Senior Researcher, PERIL

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Department:

School of Public Affairs

Time Type:

Full time

FLSA Status:

Exempt

Job Description:

The Polarization & Extremism Research & Innovation Lab (PERIL) and the School of Public Affairs at American University are seeking applications for Senior Researchers (who would be appointed at the rank of Research Assistant Professor).

The Polarization & Extremism Research & Innovation Lab (PERIL) is an applied research lab preventing radicalization to violent extremism by strengthening community resilience.  We use a public health approach to design, test, and scale-up evidence-based tools and strategies that effectively reduce the threat of radicalization to harmful online and offline content including conspiracy theories, mis/disinformation, propaganda, and supremacist ideologies. As an alternative to security-based approaches that rely on surveillance, censorship, and incarceration, our work takes a multidisciplinary and preventative approach to support individuals and communities to reject propaganda and extremist content, as well as empower them to intervene and interrupt early radicalization.

PERIL and its Executive Leadership Team have a common vision of a just world free of hate and full of learning, and a mission to utilize public health approaches to design, test and scale evidence-based tools and strategies to prevent hate, bias, and extremist radicalization. 

About the Senior Researcher role:

The incoming Senior Researcher will have an extraordinary opportunity to make an impact within the field of public health approaches to reducing extremist violence.  The Senior Researcher for the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab (PERIL) will play a critical role in advancing our research and objectives. The Senior Researcher plays a central role in conducting analysis, shaping research agendas, designing rigorous studies, and translating findings into meaningful impact. This position requires critical thinking, a strong publication record or trajectory, and the ability to lead interdisciplinary research efforts from ideation through dissemination. Working closely with the Executive Director, the Founding Director & Chief Vision Officer, and key members of the research leadership team, the Senior Researcher will help translate strategic goals around community-based prevention into actionable projects. The work performed will demand extensive contact with numerous organizations, community groups, schools, non-profit and faith-based organizations, government agencies, and the citizens of the state. It will also require excellent communication skills and sensitivity to the needs of the various groups.

The Senior Researcher will play a critical role in advancing our research and objectives. This position demands a highly skilled, qualitatively and quantitatively focused professional who can lead and contribute to groundbreaking research initiatives while building and maintaining strong relationships with funders and partners to further PERIL’s mission. The incumbent will

• Lead research projects with support from the director of research and research team leadership, including conceptualizing projects and driving major decisions on research design. Serve as a primary contact for funders and partners, managing relationships to ensure alignment with project objectives. Oversee project progress, ensuring deadlines and deliverables are met by coordinating with staff and project managers, scheduling key meetings, and managing internal timelines. Be responsible for data storage, ensuring proper archiving of internal and external work products. Lead most research methods within a project, particularly qualitative models, ensuring research is designed and conducted in alignment with project goals and that f