1-2 Research assistants - 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. 90 persons are employed at the Department and at present around 1000 students come from all corners of the world. Courses offered include undergraduate and post-graduate courses, as well as a Ph.D. programme. For more information about the department, visit www.pcr.uu.se.

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The department and the project Societies at risk: The Impact of armed conflict on human development, now seek to hire 1-2 research assistant(s). The project started up in January 2022 with funding from Riksbankens Jubileumsfond and will run through 2027. This multi-disciplinary program, led by Professor Håvard Hegre, brings together scholars from economics, epidemiology, political science, and conflict research to study the effects of armed conflict in much more detail and comprehensiveness than earlier studies. It takes a risk-analysis perspective, seeing the expected impact as a function of hazard, exposure, and vulnerability, and consider effects at both the macro and micro level, on economies, health, water security, political institutions, human rights, forced migration, and gender equality. Hazard will be modeled through an early-warning system, expanding the well-established ViEWS system, to alert observers to particularly detrimental occurrences of violence (www.pcr.uu.se/research/views). We will model exposure to conflict events by accounting for how effects of violence are transmitted to locations far from the violence itself and over time. We will also identify conditions that make local populations and institutions particularly vulnerable to the effects, and how conflict increases local populations' vulnerability to other shocks such as natural disasters. Throughout, the program will study how the various impacts and vulnerabilities identified work to reinforce each other, and formulate policy recommendations for parties seeking to reduce the impact of armed conflict on human development.

Duties

• Advanced data collection, processing and analysis
• Management, analysis and ingestion of quantitative data in the project infrastructure
• Production of visualisations (e.g. maps, plots, tables)
• Workshop assistance and miscellaneous writing tasks
• The research assistant will report to the project leader, and work closely with other research assistants and researchers within ‘Societies at Risk’.
• The research assistant is expected to collaborate with the research infrastructure for Democracy, Environment, Migration, Social policy, Conflict, and Representation - DEMSCORE project (www.demscore.se/)
• Outreach activities in the form of reports, information sessions, and contacts with partners in UN and other IGOs.

Requirements

• Master’s degree in peace and conflict studies or in political science
• Knowledge and experience of software such as Python, R, QGIS
• Proficiency in oral and written English
• Good communication skills
• Very good collaborative ability and ability to work independently
• Good knowledge of scientific methods and statistics
• Ability to independently analyse data and to develop scientific texts on a scientific basis.

Additional qualifications
Attention to detail and exactness, analytical and problem-solving skills, and good interpersonal abilities are of high importance. Experience with web presentation and CMS is also meritorious. Experience in working with satellite data at a geographical level, and knowledge of software for spatial analysis (e.g. QGIS) is very positively evaluated. Emphasis will also be placed on personal suitability. 

The application must contain the following documents:
A personal letter clarifying why you are interested in the position (1 page) and a CV.

About the employment
The employment is a: permanent position (probationary period may be applied). Scope of employment: 100%. Starting date; 1 September 2023, or as agreed. Placement: Uppsala.

For further information about the position, please contact: Håvard Hegre, havard.hegre@pcr.uu.se

Please submit your application by 22 June 2023, UFV-PA 2023/2264.

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