered for four years, starting on 1st September 2019. The person appointed will have a socio-legal or other relevant empirical background. The successful candidate will lead the empirical strand of the project under the direction of the PI and in consultation with the project's empirical advisors. This will include mapping and exploring the regulatory landscape, as well as designing and conducting interviews, focus groups, and scenario/vignette testing.

The Fellow will be expected to initiate and conduct original research, plan and coordinate research activities and programmes, publish the results of the research, supervise PhD students, and contribute to knowledge transfer, public engagement, or similar activities.

Candidates are expected to have a higher degree relevant to the research area or equivalent qualifications. An ability to work across disciplinary boundaries will be a distinct advantage.

More information on the role, along with the expected duties and responsibilities, is available on the attached person specification form.

Person Specification
  • Good first degree and a PhD in a socio-legal discipline (or equivalent experience). Applications from those with a background in other relevant social science subjects (e.g. science and technology studies, sociology, empirical bioethics etc.) are welcomed if they have a strong background working within law/policy and with legal materials.
  • Knowledge and experience of undertaking relevant empirical research, including experience of conducting in-depth interviews, focus groups, and qualitative data analysis at a level which will enable the successful candidate to develop, lead, and execute a programme of empirical socio-legal research.
  • Good knowledge of relevant empirical methods and methodologies.
  • Demonstrable research experience/track record relevant to the project or close cognate areas.
  • Particular experience of, and an interest in, research regarding the human body and/or medical devices will be an advantage.
  • Demonstrated ability to work effectively, and to a level suitable for the project, within law and with legal materials.
  • Experience working with materials across multiple disciplines will be a distinct advantage.
  • Ability to work with relevant qualitative software packages.
  • High-level analytical capability.
  • Demonstrated ability to publish in high quality academic journals as appropriate to candidate's discipline.
  • Ability to work independently and under supervision.
  • Ability to prioritise workload and work to deadlines.
  • Ability to communicate complex information clearly.
  • Ability to assess resource requirements and use resources effectively.
  • Understanding of and ability to contribute to broader management/administration processes in pursuit of the aims and objectives of the project.
  • Contribute to the planning and organising of the project's research programme and other research activities as directed by the PI.
  • Co-ordinate own work with others to avoid conflict or duplication of effort.

Closing Date 2 Jun 2019

Company

Global Academy Jobs works with over 250 universities worldwide to promote academic mobility and international research collaboration. Global problems need international solutions. Our jobs board and emails reach the academics and researchers who can help.

"The globalisation of higher education continues apace, driving in turn the ongoing development of the global knowledge economy, striving for solutions to the world’s problems and educating a next generation of leaders and contributors."

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