Call for new IRT theme leaders - Justice, Insecurity and Fair Decision Making

Published: 25 August 2023

** Call now closed** In Summer 2023, the Justice, Insecurity and Fair Decision Making theme put out a call to recruit additional researchers to its leadership team.

** Call now closed; new leadership team members to be annouced in autumn 2023**

In January 2020, the College of Social Sciences launched five interdisciplinary research themes. Each theme is led by a team of researchers bringing different perspectives and experiences. The Justice, Insecurity and Fair Decision Making theme is looking to recruit additional researchers to its leadership team.

We especially welcome applications from: Early and mid-career academics; Researchers with a background in Sociology, Education or Law; colleagues from outside the College of Social Sciences are also most welcome to apply.

Theme description: The aim of the theme is to undertake and support cutting-edge research into the roots of insecurity and injustice and developing new solutions to drive positive change. As a theme, we aim to facilitate and amplify work across multiple scales and areas, from international courts to street corners, from private security to environmental resilience, and in the digitally driven disruptive for a of the future. This work includes developing innovative, multi-disciplinary research proposals, supporting dialogue with stakeholders in order to influence policy, public understanding and professional practice in Scotland, across the UK and globally.

Role and Responsibilities: The leadership team’s role is to promote the IRT as a means of contributing to the three pillars of the College of Social Science’s Research and Knowledge Exchange strategy, as follows:

  • Culture: Deliver an open event programme to enable within-College and cross-College networking for the development of ambitious new research, including events focused on different disciplinary perspectives on tackling challenges, skills development in working across disciplines, and writing large, interdisciplinary grant applications.
  • Income: Develop a bespoke research income growth plan to include a focus on new research funders. This includes identifying and supporting researchers across the college to participate in and lead funding applications.
  • Impact: Identify and proactively develop deeper relationships with strategic impact partners.

The post-holder(s) will work with the existing leadership team and research development support to create an activity plan for 2023 in support of these aims. They will attend monthly planning meetings with the rest of the team, as well as cross-IRT workshops to share learning across the different themes. There is no specified minimum duration, however we expect post-holder(s) to commit to planning and delivering activities over the coming two semesters.

They should have or be willing to develop a rich understanding of University of Glasgow interdisciplinary expertise around Justice, Insecurity and Fair Decision Making, and to support colleagues in pursuing research in this area. Colleagues with a background in Sociology, Education or Law, are especially encouraged to apply.

Support: To achieve the above aims, IRTs are supported by a dedicated Research Development Manager and an Administrator. Each IRT has a workload allocation of 300 hours, to be distributed across the COSS leadership team.

We welcome applications from all career stages, from post-doctoral onwards. Success in this leadership position will support applications for promotion according to criteria (for example: Grade 9 - Leadership in the development and/or management of a University initiative. This could involve the initiation of a new network, acting as Director or co-Director of an existing network; Professorial zone 1 - Leadership role in managing and supporting strategic initiatives at Subject, School/RI and/or College).

To apply: Send a CV and half a page of A4 outlining your interest in becoming part of this theme leadership group to justice-irt@glasgow.ac.uk by 4pm, 30th September 2023. This blurb should include how leading the theme will support you in your own career development, as well as what you would contribute to the theme.

For informal enquiries or to discuss the role, please contact a member of the leadership team:

Diana Camps – Justice, Insecurity & Fair Decision Making Research Fellow

Yingru Li – Adam Smith Business School

David Lundie – School of Social and Environmental Sustainability

Marguerite Schinkel – School of Social and Political Sciences


First published: 25 August 2023