Postdoctoral Research Fellow

The Poverty and Inequality Research Lab (PIRL) at Johns Hopkins University is seeking applicants for one Postdoctoral Fellow to work with Director Stefanie DeLuca, the PIRL team, and other distinguished collaborators on ongoing mixed methods projects. PIRL is a collaborative, interdisciplinary mixed-methods research center focused on policy-relevant scholarship in the areas of family, education, housing and neighborhoods. Ongoing project topics include the trajectories of community college students, housing policies to increase neighborhood quality, the responses of high-achieving low-income students to financial aid, and race trends in economic mobility. The Fellow will have the opportunity to work on ongoing projects in collaboration with Dr. DeLuca as well as economist Dr. Nicholas Papageorge, Associate Director of PIRL, and economist Dr. Raj Chetty, Director of Opportunity Insights. The Fellow will work under the advisement of Dr. DeLuca and will have the opportunity to coordinate research and collaborative projects with the assistance of pre-doctoral fellows, and graduate and undergraduate research assistants to conduct coding and analyses of interview data. 

The Postdoctoral Fellow will conduct quantitative, qualitative and archival analyses, employ multiple social scientific methods, often in conjunction, including qualitative data collection and analysis via semi-structured interviews, structural micro-econometric modeling and estimation, and statistical analysis of large-scale administrative data, among other approaches. The Fellow may also lead a team of predoctoral fellows, and graduate and undergraduate research assistants on fieldwork trips to conduct in-depth, open-ended interviews.

The position is a one-year appointment with the possibility of a second year pending funding and work scope. The position has an anticipated start in July 2025, is full-time and fully funded with no teaching requirements. The fellow will be in residence at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.

The postdoctoral fellowship is open to applicants who are up to three years post-PhD in sociology or related fields. Applicants with experience with qualitative or mixed methods are preferred, although some quantitative data analyses will be expected. Applicants should have strong research skills and a substantive background in areas of education, neighborhoods, social networks and social policy. Must have excellent communication skills and be able to work well as part of a team.

Visit the job posting to apply: Interfolio