The Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding (CCDP) of the Graduate Institute of International and
Development Studies is looking for doctoral students to fill the position of
Research Assistant
for its SNSF-funded Violence Prevention Initiative.
Application deadline: 9 January 2017, at noon
Start date: 1 September 2017
Contract modalities: The Research Assistant will receive a 100% contract (40% of the time is devoted to the project
and 60% to the writing of his/her dissertation). The contract will be issued for one year and can be renewed annually
until the end of the project in March 2021, but only as long as the Research Assistant continues to be enrolled in a
doctoral programme at the Institute.
About the project:
The VIPRE Initiative explores novel approaches to preventing (state-led) political violence. It suggests that it is
possible to think about preventing political violence in a similar way to that in which we think about preventing, or
minimizing the damage caused by, public health problems like traffic accidents, smoking, alcoholism, infectious
diseases, or firearm-related deaths. Efforts to prevent these problems focus not simply on the ‘original causes’ of harm
(driving while intoxicated, for example) but also on mitigating the risk of harm and/or damage inflicted once these
original causes are set in motion by placing ‘intervening’ obstacles or ‘firewalls’ in front of these risks/harms
(constructing crash barriers on roads or cars that beep when seatbelts are not worn, for example). The VIPRE
Initiative seeks to theorize, empirically explore, and test the possibility of constructing similar barriers or firewalls visà-vis political violence by drawing on interdisciplinary insights from within organisation studies, the micro-sociological
study of violence, and the discipline of International Political Sociology. The Lead Researcher for this project is
Jonathan Luke Austin. For more details on the VIPRE Initiative see the CCDP website.
Main tasks and responsibilities of the Research Assistant:
•
Background research: carry out general (desk) research activities relating to the theoretical and substantive
•
Data Collection: collect textual (military and intelligence training manuals from various nation states,
•
Data Analysis: assist the Lead Researcher with developing a codebook, using that codebook for the ‘coding’
activities of the project, develop a solid grounding in the theories and methods of International Political
Sociology in the process.
principally) and visual data depicting violent human rights abuses.
of the earlier collected visual and textual data for the project, performing inter-coder reliability checks, and –
finally – be trained in and carry out the ‘material-semiotic’ analysis of this data.
•
Interviewing: participate in carrying out expert interviews – possibly in the field (Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq) –
•
Writing: work with the Lead Researcher in drafting academic articles and policy documents relevant to the
VIPRE project and its dissemination to both scientific and policy-making communities.
•
Other: support the VIPRE Team with other tasks including inter alia: administrative support, organising
with stakeholders relevant to the prevention of violent human rights abuses.
conferences and workshops, and coordinating with project partners.
Required qualifications:
•
Excellent English-language writing, drafting, and argumentation skills.
•
A strong interest in political violence, human rights, political violence prevention policies, and other related
policy spheres.
•
Solid knowledge of one or more of the following approaches to the study of world politics: International
Political Sociology; pragmatist sociology; security studies; ethnography; contemporary social theory and/or
related fields of theoretical/conceptual thought.
•
Previous experience with and/or interest in the methods of visual analysis, conversation analysis, interview
methods, and other such approaches to studying social phenomena.
•
An appreciation for the importance of interdisciplinary approaches to studying world politics.
•
Strong qualitative desk research skills; communication skills; and organization skills.
•
The ability to work under time pressure, meet multiple deadlines, and to work both in a team and
independently.
•
Additional assets would include; proficiency in research tools such as NVIVO, R, LaTeX, etc.; knowledge of
spoken Arabic and/or Kurdish (Soranî), as well as other languages (French, Spanish, German).
Applicants must be enrolled in a doctoral programme of the Graduate Institute at the beginning of the
contract (1 September 2017).
To apply, please send 1) a one-page letter of motivation addressed to Dr. Oliver Jütersonke (CCDP Head of
Research), 2) a complete CV, and 3) one or two academic writing samples, via email and with the subject heading
‘VIPRE Research Position’ to [email protected] by Monday, 9 January 2017, at noon.