The appointment is available from 1 March 2014 until 2 October 2014.

Annual salary will be at Grade 7 between £30,728 and £36,661 plus £2,323 London Allowance

This 7 month Post-Doctoral Fellowship, funded by the Institute of Education, will be linked to ESRC’s National Centre for Research Methods Novella Node (Narratives of varied everyday lives and linked approaches) that is based at Thomas Coram Research Unit. The Postdoctoral fellow will be expected to carry out analysis of existing data as part of the Node project, Families and Food, to produce at least one sole authored and one co-authored paper in high quality international journals, and to contribute to writing research proposals for future food related research in TCRU.

You will focus on the topic of snacking in family life and draw on historical and contemporary data sources to explore the possibilities and usefulness of conceptualising snacking as ‘social practice’ (Shove et al., 2012). 

Research questions would include: How may snacking be defined for the purposes of this study? What are the elements - materials, competences and meanings - which constitute snacking as a performance? Which data are useful for answering these questions? To which other social practices is snacking linked and how?  When and where can its emergence be located historically? What opportunities are afforded for social policy in conceptualising snacking in this way?

Applicants who have completed a doctorate in sociology, anthropology, history or other relevant social science are encouraged to apply. Significant experience of the research area and understanding of theories of social practice are essential. Experience of conducting ethnographic research and/or re-use of qualitative or historical data would be an advantage.

Reference: 7AC-CLCFH-5389

Closing date: 28 February 2014