Call for Applications: GenderSci Lab hiring a 2023-2025 postdoctoral fellow
The Harvard GenderSci Lab invites applications for a Postdoctoral Fellow in Gender and Science. The postdoc will contribute to a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation funded project entitled “Accelerating the integration of social factors into sex-related health disparities science.” We welcome applications both from interdisciplinary scholars with training in STEM fields and interests in the humanities and social sciences, and from humanities and social science scholars with experience in engaging STEM topics. The appointment will begin on September 1, 2023 and run through August 31, 2024, with a high likelihood of renewal through August 31, 2025, subject to PI review.
About the Harvard GenderSci Lab
The GenderSci Lab is a platform for innovation, collaboration, and the elevation of new and diverse voices and methodologies in the study of gender/sex in biology. The lab brings together gender scholars and biomedical scientists to build and validate new theory and methods for the intersectional study of gender/sex in human populations. Specifically, the GenderSci Lab works to forge concepts and methods to counter bias and hype in sex difference research, elevate the importance of context, contingency, and variation in the study of gender and sex in biology, identify novel methods of operationalizing gender as a variable in intersectional biomedical research, and engage the implications of biological claims about gender and sexual diversity for law and public policy relevant to the lives of gender and sexual minorities.
About the project
There are known health disparities between men and women. While such disparities are frequently considered to be driven by biological sex, there is wide consensus that failure to integrate social-contextual variables alongside sex-related biology is a major analytic gap in sex disparities research. Building on the Gender Sci Lab’s record of sharp empirical, conceptual, and theory-building work engaging with biomedical constructs of sex differences, this project will articulate a new evidential framework for sex disparities science, as well as a translatable toolkit of interdisciplinary methods for probing the role of social and other variables in producing disparate health outcomes across and within gender/sex subgroups that extends beyond a sex/gender binary. If adopted at the national policy level and implemented in research settings, this framework has the potential to fundamentally transform sex disparities research in the U.S.
Roles and responsibilities
The inaugural Postdoctoral Associate in Gender and Science will lead a multi-disciplinary research stream from conception to publication, create a multimedia toolkit of case studies about incorporating social variables into analysis of sex disparities, and communicate about research in a range of academic and public mediums. Although the position does not come with teaching requirements, the Postdoctoral Associate will mentor graduate and undergraduate researchers and play a leading role in developing and fine-tuning educational and other public outreach materials based on the research. Candidates from across disciplines are encouraged to apply. We especially encourage applications from women, gender diverse and gender expansive individuals, and members of historically underrepresented groups within academia.
The GenderSci Lab is a hub for training scholars in radically collaborative and a-disciplinary research that cuts across field boundaries. The Postdoc can expect to receive mentorship, opportunities for lead authorship and shared publication, and a home in a collaboratively productive, equity-focused space with articulated feminist values.