Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Global Refugee Policy (Carleton University)

 Description 

The Faculty of Public Affairs at Carleton University brings together diverse academic units that work to address regional and global challenges with the aim of fostering informed citizenship and building better societies. Our research and teaching engages with fields such as politics, media and communications, economics, international relations, and law, and seeks to forge solutions to some of society’s greatest challenges. For example, the Faculty is actively engaged in a range of research and teaching initiatives at Carleton University that relate to refugee and migration policy and practice. 

This Post-Doctoral Fellowship offers the opportunity to actively engage with a number of these initiatives, while conducting independent research in the area of global refugee policy. The Fellowship is ideally suited to an early-career researcher who wishes to pursue a research career at the intersection of global refugee research, policy and practice. 

The Fellow will work directly with Dr. James Milner, Associate Professor of Political Science and Project Director of LERRN: The Local Engagement Refugee Research Network, along with other members of the LERRN team, including Dr. Nimo Bokore and Dr. Martin Geiger. LERRN is seven-year initiative funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). 

LERRN is a team of researchers and practitioners committed to promoting protection and solutions with and for refugees. Their goal is to ensure that refugee research, policy and practice are shaped by a more inclusive, equitable and informed collective engagement of civil society. Through collaborative research, training, and knowledge-sharing, LERRN aims to improve the functioning of the global refugee regime and ensure more timely protection and rights-based solutions for refugees. Their work is focused in the global South, which hosts 85% of the world’s refugees, and responds to the needs and opportunities identified by LERRN’s partners in major refugee-hosting countries. 

A specific research focus of LERRN is to understand the everyday politics of the global refugee regime as illustrated by efforts to implement global refugee policy in diverse local contexts. Building from recent scholarship on global refugee policy and understandings of expressions and experiences of power in the global refugee regime, LERRN is examining distinct efforts to implement specific examples of global refugee policy in Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon and Tanzania. 

This Fellowship will enable an emerging research leader in the area of refugee policy and politics to develop their own research agenda in the area of global refugee policy. We are especially interested in Fellowship applicants who present an independent research project that seeks to explain variation in the implementation of global refugee policy across contexts, and who can then translate these findings into both high impact research publications as well as forms that are useable by the policy and practitioner communities, while also contributing to LERRN’s knowledge mobilization activities and impact. 2 

More specifically, the Fellow will: 

1. Design and implement an independent comparative research project on the implementation of global refugee policy in East Africa and/or the Middle East, ideally in collaboration with LERRN’s partners 

2. Produce high-impact research publications as well as contribute to LERRN’s knowledge dissemination to policy and practitioner communities 

3. Contribute to the development of linkages between LERRN and related initiatives at Carleton University by organizing an annual research exchange workshop 

4. Leverage existing capacities to identify new research partnership opportunities 

5. Provide mentorship to graduate students engaged in LERRN research 

6. Contribute to the training of undergraduate students in the field, including by teaching PSCI3608: Migration Governance in Winter 2020 and Winter 2021 

Requirements: The successful candidate will have: 

1. A completed PhD (or equivalent) or be very near completion of a PhD (or equivalent) at the time of application in a field relevant to the research focus of the Fellowship. (Note that the second year of funding would normally be revoked without successful thesis defense before the end of the first 12 months of the Fellowship being held. In the case of an applicant who has already completed a PhD (or equivalent), the relevant degree must have been completed within five years of the start of the award.) 

2. A research and publication track-record directly relevant to research focus of the Fellowship and appropriate for the stage in the applicant’s career 

3. Experience working independently, in cross-cultural contexts, and in a dynamic research team environment 

4. Experience with innovative forms of knowledge translation and mobilization, particularly with the policy and practitioner communities 

5. Experience teaching undergraduate students 

Preference will be given to candidates with previous research and/or work experience in East Africa and/or the Middle East. 

Award duration: 24 months 

Start date: Negotiable, but preferably by 1 October 2019 

Home unit: Department of Political Science, Carleton University, Ottawa 3 

Salary for 2019/20: C$45,000 plus benefits (see Article 27 of PSAC local 77000 collective agreement with Carleton University). Increases in subsequent years will follow the collective agreement. 

Relocation expenses: Eligible moving expenses of up to C$1,500 will be reimbursed. 

Research funding: The Fellow will have access to a research fund of up to C$5,000 in each year for which the Fellowship is held. 

Teaching requirements: The Fellow will teach PSCI3608: Migration Governance in Winter 2020 and Winter 2021. 

Application deadline: 15 July 2019 

Application process: To apply, please send the following electronically to Dr. James Milner (James.Milner@carleton.ca) with the subject line “PDF Application” by 15 July 2019: 

 Cover letter 

 CV 

 Writing sample relevant to the research focus of the Fellowship 

 Description of candidate’s proposed research project (3 page max) 

 Three letters of reference 

Short-listed candidates will be contacted by 15 July 2019 to arrange an interview by Skype. 

Applicants selected for an interview are asked to contact Dr. James Milner as soon as possible to discuss any accommodation requirements. Arrangements will be made in a timely manner. 

About Carleton University: 

Carleton University is a dynamic and innovative research and teaching institution with a national and international reputation as a leader in collaborative teaching and learning, research and governance. With over 30,000 students, 900 academic faculty, and 1,100 staff and more than 100 programs of study, we encourage creative risk-taking enabling minds to connect, discover and generate transformative knowledge. We are proud to be one of the most accessible campuses in North America. Carleton’s Paul Menton Centre for Students with Disabilities has been heralded as the gold standard for disability support services in Canada. 

Carleton’s location in Ottawa, Ontario provides many opportunities for scholarship and research with numerous and diverse groups and institutions. To learn more about our university and the City of Ottawa, please visit www.carleton.ca/about. 

Carleton University is committed to fostering diversity within its community as a source of excellence, cultural enrichment, and social strength. We welcome those who would contribute to the further diversification of our university including, but not limited to: women; visible minorities; First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples; persons with disabilities; and persons of any sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression. Carleton understands that career paths vary. Legitimate career interruptions will in no way prejudice the assessment process and their impact will be taken into careful consideration.