Postdoctoral Program
The Watson School offers a range of postdoctoral opportunities for outstanding young scholars in the social sciences. The program supports participants in their own research, enhances their interdisciplinary literacy, and contributes to meaningful and enduring collaborative exchange.
Postdoctoral Program
The Watson School offers a range of postdoctoral opportunities for outstanding young scholars in the social sciences. The program supports participants in their own research, enhances their interdisciplinary literacy, and contributes to meaningful and enduring collaborative exchange.
Participants in this program will join an interdisciplinary community of scholars engaged in theoretically and substantively important research addressing the most pressing global issues of our time.
The Watson School’s unique structure — including scholars from a wide range of disciplines who are also appointed in partner departments — allows postdoctoral research associates to benefit from a broad academic community while remaining closely connected with top scholars in their discipline. This structure enables them to pursue research and participate fully in the intellectual life of the Watson School.
Postdoctoral research associates will also teach one seminar course per year of up to 19 students, as well as present a work in progress to an interdisciplinary group.
Applying to the Program
We are currently accepting applications for two types of Watson School postdoctoral positions: one is a joint appointment with the School of Public Health, and the other is a joint appointment with the Department of Political Science.
Later in the fall semester, applications will open for joint postdoctoral appointments with the Department of History and the Department of Economics. Those applications are expected to open in mid-November.
Details for the two active searches are below, the deadline for the first round of applications is October 15th, 2025.
Active searches:
Upcoming searches:
These searches for joint postdoctoral appointments with the Department of History and the Department of Economics will open in mid November with a deadline in late 2025. Details to follow.
The Watson School's Postdocs on Trending Globally
Research and Media
View All Research and Media News Watson Postdoctoral Research Associate Justin Haner received an award from the American Political Science Association for his dissertation.
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News from Watson
Epistolary Labor: Letter Writing Activism
Latoya M. Teague co-authored a paper titled "Epistolary Labor: Letter Writing Activism," published in the Black History Bulletin as part of a special issue on Black labor.
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News from Watson
We Thought It Would Be Heaven: Refugees in an Unequal America
Blair Sackett has recently co-authored a book discussing the challenges encountered by refugees who have been resettled in the United States.
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News from Watson
View All Postdoctoral Fellows Program News With their terms ending, six Watson postdoctoral research associates look to continue their academic careers armed with new skills acquired in the Watson Institute's unique and robust intellectual environment.
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China Initiative postdoctoral fellow Na Fu is documenting the political, social and personal costs of the shift from mass production to mass customization in the Pearl River Delta region of China.
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News from Watson
Watson faculty book contributions in 2023
A number of Watson faculty published books in 2023 on a wide range of topics from domestic violence laws, immigration, school reform, and political backlash in the United States to the sociology of development, the holocaust, and the politics of Brazillian crime film. Explore books published by Watson faculty in 2023 below.
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Current Fellows
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Kate Birkbeck
Postdoctoral Research Associate in International and Public AffairsAreas of Expertise Law Enforcement & Policing, Political Economy, Race, Identity & Ethnicity, Social Movements -
Tomás Gold
Postdoctoral Research Associate in International and Public AffairsAreas of Expertise Democracy & Elections, International Institutions, Political Economy, Social Movements -
Justin Haner
Postdoctoral Research Associate in International and Public AffairsResearch Interests International Institutions, US Foreign Policy -
Andrew Kenealy
Postdoctoral Research Associate in International and Public AffairsResearch Interests US Foreign Policy -
Shelby O'Neill
Postdoctoral Research Associate in International and Public AffairsAreas of Expertise Immigration, Displacement & Borders -
Esteban Salmón
Postdoctoral Research Associate in International and Public AffairsAreas of Expertise Bureaucracy, Criminal Justice, Ethics, Law Enforcement & Policing, Urban Policies & Politics -
Aleksandra Simonova
Postdoctoral Research Associate in International and Public AffairsAreas of Expertise Ethnic Conflict & Civil War, Gender, Human Rights, Nuclear Weapons, State & Municipal Policy, Urban Policies & Politics -
Leyla Tiglay
Postdoctoral Research Associate in International and Public AffairsAreas of Expertise Environmental Justice, International Institutions, Nuclear Weapons, Science & Technology Policy, Social Movements, US Foreign Policy