William & Mary

Position Title/Short Description

Full Text of JOE Listing:

AidData's Chinese Development Finance Program team is still looking for a postdoctoral fellow to join us for 2-years starting this summer. Applications are open until filled and we are interviewing candidates now -- please help us spread the word!

Based at William & Mary's Global Research Institute where AidData is housed, the fellow will help build our team's research agenda on the development impacts of Chinese Belt and Road projects in the global South using the high precision spatial and temporal variations now available in our newly released dataset. We are ideally looking for a candidate with interest in environmental and international development policy: some GIS skills are required and familiarity with Chinese development finance is a plus.

The postdoctoral scholar will support ongoing research on Chinese development finance at AidData (an international development research lab within the GRI), and fully integrate into GRI’s thriving multidisciplinary international development research community. Additionally, for each year of the award, s/he will teach one course and direct a team of undergraduate researchers. Throughout this period, s/he will receive mentoring from faculty members and/or senior researchers affiliated with the GRI in a variety of academic development areas including: his/her ongoing research interests, how to pursue funded research, how to organize an undergraduate research lab, and how to improve his/her classroom teaching.

This is a 12-month position, beginning in summer 2022 and renewable for a second year contingent on performance. The position will be open until filled, with a review of applicants beginning on March 24, 2022.

The successful candidate must:
Have a PhD by the time appointment begins (June 2022) in economics, political science, public policy, geography/GIS, data science, computer science, or another relevant field;
Have a strong interest in building and pursuing a policy research agenda that makes use of AidData’s Global Chinese Development Finance Dataset, Version 2.0 — in particular, its geospatial features (see https://www.aiddata.org/data/aiddatas-global-chinese-development-finance-dataset-version-2-0 and https://github.com/aiddata/china-osm-geodata);
Possess advanced quantitative methods training and expertise in: GIS and geospatial analysis, machine learning, distributed/parallel computing, data analytics;
Demonstrate experience working with one or more of the following software and tools: Python and relevant GIS/ML packages (e.g., Rasterio, GeoPandas, Tensorflow, PyTorch), QGISmachine;
Demonstrate strong organizational and communication skills

For more details and to apply, please visit the position listing at https://jobs.wm.edu/postings/44688.For full consideration, submit applications by the review date, March 24, 2022. Applications received after the review date will be considered until the posting closes.