6 month postdoc with Wellcome-funded Hidden Persuaders project at Birkbeck
Application deadline 27th January 2020
You will contribute to the development of research
proposals and/or objectives, and to conduct and write up both individual
and collective research projects for publication.
You will produce independent research and publications,
and collaborate in generating research findings and delivering shared
final outputs and helping with a new funding bid, now in progress.
Ideally, you will have a regional specialism in Africa or
Asia, and will bring your own prior expertise in modern politics, the
history of the human sciences, cultural history, anthropology,
sociology or psycho-social studies.
Alongside research and publication, you will be expected
to dedicate up to 50 % of the working week to research collaboration,
grant preparation and publication outputs, with the PI and his team;
10% to project management and administration,
the remaining 40% to the appointee’s own individual research.
Brief Description of the Project Themes:
This project, which will be completed by 31 August 2019,
asks why 'brainwashing' erupted into public consciousness in the
postwar period and investigates where such practices and cultural fears
led. A publicly available free access website has
been created, which provides a great deal of information about the
project to date:
The project explores how ideas about 'brainwashing',
which emerged post-war have affected the way we understand contemporary
life – individual and mass psychology, indoctrination, radicalisation,
cults and violent movements, terrorism, advertising,
the attention economy etc. Brainwashing fears were informed by and also
shaped the reputation of psychological professions: the latter were
sometimes viewed as instruments of indoctrination or as tools for
enhancing human freedom. This research programme aims
to foster public debate about the involvements of the psychological and
clinical professions in hidden persuasion and behavioural modification,
and in critical warnings about brainwashing. It ranges from the
exploration of experiences of PoWs in the Korean
War to the War on Terror, contemporary propaganda, counter-insurgency
theories, or projects aiming at the reintegration of traumatised
soldiers and civilians after periods of mass conflict. It draws upon
memoirs of key participants, unearths forgotten archives,
and analyses cultural fears. It asks what the history of brainwashing
may teach us about freedom and coercion in therapeutic encounters,
education, judicial processes and prison systems. This work bears upon
contemporary policy discussion of mental health
and the rights of prisoners and considers new technologies of
interrogation and so-called re-education today.
History of the Project
This research team was established in 2014. Along with
the PI it included two post-doc researchers, Dr Marcia Holmes (2014-16)
and Dr Sarah Marks (2016-19). In addition, the project included funding
for 3 doctoral students. Two of them, Ian Magor
and Katie Joice, are completing their doctorates this year. The third,
Dr Charlie Williams, completed in 2018, and now based at Queen Mary on a
separate Wellcome funded project, ‘Pathologies of Solitude. For
details, see the hidden Persuaders project website.
The core team has interacted with a wider network of research
associates, and scholars, artists, curators, film makers, journalists,
schoolteachers, and policy makers.
Remuneration
Grade 7, £38,594 rising to £44,113 of the College's London Pay Scale pro rata.
The salary quoted will be pro-rata for this short-term
post and is on the College's London Pay Scale which includes a
consolidated Weighting/Allowance which applies only to staff whose
normal contractual place of work is in the London area.
Enquiries
If you would like to know more about the role please or contact Katy Pettit, k.pettit@bbk.ac.uk