Research Associate - Nuclear Echoes

About us

The Department of War Studies is one of the only academic departments in the world focused on understanding the complex realm of conflict, security, and international politics through inter-disciplinary teaching, research and engagement. We have a large and diverse faculty, with varied theoretical and methodological expertise in areas including, but not limited to, conflict resolution, contemporary and historical warfare, gender, international relations, migration and borders, security studies, strategic studies, technology and violence.

The Department is located within the School of Security Studies and the Faculty of Social Science & Public Policy. Together, we are committed to embedding good diversity and inclusion practice into all of our activities. We are committed to encouraging further growth in our diversity, and we look forward to welcoming applicants of all abilities and backgrounds, whom we are able to support with our flexible varied working practices.

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About the role

The Department of War Studies seeks to appoint a Research Associate for the ERC Nuclear Echoes Project (led by PI Dr Nicola Leveringhaus, funded by ERC Consolidator Grant 101229981).

The successful candidate will lead and deliver Case Study 1 (Nuclear Commemoration in Non-Nuclear Weapons States), defining its specific research questions and selecting the comparative cases in consultation with the PI. They will design and conduct the empirical research across the project's three phases — exploratory and desk research, data collection, and analysis and write-up. This will involve fieldwork abroad and may require training in new research methods which will be provided if needed.

They will be contributing their findings and data to the wider project database and engage with the project's concept and theory-building strand. In terms of expected research outputs, the role will likely involve one single-authored comparative article and a single or co-authored article for a special issue and helping coordinate that special issue with the PI and the wider team. Given long publishing time-frames, these publications need only be submitted/ideally accepted for publication within the time-frame of the role.

In this role, the Research Associate will present findings at international conferences, including organising a panel or roundtable where appropriate, and publish shorter briefs or blog posts as opportunities arise. They will also take part in the collaborative life of the project, including monthly team meetings, any relevant seminars and project workshops, and related activities of the CSNS and CNSS research centres where possible.

This post is a three-year full-time fixed-term research role ideally starting at the end of January 2027.

About you

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

Essential criteria

• PhD in International Relations or an adjacent discipline (submitted by the start date of work)
• Research expertise in nuclear politics and/or memory studies
• Ability to design and conduct independent empirical research, including fieldwork, using qualitative and/or quantitative methods appropriate to the case study
• An emerging record of, or clear potential for, peer-reviewed publication
• Excellent written and spoken English

Desirable criteria

• Experience designing or conducting comparative case study research
• Regional and language expertise relevant to the comparative cases
• Experience presenting at international conferences
• A record of contribution to academic and research communities (e.g. organising seminars or workshops, mentoring, departmental service)

£45,031 to £52,514 per annum including London Weighting Allowance