Postdoctoral Fellowship Announcement

Identity & Conflict Lab @ Yale

AY 2025-2026

The Identity & Conflict Lab (ICL) at Yale University, led by Professor Nicholas Sambanis, seeks to appoint up to two exceptional candidates as Postdoctoral Associates for the 2025-2026 academic year. This opportunity is for a one-year, full-time residential postdoctoral research fellowship, with potential to renew for one year conditional on successful performance.  The appointment will begin on July 1, 2025.

Housed in the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies, the ICL addresses a broad range of critical questions focused on inter-group conflict and identity politics.  The ICL analyzes how social identities shape individual behavior, how conflict affects identities, and what interventions are effective in reducing inter-group conflict.  Both violent and non-violent forms of conflict are considered, ranging from bias, discrimination, and protest to ethnic violence, secessionism and war.

Postdoctoral associates will work in one of ICL’s ongoing projects in the following two thematic areas: (1) measuring norms of good citizenship across countries; (2) conducting experimental interventions to reduce native-immigrant conflict in Europe with a primary focus on Greece; and (3) analyzing sources of the escalation of foreign policy disputes.  Postdoctoral associates may also be asked to contribute to projects in other areas/ongoing projects on a variety of different topics related to the broad theme of “identity and conflict.”  Most of the research currently in progress uses quantitative methods, with an emphasis on experimental methods.  The ICL seeks to integrate substantive and methodological knowledge across the social and behavioral sciences to develop new analytical approaches and new insights into these thematic areas with a view to shaping new directions in scholarly literatures as well as influencing policy design.

Position Description

Postdoctoral associates will be expected to work three days/week on ICL projects under the direction of Professor Nicholas Sambanis and can pursue their own research for the remainder of their work time.

Job responsibilities may include the following: Collect and clean data; program complex surveys in Qualtrics; prepare IRB applications; manage logistical details of field projects; prepare scripts and do-files for statistical analysis in Stata and R; prepare visualizations of quantitative data/results; draft short reports with project results; assist with the drafting of grant proposals; review/comment projects by other ICL affiliates; and co-author papers and reports with the Lab Director and affiliated faculty. Associates may be asked to contribute to the ICL Director’s engagement with funders and agencies that enable the ICL’s work by preparing power-point presentations of ICL projects and drafting non-technical summaries of results from different projects. Associates will also assist with preparing replication files for published studies, and help manage the ICL website and seminar series.

There is no formal teaching requirement.  Associates will be asked to co-organize with the Director the ICL’s annual conference or the workshop, which holds meetings throughout the year.  Associates will be expected to give at least one presentation of their research at the workshop or at a graduate-level course led by the ICL Director. They would also be expected to engage with research by graduate students who are affiliated with the ICL.

The salary for this position is commensurate with experience and complies with the Yale Office of Postdoctoral Affairs compensation policy and includes a benefits package.

Qualifications

Applications are welcome from scholars who have received their Ph.D. or equivalent degrees since June 2023, or who expect to complete their degree by June 2025.  Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis starting on November 08, 2024 and until December 15, 2024.  Successful applicants will be contacted by mid-January 2025.

Successful applicants will have excellent training in quantitative methods with an emphasis on statistical analysis, survey methods and experimental methods.  Excellent knowledge of the statistical software Stata and R is required as is expertise in programming surveys in Qualtrics.  Applicants should have outstanding organizational and communication skills and prior experience using large databases.  They should be intellectually curious, ambitious, energetic, and self-motivated; they should be able to work independently, but also as part of a team and be sensitive to the demands of multiple simultaneously ongoing projects; they should be able to multi-task and respond to feedback quickly. Applicants must be willing to travel for fieldwork if necessary. Training in behavioral economics and/or social psychology is a plus as several of the Lab’s projects cross disciplinary boundaries.

Application Instructions

All application materials must be submitted online through Interfolio: https://apply.interfolio.com/158750

Applicants will be asked to upload a cover letter, CV/resume, one-page research statement, writing sample, and unofficial PhD transcript (only required for current graduate students).  We will also ask for the name and email address of two letter writers who can submit a letter of recommendation (only references for short-listed candidates will be requested).

Yale University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity employer. Yale values diversity among its students, staff, and faculty and strongly welcomes applications from women, persons with disabilities, protected veterans, and underrepresented minorities.

If you have questions, please email the ICL Director at nicholas.sambanis@yale.edu.