Research assistant, Department of Peace and Conflict Research - Hiring in process/Finished, not possible to apply

The Department of Peace and Conflict Research was established in 1971 to conduct peace research and offer courses in peace and conflict studies. Currently approx. 80 persons are employed at the Department and at present some 300-400 students are enrolled every academic year. Courses offered include undergraduate and post-graduate courses, as well as a Ph. D. programme. For more information, visit www.pcr.uu.se

The Department now seeks to hire a research assistant for six months (100%) to work within the project “Who targets the peacekeepers? New data and procedures to track perpetrators of violence against peacekeepers”, with researchers Sara Lindberg Bromley (project leader) and Sabine Otto. The project will run from 2020 to 2021, as a pilot project funded by the Folke Bernadotte Academy (FBA).

The selected research assistant will as part of a small team contribute to research on international peacekeeping operations and civil conflict dynamics; specifically focusing on tracking conflict actors’ targeting of peacekeeping personnel. Building on earlier data collection efforts on the topic, the purpose of this pilot project is to develop procedures for, and systematically collect and compile data on, different types of armed conflict actors and incidences of violent attacks on peacekeeping personnel, focusing our test at this stage on two UN peacekeeping contexts: Sudan and Mali.

Expected tasks: The recruited research assistant will provide support for different parts of the pilot project but focus chiefly on systematic data collection and coding, including also efforts to support work to test and refine new data collection procedures. To this end, the research assistant will work together with affiliated project members in a small team. Tasks may also entail routine administrative/project management tasks, data visualization and miscellaneous writing tasks.

Qualifications and required skills:

• Bachelor degree in Peace and Conflict studies or a related field.
• Good knowledge within the field of peace & conflict research, including peacekeeping operations specifically.
• Basic software skills, including a close familiarity with Excel.
• Proficiency in/familiarity with software for statistical analysis such as STATA or R.
• Excellent proficiency in English (reading and writing).
• Attention to detail and exactness, analytical and problem-solving skills, and ability to work to meet deadlines.
• Good interpersonal skills and ability to work independently, as well as closely in a team.

Meriting:

• Studies at advanced level (Master level) in Peace and Conflict studies.
• Experience as a research assistant and with systematically coding conflict-related data.
• Experience working in/conducting research on peacekeeping and/or either of the empirical cases (Mali and Sudan).
• Fluency in another major international language, specifically French or Arabic.

For this position, we will highly rate candidates with previous experience in and/or interest for large-N data collection, ‘best practices’ in data collection and research methodology. We will carefully consider and rate personal suitability.

Salary: Individual salary.

Starting date: 10 August, or as otherwise agreed.

Type of employment: Temporary position ending 10 February 2021 (6 months).

Scope of employment: 100 %

For further information about the position please contact: Project leader Sara Lindberg Bromley; sara.lindberg_bromley@pcr.uu.se

Please submit your application by 29 May 2020, UFV-PA 2020/1481.

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