Greek Politics Research Assistant - University of Leicester

Looking for candidates with native or near-native proficiency in Greek language and with substantial knowledge of Greek politics and institutions.

Part time (50% FTE) Research Assistant
Ref SSC00533
Department Politics and International Relations
Job Type Research
Specific Location Attenborough
Contract Type Part Time Fixed Term Contract
Salary Range Salary Grade 6 - £25,759 to £29,837 per annum, pro rata
(i.e. £12,879.5 to £14,918.5)

Job Purpose

We are seeking to appoint a Research Assistant (0.5 FTE) to support the University of Leicester research team of the Open Research Area project PATHWAYS (Grant ES/L016664/1, funded by the ESRC) in the collection, processing and analyses of the data relating to the Greek case study.

PATHWAYS is a comparative research project on the political representation of citizens of immigrant origin in seven European democracies (France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom). It is funded by the British ESRC, the Dutch NWO, the French ANR and the German DFG under the Open Research Area (ORA) scheme. The principal investigators are Dr. Manlio Cinalli (Sciences Po Paris), Professor Laura Morales (University of Leicester), Professor Thomas Saalfeld (University of Bamberg) and Professor Jean Tillie (University of Amsterdam). The project will start in May 2014 and the overall international collaboration will be coordinated from the University of Bamberg. The University of Leicester is the lead partner for the British team, which also includes researchers at the University of Manchester. The team based at the University of Leicester is formed by Prof Laura Morales (PI), Dr Simona Guerra, Dr Gabriella Lazaridis, Dr Luis Ramiro and Prof Carlo Ruzza, and will take care of the south European case studies. The team based at the University of Manchester is formed by Dr Maria Sobolewska and Prof Edward Fieldhouse, and will take care of the British case study. The RA recruited at the University of Leicester to support the Greek case study will be fully integrated in the international research team and will benefit from their participation in an international project.

The RA will take care of key data collection aspects of this country study. Assistance with data collection will involve spending varying short periods of time (e.g. 1-2 months) in Greece for fieldwork, but the RA will normally work at the University of Leicester.

The post-holder will be expected to be based at Leicester (or within commuting distance) and to come to the office at least 2 days per week. Working remotely from a different location as a general rule will not be possible. The appointed RA will be expected to start on 1st September 2014 or very shortly thereafter.

Essential Qualifications, Knowledge, Experience and Skills include:

- A postgraduate degree in Politics or Political Sociology and with a substantive or methodological focus relevant to the two project. European degrees directly giving access to a PhD programme in their home university system will be regarded as equivalent to an MA/MSc/MRes for the purposes of this job application.
- Demonstrable training in quantitative research methods and techniques at postgraduate level.
- An expertise, backed up by research experience, in Greek politics in one or several of the following fields: political representation, legislatures, political institutions or political parties.
- Proficiency in English and native or near-native proficiency in Greek.
- Proven ability of social science data input, management and analysis with SPSS, Stata or R.

The detailed job description and essential requirements are available here: http://www.le.ac.uk/jobs/external/SSC00533_job_Summary.pdf

The closing date for this post is midnight on Monday 30th June 2014. (Interviews are likely to take place the week commencing 7th July, or the week commencing 18th August)

Applications should include:

1. A cover letter specifying how you meet the requirements of the post.
2. An updated CV
3. A single-authored writing sample that demonstrates your research skills (e.g. an MSc dissertation, a PhD dissertation chapter, an article, a conference paper, etc.)

All applications must be submitted through the University of Leicester online application system on: http://ig5.i-grasp.com/fe/tpl_UniversityOfLeicester01.asp?s=4A515F4E5A56...

Informal enquiries should be made to responsivegov@leicester.ac.uk