Deadline: October 15, 2023
The Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences announces a competition for the position of post-doc in the project “Researching the Collecting, Preserving, Analysing and Disclosing of Ukrainian Testimonies of the 2022 War”.
For a full job description, please visit:
Project funded by the National Science Centre as part of the competition “OPUS-24 LAP”, no. DEC-2022/47/I/HS6/03071.
Number of vacant posts: 1
- Terms of employment:
- full-time, fixed-term employment contract for a total of 30 months (first a contract for a two-month probationary period, followed by a fixed-term contract for 28 months),
- salary: PLN 11,000 (gross amount, including all the costs incurred by the employer),
- when this salary is collected, the person employed as a post-doc may not collect:
- other remuneration from funds allocated as part of direct costs from research projects funded under the NSC’s competitions,
- remuneration from another employer under an employment contract, including an employer based outside the territory of Poland.
Possible start of work: from 1 January 2024.
Information about the project:
The project is a follow-up to the documentation activities carried out by researchers from Ukraine, Poland, Luxembourg, the UK and Germany as part of the initiative “24.02.2022, 5 am: Testimonies of War” (https://swiadectwawojny2022.org/). Having collected more than 200 accounts of Ukrainian female and male refugees in Poland, 150 in Ukraine and 50 in Luxembourg, we are proceeding to conduct research work with this material. As part of our project, we will contact the selected interviewees again to record a second round of interviews according to the previously developed methodology. The interviews will then be processed and the entire body of sources (first- and second-round interviews from Poland, Ukraine and Luxembourg) will be analysed, including through the innovative qualitative data analysis software CatDV. We will focus on the issues of interview language and analysis of narrative structures, the formation of biographical and social memory of the Russian invasion, the identity issues, as well as the migration strategies chosen by the interviewees. The project will pay special attention to the issues of methodology and ethics of collecting, analysing and sharing data on the ongoing armed conflict. As a result of the project, the entire collection will be made available to all those interested in conducting research and educational work with it, at selected on-site access points using secure Open Source Software. We will also undertake a number of popularization activities, such as the preparation of a comic book and an animated film to bring the stories of our interviewees to a wider audience.
The project will be carried out in cooperation with a research team from Luxembourg and with the participation of a Ukrainian partner.
Requirements (to be verified on the basis of the submitted application, presented documents and during the interview):
- a PhD degree in social sciences or humanities (the degree must be obtained prior to the signing of the employment contract); preferred disciplines: sociology, history, ethnology and cultural anthropology
- the doctoral degree must be obtained at an entity other than IFiS PAN, in the year preceding employment in the project (2023) or in the 7 years prior to 1 January 2024; persons who have obtained their doctoral degree at IFiS PAN may apply provided that they have completed at least 10 months of continuous and documented postdoctoral training at another entity and in a different country than the one where the doctoral degree was obtained,
- research experience in recording qualitative interviews;
- interest in qualitative research methodology, oral history, memory studies, migration studies, or related issues, very good knowledge of English, Ukrainian and Russian,
- analytical skills,
- independence and good organization of work,
- knowledge of contemporary Ukrainian society and Ukrainian history will be an added advantage.
Description of tasks:
The tasks of the person employed as a post-doc will include:
1. Participating in the development of the methodology and preparation of the research tools which will be used to conduct the second round of interviews with Ukrainian refugees,
2. Conducting around 75 follow-up interviews with selected Ukrainian refugees whose accounts were recorded as part of the “Testimonies of War” project,
3. Participation in interview coding (selection of key words),
4. Analysis of the body of sources created in the project (interviews recorded in Poland, Ukraine and Luxembourg), including with the use of software for qualitative data analysis (training provided);
5. Preparing at least two scientific articles in English on the basis of this analysis and submitting them for publication in a journal that will meet the NSC’s requirements for open access publication,
6. Preparing and delivering at least two conference speeches on the basis of this analysis,
7. Participating in the project team’s twice-monthly meetings (remote participation is possible) and attending four on-site workshops (in Warsaw and Luxembourg),
8. Participating in administrative work related to the tasks performed (e.g. organisation of conferences and scientific meetings).
- If you are interested in applying, please submit the following documents:
- a cover letter (max. 1 page) in Polish or English,
- a CV in Polish or English that includes: the candidate’s scientific record (including a list of publications, history of employment in scientific institutions and participation in research projects, as well as the scope of duties performed, information on scientific experience gained in a home country and abroad, information on workshops, trainings and participation in scientific conferences) and other information important for the scope of the tasks to be performed within the project,
- two publications that the candidate considers to be their most significant contributions (in English, Polish, Ukrainian or Russian),
- a confirmation of the doctoral degree (e.g. a scan of the doctoral diploma),
- a recommendation regarding the candidate’s qualifications (in Polish or English) written by a researcher holding at least a PhD degree.
Competition procedure:
The competition will be run under the rules specified in the Regulations for the allocation of funds for the implementation of tasks financed by the National Science Centre in the field of research projects, post-doctoral traineeships and doctoral scholarships and in accordance with the general law and internal regulations of the entity which is implementing the project. The Commission will assess the candidate’s scientific record to date, his/her achievements resulting from the conduct of scientific research and competence to perform specific tasks in the research project.
Please send applications by 15 October 2023 electronically to: konkurs@ifispan.edu.pl (copy: anna.wylegala@ifispan.edu.pl) with a note in the title: ‘Post-doc U-CORE’.
For more information please contact:
Dr Anna Wylega?a, anna.wylegala@ifispan.edu.pl
The competition will take place in two stages. In the first stage, the Competition Commission will make an initial assessment of the candidates on the basis of the submitted documents. The highest ranked applicants will be invited for an interview, which forms the second stage of the competition. If the number of candidates who meet the competition criteria is low, the organizer reserves the right to extend the deadline for the submission of documents and postpone the interviews. In the event that the selected candidate resigns, the organizer reserves the right to appoint the next person from the ranking list.
The interviews are scheduled to take place between 15 and 31 October at the Institute’s headquarters (Warsaw, Nowy ?wiat 72) or via the Zoom platform.
The competition will be settled by 6 November 2023 at the latest and the recruitment results will be published at https://ifispan.pl/category/oferty-pracy/konkursy/.