Project Title: Visual Impairment, discourse and critique in South Africa - breaking silence and disrupting inequality
Duration: 1 March 2021 – 28 February 2022 but potentially renewable for a second year
Scope of Research:
The Institute for Life Course Health Research is currently seeking a postdoctoral fellow to engage in a 2-year programme of advanced discourse analytic and critical psychoanalytic research in the area of visual impairment and social inequality in South Africa.
Activities:
The successful candidate will be expected to:
perform a series of systematic literature reviews
participate in qualitative data collection (group-based, depth oriented interviewing using the free association narrative interview method)
perform discourse analytic and critical psychoanalytic data analysis
co-author a series of resulting journal articles.
The project is in the area of psycho-emotional aspects of disability inequality, with a particular emphasis on visual impairment, and will make use of a combination of Foucauldian discourse analytic and psychoanalytic object relations theory and method to make sense of qualitative data on ideological, material and intra-psychic layers of disability oppression. Significant experience with both the data collection and analysis methods is essential.
Host: Dr Brian Watermeyer, Institute for Life Course Health Research, Department of Global Health, Stellenbosch University
Requirements:
PhD in Disability Studies (must have graduated within the last 3 years)
Previous experience:
The successful candidate will have
At least three years’ experience in disability development and empowerment work (state or NGO)
In-depth knowledge and experience of discourse analytic and critical psychoanalytic models of disability inequality.
Experience in qualitative data collection (group-based, depth oriented interviewing using the free association narrative interview method)
Advanced qualitative methodology skills (including critical psychoanalytic and discourse analytic methods)
Experience in conducting systematic reviews
Excellent time management and organisational skills
Knowledge of the SA visual impairment development sector
Familiarity with Disability as an embodied and contextual experience (preference will be given to applicants who themselves live with disability, and especially visual impairment)
Excellent computer skills, with emphasis on Microsoft Office suite
Please note that postdoctoral fellows are not appointed as employees and their fellowships are awarded tax free. They are therefore not eligible for employee benefits.
Closing date:
26 February 2021
Enquiries:
Send a letter of application, accompanied by a comprehensive curriculum vitae, including list of publications and the names and contact details of at least two referees, to:
Ms Zena Jacobs
Unit Coordinator: Institute for Life Course Health Research
Applicants should request their referees to forward confidential reports by the closing date direct to the same address.