Postdoctoral Program
The Watson School offers a range of postdoctoral and fellowship 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 and fellowship 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 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 three types of Watson School postdoctoral positions and all are joint appointments with partner departments. This fall we are accepting applications for joint postdoctoral appointments with the Department of Anthropology (deadline Oct. 15), the Department of Political Science (deadline Jan. 20) and the Department of Sociology (deadline Oct. 15).
Later in the fall semester, we will be accepting applications for joint postdoctoral appointments with the Department of Cognitive and Psychological Sciences and the Department of Computer Science.
Details for three active searches are below. Please note that there are two different deadlines for the active searches.
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Current Fellows
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Justus Bamert
Postdoctoral Research Fellow in International and Public AffairsAreas of Expertise Children & Families, Education, Labor, Social and Economic Policy -
Petter Berg
Postdoctoral Research AssociateAreas of Expertise Education, Labor, Social and Economic Policy -
Kate Birkbeck
Postdoctoral Research Associate in International and Public AffairsAreas of Expertise Ethnic Conflict & Civil War, International Economics, Politics, and Security, Law Enforcement & Policing, Political Economy, State & Municipal Policy, Technology & Innovation, Technology and Policy -
Deren Ertas
Research Associate in International and Public AffairsAreas of Expertise International Economics, Politics, and Security, International Development, Social and Economic Policy, Technology and Policy, Bureaucracy, Energy & Environment, Environmental Justice, Inequality & Poverty, Labor, Political Economy, Supply Chains -
Neil Johnson-Rogers
Postdoctoral Research Associate in International and Public AffairsAreas of Expertise Inequality & Poverty, Labor, Political Economy, Social and Economic Policy, Technology & Innovation, Technology and 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
Postdoctoral Fellow Alumni
View a list of former Watson School Postdoctoral Research Associates.