Research Associate - Strand, London, WC2R 2LS

Research Associate - Strand, London, WC2R 2LS

About us

The School of Global Affairs (SGA) in the Faculty of Social Science and Public Policy at King’s is a dynamic hub of multi-disciplinary scholarship that seeks to address the pressing issues facing our world today, including climate change, inequality and global health.

​At King’s, we are deeply committed to embedding good equality and diversity practices into all our activities so that the university is an inclusive, welcoming, and inspiring place to work and study, regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marital status, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion, sex, or sexual orientation. King’s offers inclusive benefits to staff, including flexible working, Enhanced Parental Leave, funds for Parents and Carers, and the potential to join community staff networks

About the role

This 4-year Research Associate position sits within the European Research Council-funded project ‘AdaptAIR: Climate Adaptation through Artificial Ice Reservoirs in the Himalayas’. This project explores the social, cultural and environmental context of the deployment of Artificial Ice Reservoirs (AIRS) as water management tools in the Himalayan cold desert regions, in the context of rapidly retreating glaciers. Working with private sector partners Acres of Ice (acresofice.com), the project combines high-resolution climate, glacier and hydrological modelling with approaches from anthropology, history and critical agrarian studies to understand water use and agrarian change in the region, and how AIRs affect this. The project works across case studies in Northwest India, and possibly Nepal.

This role will explore the complex institutional context of water and climate change governance in the Himalayas, from the village to Federal level, using a combination of documentary analysis and interviews. This will include the role of knowledge-generating agencies, for example, institutions sitting within the Indian Ministry of Earth Sciences. You will develop an institutional map, which will be used to explore how AIRs are shaped by and impact upon the existing institutional landscape. You will study power, networks and shifting discourses in the promotion of AIRs, and envisage alternative forms of knowledge production. You will also collaborate with post docs working on rural, grounded analysis of recipient villages to build a broader understanding of institutions across scales. Researching literature on vulnerability, the history of governance and policymaking in Northwest India, political economy of the Indian state and science and technology studies, will be important in designing and carrying out these tasks.

You will be supervised by, and work closely with, PI George Adamson (background in science and technology studies) and PI Nithya Natarajan (background in critical agrarian studies), both at King’s College London. The project will also entail working closely with colleagues in the School of Public Policy at IIT Delhi, and scientists and anthropologists in the UK and Canada. The role will be based in London, but will require fieldwork in Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh, and possibly Nepal. Your work will contribute directly to the aims of AdaptAIR, and you will have be encouraged to develop your own research agenda.

This is a full time (35 hours per week), and you will be offered a fixed term contract for 4 years from start date.

Research staff at King’s are entitled to at least 10 days per year (pro-rata) for professional development. This entitlement, from the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers, applies to Postdocs, Research Assistants, Research and Teaching Technicians, Teaching Fellows and AEP equivalent up to and including grade 7. Visit the Centre for Research Staff Development for more information.