Here below is the formal advert. But please go the University jobs website and search: work and After.

B89202R – Research Associate (Work

and After)

School of History, Classics & Archaeology
Research Associate
Grade: F27 Vacancy Ref: B89202R

CLOSING DATE 23 October 2017

The University continues to build on in its commitment to oral history and has recently appointed a new Professor of Oral History. We are seeking applications for a post created to support the new Professor and to contribute to a growing programme of research relating to oral history. The post will include recording life history interviews that will provide new contexts to our understanding of memories of work, with specific attention to engineering in the first instance, as well as generating oral history data about the history employment, deindustrialisation and attempted regeneration in the North East of England since the Second World War. In addition, the project will investigate the relationship between visual representations of the past and memory. The successful applicant would also participate in the oral history unit’s other initiatives, including digital technologies and linking to oral historians beyond the university. The post is suitable to applicants skilled in oral history.

Main Duties and Responsibilities
1. To undertake literature reviews
2. To collect and analyse oral histories
3. To prepare oral history materials for archiving
4. To contribute to writing for publications
5. To contribute to preparation of funding applications
6. To contribute to the project’s public engagement agenda
7. To present results as required at local, national or international conferences
8. To engage with relevant stakeholders, including working with at least one community group in the region
9. To attend meetings and other events as appropriate
10. To identify, in collaboration with senior staff, and undertake a programme of professional development, including further training in oral history theories and methods and other transferable skills
11. To contribute to activities associated with the running and administration of the unit, or perform other duties, as required by the unit’s Director

Research Role Profile
As part of our commitment to career development for research staff, the University has developed 3 levels of research role profiles. These profiles set out firstly the generic competences and responsibilities expected of role holders at each level and secondly the general qualifications and experiences needed for entry at a particular level. It is unlikely that any single member of staff will be applying all these competences at any one time but he or she would be expected to display most of them over a period of time. Please follow this link to our Research Role Profiles

Newcastle University Oral History Collective
The successful applicant will join a rapidly growing and dynamic group of highly interdisciplinary researchers who are using oral history methods at Newcastle University. The wider grouping  includes colleagues from History, English, Archaeology, Media, Culture and Heritage, the Unit of Health and Society, the Business School, the Centre for Rural Economy, Geography and Education, Communication and Language Sciences. The successful applicant will have the opportunity to help build on Newcastle’s strengths in relation to oral history and to respond to some of the most important questions arising from the uses of oral history. This includes addressing questions relating to individual and collective memory, the relationship of oral history to biography and history, representativeness and generalisability, intersubjectivity, orality, social identity, and memory and ageing. We are also interested in the challenges of digital archiving, making collections accessible and reuse, and innovative uses of oral histories in communicating history to the wider public.
Oral history in Newcastle is in a particularly exciting phase of development. The University has made a substantial investment in oral history. As well as a Chair in Oral History, there is funding for two three-year Research Associate posts. This core team, based in History, will form a research focus not only for the wider University grouping, but with at least one community oral history organisation in the North East.
This Research Associate post is a newly created position to work with the Professor of Oral History, appointed in 2017, and a second Research Associate. The post holder will work both with the new Professor and with other staff on issues relating to oral history collection, analysis, archiving and dissemination. More specifically, the post holder will research the history of employment after 1945 using oral histories along with visual sources. Particular attention will be paid to engineering in North-East England. This post will be attractive to individuals who already have an interest and track record in research relating to oral history and the history of work, deindustrialisation and/or regeneration. Excellent knowledge and experience of oral history research designs, including archiving, is preferred. However, the post is open to candidates with proven strengths in oral history more generally.

Person Specification
Knowledge (including qualifications)
Essential

• PhD in a relevant discipline
• Undergraduate degree in a relevant subject
• History of employment in post-1945 Britain

Skills (professional, technical, managerial, practical)
Essential

• Excellent (written and verbal) communication skills
• Ability to maintain confidentiality
• Ability to work flexibly and co-operatively with others, but also to work independently
• Excellent interpersonal skills
• IT literate
• Ability to prioritise key tasks
• Ability to meet deadlines and to manage conflicting priorities
• Innovative and flexible in approach
• Ability to present results of analyses
• Success in writing research papers for publication in peer-reviewed journals

Experience and Achievements
Essential

• Experience in history of engineering or science or history of medicine, labour history or business history
• Experience of oral history collection and analysis
• Experience of carrying out research within agreed timelines, meeting project milestones and producing work to an appropriate standard
• Experience of contributing to funding applications
• Experience of collaborating with third sector and non-academic stakeholders

Desirable

• Experience of using oral history in public history settings including in on-line and in museums
• Experience in video oral history
• Experience of using visual historical sources
• Experience of working in social media
• Experience in using oral history in relation to other data types
• Experience of methods of co-production addressing questions of shared and sharing authority
• Experience of archiving oral histories, especially born digital collections
• Experience of developments in reusing oral histories
• Experience of analytical (qualitative) and web page software
• Success in securing funding for research