Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Computational Social Science

Department of Sociology, 42-43 Park End Street, Oxford, OX1 1JDAbout the roleThis is a postdoctoral position on the led by Professor Ridhi Kashyap and supported by the Gates Foundation. We are recruiting a postdoctoral researcher to advance scientific understanding and inform policy on the impacts of digital expansion on gender equality and women’s social and economic opportunities. The post holder will develop research using computational, statistical and social data science approaches to expand knowledge on gender inequalities in digital connectivity, as well as the impacts of digital gender inequalities on social, demographic, and economic domains in low and middle-income countries, with a particular focus on Africa and South Asia. The post holder will be responsible for developing and maintaining existing data infrastructures as well as developing methodologies to collect and integrate novel sources of web, social media, and geospatial data with secondary survey datasets for analysing gender inequalities. The post holder’s research areas will include: (1) creation of real-time indicators of digital connectivity by gender at granular spatial resolution using social media, population and survey datasets, and statistical and machine learning approaches; and/or (2) analysis of the social and demographic impacts of digital expansion, especially from a gender perspective, using quasi-experimental methods. The research outputs from the project will inform knowledge exchange with various stakeholders for generating an evidence-base for policy, and the post holder will also directly contribute to these impact and partnership building activities. The post holder will report directly to PI, Professor Ridhi Kashyap, and work together within an interdisciplinary research project involving social and computational scientists. The post holder will also be embedded within an interdisciplinary research environment within the Department of Sociology and affiliated also with the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science. The post is fixed-term for a period of up to 24 months, commencing as soon as possible and preferably by July 2025, but with some flexibility.Application process