Announcement

Social Science Baha
is seeking to hire Research Associates to work on the research project

Sajag-Nepal: Planning and Preparedness for the Mountain Hazard and Risk Chain
in Nepal

Funded through the UK’s Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF), the project brings together a team of researchers and practitioners from Nepal, the UK, Canada, and New Zealand, and from a range of disciplines, including geoscience, social science, and the humanities, with the aim of reducing the impacts of earthquakes and landslides in the context of wider social, political and economic change. The project is grounded within the team’s long-term community-based work and builds on experience of assessing and planning for earthquake and landslide risk with the Government of Nepal, the United Nations, and the wider humanitarian and development community.

Number of positions: Four
Term: 24 months on a full-time basis, starting 1 June 2021 (with the possibility of an extension)
Duty Station: Social Science Baha, Battisputali, Kathmandu
Salary: Salary will be commensurate with qualifications

Key Responsibilities

The Research Associates will:

• conduct ethnographic research at the community and local government levels in the case study districts of Sindhupalchok, Dolakha, Kavrepalanchowk and Myagdi to explore the everyday lives of rural residents, their vulnerabilities and resilience to geohazard risk (principally earthquakes and landslides); the impacts of federalization, development and geopolitics on disaster risk creation; and how disaster risk is governed. This will involve participant observation, interviews and focus groups, and visual and participatory research methods.
• work collaboratively with other members of the project team (including social and natural scientists, policy makers and practitioners), and rural residents, to explore opportunities for integrating local, practitioner and scientific knowledge for disaster risk reduction.
• undertake periods of extended fieldwork in rural areas, along with literature reviews and document analysis, and meetings with relevant agencies in Kathmandu and district centres.
• be expected to participate in project training including reading groups, methods and writing workshops.
• be expected to contribute to conference presentations and publications arising from the research, including both academic and non-academic outputs.   
• be expected to actively participate in, and champion the wider Sajag-Nepal project, including the Early Career Researcher Network.
• work under the supervision of senior researchers from the Social Science Baha, the research team at Northumbria University, and researchers in other collaborating institutions.
• be expected to submit regular updates in English and participate in regular team meetings in person and online.

Eligibility

Applicants must have:

• a master’s degree in a social science discipline with research experience in any of the following areas: disasters; climate change; environmental issues; development; social and/or political transformation in Nepal.

Demonstrable ability to write research papers in English will be an added advantage.

The selection process will consist of both a written test and an oral interview. Only shortlisted candidates will be invited to participate in the later stages of the selection process.

Application Procedure
Please click here to download application form and guidelines on the application process.

Dates to Remember
Application deadline: 21 February 2021
Notification to shortlisted candidates: 5 March
Written test: 18/19 March
Online interview: Week of 5 April
Notification to shortlisted candidates: 20 April
Starting date: 1 June 2021