Applications are invited for a research assistant to join the GEOFORMATIONS research team.
GEOFORMATIONS examines the geographies of dynamic governance assemblages in development cooperation, civil society spaces and is a European Research Council funded project led by Dr Susan Murphy.
In response to rising instability, uncertainty, and increasing levels of complex needs, driven by interacting and intersecting socio-political, economic, and environmental crises, the international development cooperation sector has responded by proposing a range of new ways of working. This sector, which is comprised of states, intergovernmental organisations, non-governmental organisations, business and private sector actors across multiple scales and geographies, is moving towards increased localisation, greater coherence across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus (the triple nexus), a shift to adaptive and inclusive development, and deep structural investments in strengthening civil society relations and cooperation across spaces.
Operating through transnational networks of partners to design and implement climate-sensitive humanitarian and development solutions, civil society organisations (CSOs) and nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) are positioned to lead in the transformation of this sector towards greater localisation, enhanced local ownership, and improved coordination and coherence across the climate-humanitarian-development-peace nexus. However, little is known about the number and nature of partners and partnerships, with no recognised system for recording or evaluating partnership models. GEOFORMATIONS will develop new conceptual and analytical frameworks to inform the design and evaluation of just governance models within this sector.
The project is mapping the multi-level, multi-scalar governance policy and regulatory landscape within which civil society organisations interact, operate, and partner to deliver life-saving and human development supports, services, and advocacy and influencing activities. The mapping exercise will gather key policy documents and synthesize governance requirements, evaluation criteria, hierarchies, task-differentiation, and management expectations, norms and values systems across multiple levels and scales of institutional structures which interact and intersect to international development practice and humanitarian action. Further details on the project can be found on our website.
Standard Duties and Responsibilities of the Post
- Support the primary data and document collection, management, and analysis processes.
- Support planning for fieldwork, data collection, and management.
- Support scientific literature review and synthesis process.
- Manage updates to the website and social media content generation
- Support dissemination and engagement activities, including event coordination of project seminars and workshops.
- Support project administration.
Funding Information
The position is funded by a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant awarded to Susan P. Murphy (Principal Investigator).
Person Specification
Qualifications
Higher academic degree (ideally master’s-level or above) in a relevant subject (e.g., Geography, Development Studies, Politics, Public Policy or cognate discipline)
Knowledge & Experience (Essential)
- Knowledge of international development theory and practice
- Experience in primary qualitative data collection, data analysis and academic report writing.
- Experience in search for and analyzing secondary data sources.
- Experience working with quantitative data sets
- Experience searching databases and websites
- Experience in drafting literature reviews and working with reference tools
- Experience working as part of a research team
- Communications – website maintenance, social media management, content generation
- Event coordination and project management
Knowledge & Experience (Desirable)
- Training in Nvivo or other qualitative data analysis tools
- International experience in either international development practice or research
- Experience working with or in a development organisation nationally and/or internationally
Skills & Competencies
Research tools including Storymapping, ArcGIS, NVivo • Reference software skills • Team working skills • Time management skills • Qualitative data collection and analysis skills • Project report writing skills • Project management skills • Communication skills – website administration and social media management • Event coordination skills
Application Procedure
Applicants should submit a full Curriculum Vitae including the names and contact details of 2 referees (including email addresses), and a cover letter detailing their skills, experience, and suitability for this role to:
Dr Susan Murphy – Susan.p.murphy@tcd.ie
Further Information for Applicants
- URL Link to Area www.tcd.ie
- URL Link to Human Resources https://www.tcd.ie/hr/
Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin Trinity
Ireland’s leading university and is ranked 108th in the world (QS World University Rankings 2020). Founded in 1592, the University is steeped in history with a reputation for excellence in education, research and innovation. 4 Located on an iconic campus in the heart of Dublin’s city centre, Trinity has 18,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students across our three faculties – Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences; Engineering, Mathematics and Science; and Health Sciences.
Trinity is ranked as the 17th most international university in the world (Times Higher Education Rankings 2020) and has students and staff from over 120 countries.
The pursuit of excellence through research and scholarship is at the heart of a Trinity education, and our researchers have an outstanding publication record and strong record of grant success. Trinity has developed <u>19 broad-based multidisciplinary research themes</u> that cut across disciplines and facilitate world-leading research and collaboration within the University and with colleagues around the world. Trinity is also home to 5 leading flagship research institutes:
- Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute (TBSI)
- Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience (TCIN)
- Trinity Translational Medical Institute (TTMI)
- Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Research Institute (TLRH)
- Centre for Research on Adaptive Nanostructures and Nanodevices (CRANN)
Trinity is the top-ranked European university for producing entrepreneurs for the past five successive years and Europe’s only representative in the world’s top-50 universities (Pitchbook Universities Report). Trinity is home to the famous Old Library and to the historic Book of Kells as well as other internationally significant holdings in manuscripts, maps and early printed material. The Trinity Library is a legal deposit library, granting the University the right to claim a copy of every book published in Ireland and the UK. At present, the Library’s holdings span approximately 6.5 million printed items, 400,000 e-books and 150,000 e-journals.
With over 120,000 alumni, Trinity’s tradition of independent intellectual inquiry has produced some of the world’s finest, most original minds including the writers Oscar Wilde and Samuel Beckett (Nobel laureates), the mathematician William Rowan Hamilton and the physicist Ernest Walton (Nobel laureate), the political thinker Edmund Burke, and the former President 5 of Ireland Mary Robinson. This tradition finds expression today in a campus culture of scholarship, innovation, creativity, entrepreneurship and dedication to societal reform.
Rankings
Trinity is the top ranked university in Ireland and ranked 108th in the world (QS World University Rankings 2020). Trinity ranks in the top 50 in the world on 6 subjects and in the top 100 in 20 subjects (QS World University Rankings by Subject 2019). Full details are available at: www.tcd.ie/research/about/rankings.