1 year research position focused on eel trade
Join our team!
This one year Research Associate role arises from the award of a major grant (£859,000) from the UK Economic and Social Research Council to Professor Rosaleen Duffy and Professor Charlotte Burns. The project, BEaStly Business: Examining the Illegal Trade in Bears, Eels and Songbirds, involves working closely with a bigger research team comprised of Professors Duffy and Burns, two other post-doctoral researchers and a project manager. In this post the successful candidate will examine the political ecologies of illegal wildlife trade in European eels, Europe’s largest wildlife crime.
The main objective of this research project is to analyse and explain the drivers of the illegal wildlife trade (IWT) in European species, to shape and transform policies tackling this major threat to biodiversity. IWT is a policy priority for global institutions, donors and NGOs. However, policy and academic foci have tended to fall upon charismatic species in Africa and Asia; illegal trades in European species have been overlooked even though Europe is an important site of production, consumption, and transit. This project directly addresses this gap in knowledge using approaches from political ecology and green criminology.
This research will focus on the political ecologies of green-collar crime in the illegal wildlife trade (IWT) of European eels; the researcher will be engaged in work that results in theoretical development and methodological innovation, and will produce policy-relevant information for key stakeholders (such as Governments, International Organisations and NGOs); the aim is to formulate more effective policies that recognise more fully the roles of legitimate businesses/corporate crime in IWT. The research will involve an in-depth analysis of the dynamics of illegal trade in eels. These themes will be explored by fieldwork in case study countries – precise locations and timings will be agreed with the successful candidate. The grant provides generous financial support for fieldwork, conference attendance and knowledge exchange activities.
Using the online application system, please submit:
- A CV
- A covering letter on how you meet the post criteria
- A one A4 page research proposal detailing intellectual approach, research methods and empirical focus (where relevant – theoretical proposals are welcome). More information on how to apply for post reference UOS032940 is here
Closing Date is 26 May 2022
Please feel free to contact Rosaleen to discuss the post r.v.duffy (at) sheffield.ac.uk
