Vacancy: Lecturer at University of Essex in Sociology (Quantitative/Data Sci)

Department of Sociology

The Department of Sociology was established in 1964 and is renowned for its research excellence. It is highly ranked in the QS World Rankings and has been in the top ten for the quality of its research in all of the research assessment exercises since 1986. REF 2021 ranks us as 1st for Research Environment and 2nd for Research Power.

The Department is one of the largest in the country and currently has 43 permanent academic staff. All are research active, and they work in a wide array of fields including sociological theory, social and cultural history, philosophy, anthropology and ethnography, quantitative social science, economic sociology, globalisation, international migration, environmental sociology, social psychology, criminology, cultural studies, LGBTQ studies, and feminism and gender studies. Journals currently edited from the Department include Sexualities and Crime, Media, and Culture and, from 2020, British Journal of Criminology.

The Department of Sociology is keen to develop the diversity of its staff. The search committee is especially interested in candidates who, through their research, teaching, and/or service, will contribute to the diversity and excellence of the academic community.

Duties of the Role

The purpose of this role is to conduct research and teach quantitative sociology and/or social data science at the undergraduate and postgraduate level. In addition, to contribute to the design and delivery of substantive modules in areas that complement and extend the department’s expertise.

You will engage in individual and/or collaborative research activity (resulting in internationally excellent publications) that is in keeping with REF criteria; supervise student projects, fieldwork, placements and postgraduate taught students appropriate to the discipline; and generate external research funding, including in collaboration with colleagues, appropriate in scale to career stage and subject area norms.

The post holder will undertake a full range of Education, Research and Leadership and Citizenship responsibilities and duties as detailed in the job pack.

Qualifications and Skills required

The successful candidate will hold a doctoral level research degree in Sociology or other relevant field or be close to the award of a PhD in these areas.

You will have teaching experience at undergraduate and/or postgraduate levels, or possess demonstrable potential to achieve this, with the ability to introduce rudimentary/basic programming at the undergraduate level in a variety of languages such as Python, Stata, SPSS, etc.

You will be expected to have a research agenda, engagement in high-quality research activity and a developing research profile, with a clear publication plan for submission to future Research Excellence Framework (REF) programmes.