Perry World House Fellowships 2020-2021, The Penn Identity And Conflict (PIC) Lab, USA

The Penn Identity & Conflict (PIC) Lab, led by Professor Nicholas Sambanis at the Department of Political Science of the University of Pennsylvania, seeks exceptional candidates for a one-year, full-time, renewable, residential appointment as a postdoctoral research fellow.  The Lab is dedicated to addressing a broad range of critical questions focused on inter-group conflict.  The Lab prioritizes research in three key areas: how social identities shape individual behavior, how conflict affects identities, and what interventions are effective in reducing inter-group conflict of different forms.  Both violent and non-violent forms of conflict are considered, and the Lab integrates knowledge across the social and behavioral sciences to better understand bias, discrimination, and violence.

Fellows will split their time between their own research and work with Professor Nicholas Sambanis on different projects generated from the PIC Lab.  Ongoing projects address foreign intervention and peacebuilding after ethno-sectarian war; the legacies of wartime violence exposure; the causes of violent escalation of separatist conflicts; and causes and mitigation of non-violent inter-group conflict, including conflict between native and immigrant populations. 

Job responsibilities will vary depending on the strengths and interests of the successful applicant but will include some combination of conducting research and co-authoring papers and reports with the PIC Lab Director and affiliated faculty; assisting with grant proposals; and providing support with data collection, management, and analysis for ongoing projects at the Lab.

Successful applicants will have excellent training in quantitative methods (statistical analysis, survey, and experimental methods).  Programming skills are highly desirable.  Applicants should have outstanding organizational and communications skills and prior experience using large computer databases and different statistical software (including Stata, R, and Qualtrics).  Applicants should be intellectually curious, ambitious, energetic, highly self-disciplined, and self-motivated; they should be able to work individually and as part of a team; and be open to conducting fieldwork outside the U.S.  Inter-disciplinary training in experimental economics and/or social psychology and adjacent fields is a plus.

There is no formal teaching requirement.  Fellows will be expected to help organize the PIC Lab workshop; will give one presentation during the academic year at the workshop and in the Perry World House Seminar Series; and will potentially help organize a conference/policy workshop.

For more information click "LINK TO ORIGINAL" below.