Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Sociology

DURHAM UNIVERSITY; United Kingdom; On-site; GBP 15,000 - 20,000; Part time

Job summary

A prestigious academic institution in the UK is seeking a Postdoctoral Research Associate to support participatory action research training for doctoral students. The role involves collaboration between departments and the development of training programs focusing on neurodivergent young people. This is a fixed-term position for 4 months at 0.5fte until January 2026.

Qualifications

• Experience in participatory action research.
• Strong organizational and administrative skills.
• Ability to collaborate with academic teams and community partners.

Responsibilities

• Provide general admin support to the work package.
• Support collaboration between departments.
• Develop, deliver, and evaluate PAR training for doctoral students.
• Support the development of CPD strategies.

Job description

Offer Description

The Role

Applications are invited for a Postdoctoral Research Associate to work with Dr Sui Ting Kong and Dr Alison Jobe from the Centre for Social Justice and Community Action in the Sociology Department, and Professor Debbie Riby from the Centre for Neurodiversity and Development in the Psychology department. Working across two university centres, our aim is to further develop participatory research training for NINEDTP doctoral students working in partnership with community groups / partners.

The post holder will work with the academic team to develop, deliver, and evaluate a Participatory Action Research training package for NINEDTP doctoral students that focuses on involving neurodivergent young people and children as experts. The post is funded through the North Ireland and North East Doctoral (NINE DTP) training partnership. More information about the NINEDTP can be found here.

The successful applicant will be expected to:

• Provide general admin support to the work package.
• Support and develop the collaboration between the CSJCA and the Centre for Neurodiversity
• Develop, deliver and evaluate a pioneer/cutting-edge PAR training for NINEDTP doctoral students based on PAR training and toolkits of the CSJCA and Centre for Neurodiversity (a potential paper output)
• Support the development of CPD strategies based on our PAR training and toolkits.

This post is fixed term for 4 months at 0.5fte until 31st January 2026. Funding is available for this period only. Successful applicants will ideally be in post by October 2025.

The post-holder is employed to work on research/a research project which will be led by another colleague. Whilst this means that the post-holder will not be carrying out independent research in his/her own right, the expectation is that they will contribute to the advancement of the project, through the development of their own research ideas/adaptation and development of research protocols.