Research Fellow / Postdoctoral Researcher

at  SOAS University of London

Job title: Research Fellow / Postdoctoral Researcher
Department: Development Studies
Contract Type: Fixed-term (12 months)
Grade: Grade 7
Salary: £42,217.29 - £49,381.29 per annum (Inc. London Allowance)
Location: London
Hours: 35 hours per week
SOAS University of London is the leading Higher Education institution in Europe specialising in the study of Asia, Africa and the Near and Middle East. SOAS University of London is positioned to play a leading role in reimagining higher education globally, with a new strategic plan in place as the basis for the renewal and revitalisation of the School which commits SOAS to both student responsiveness and research intensity. SOAS is moving towards a new model of international partnerships which is responsive to the transnational character of our global challenges.

ABOUT THE DEPARTMENT

The Department of Development Studies offers a range of degree programmes on-campus and online, bringing together a cross- and interdisciplinary approach that combines political-economy, economics, politics, anthropology, sociology and history amongst others.
Our academic staff create an intellectually engaged and challenging space across the many branches of Development Studies (including migration and displacement, conflict, humanitarian action, labour, political ecology, and aid and institutions).
About the Role
This is a one-year full-time position to work on a research project, entitled The centrality of the margins: Borderlands, illicit economies and uneven development - A Myanmar-China regional corridor study. This research project is funded by the Serious Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Evidence (SOC ACE) research programme at the University of Birmingham.
This research project explores how conflict-affected borderlands are connected to development processes and wealth accumulation in metropolitan centres. The project’s starting hypothesis is that concentrations of violence, environmental stress, poverty and illicit activities in borderlands are a result of how these regions have been integrated into national, regional, and global political economies, rather than their ‘lack of’ integration. Maintaining borderlands as zones of liminality and illicitness can become functional for political and economic elites (in metropoles and borderlands), but in ways that continue to work to the disadvantage of borderland populations. The research addresses an important knowledge gap; we know little – in substantive and comparative terms – about how these vast supply chains operate at the global margins, and what ‘work’ they do in shaping processes of development in metropolitan centres.
The project aims to develop a detailed case study of the illicit corridor connecting Myanmar’s north-eastern borderlands to Kunming (China), tracking three forms of circulation – capital, commodities and people – that connect ‘the margins’ with ‘the metropole’, and the forms of brokerage and interventions that shape or regulate these flows.

The post-doctoral research fellow will join a team of researchers based at SOAS University of London, the University of Manchester, and in Myanmar. In collaboration with this team, they will:

• Co-develop the project’s design and implementation
• Undertake empirical research to explore the project’s core hypothesis, including desk-based review of open-source legal, commercial and media sources, and fieldwork in China and Southeast Asia.
• Co-produce high-quality academic outputs that contribute to new ways of analysing the relationships between borderlands, illicit economies and broader processes of development and security.
• Support engagement activities with policymakers and practitioners working on illicit economies, transnational organised crime and their impacts on development and security.
• Support communications and dissemination activities that engage wider audiences in the work and outputs of the programme.

This role will be based in The Centre for the Study of Illicit Economies, Violence and Development (CIVAD) at SOAS. CIVAD is the hub of an international network of affiliated researchers and research organisations working on different aspects of illicit economies across the world. The centre aims to better understand the development and peacebuilding challenges presented by illicit economies. Its research explores the pathways through which illicit economies interact with the dynamics of conflict and development. It works to identify policies for addressing illicit economies that help build peace and promote more inclusive development.
You can find further information on the key criteria for the role in the Job Description and Person Specification, along with a full list of duties and responsibilities, which can be found on the SOAS website.

Please refer the Job description for details