Research Associate

Change your career, change lives

The Open University is the UK's largest university, a world leader in flexible part-time education, combining a mission to widen access to higher education with research excellence, transforming lives through education. Find out more about us and our mission by watching this short video (you will be taken to YouTube by clicking this link).

About the Project

Music as Cultural Refuge (MuCuRe) investigates how young people in Northern Ireland experienced, expressed and sustained cultural agency through music during the Troubles. It explores how everyday engagement with music and its material traces (e.g. records, posters, tickets, instruments and fan-made artefacts) offered emotional refuge, fostered resilience and enabled alternative identities beyond sectarian divisions. Through a combination of archival research, object-oriented interviews and public engagement, the project will recover these hidden histories and reinterpret them as part of Northern Ireland’s cultural heritage. Working with the Oh Yeah! Music Centre and community partners, MuCuRe will produce academic and public outputs, including a podcast series, public lecture series, online exhibition and OpenLearn course, and establish a Music as Cultural Refuge community of practice to sustain dialogue, memory and education around youth, music and peacebuilding.

About the Role

The Research Associate will play a key role in delivering the project’s research and public engagement activities. Working closely with the Principal Investigator (Dr Lauren Alex O’Hagan), they will support archival research, participant recruitment, object-oriented interviews, data analysis and dissemination activities. They will also help co-develop project outputs, including a podcast series, public lecture series, online exhibition and OpenLearn course, and contribute to academic publications, reports and the creation of a Music as Cultural Refuge community of practice.

This role offers an excellent opportunity for an early-career researcher interested in music, material culture, youth culture, memory studies and the social history of the Troubles to develop interdisciplinary and impact-driven research.

Key Responsibilities

• Support archival research at Northern Irish institutions (e.g. Oh Yeah! Music Centre, Linen Hall Library, Belfast Central Library)
• Assist with recruitment, scheduling and facilitation of online object-oriented interviews
• Transcribe and code qualitative data using thematic and multimodal approaches
• Contribute to the analysis of photographic and material culture data
• Maintain data records and ensure compliance with OU ethical and data management procedures
• Support planning and delivery of public engagement events
• Assist in drafting academic papers and reports
• Contribute to the coordination and administration of the Music as Cultural Refuge community of practice

About You

Essential Criteria

• PhD (or near completion) in Cultural Studies, Media Studies, Sociolinguistics, Music, Sociology, Anthropology, History or a related field
• Demonstrated experience in qualitative research, especially object-oriented interviews and multimodal analysis
• Familiarity with archival and/or material culture research methods
• Excellent organisational and communication skills
• Ability to work collaboratively with academic and community partners
• Sensitivity to the sociopolitical and ethical contexts of research on the Troubles

Desirable Criteria

• Knowledge of Northern Irish music, cultural heritage or social history
• Experience in community-based or co-produced research
• Experience with podcasting, digital curation or public engagement

Support with your application

If you have any questions, or need support or adjustments relating to your application, the recruitment process, or the role, please contact us on [phone removed] or email [email removed] quoting the advert reference number.

What's in it for you?

At The Open University, we offer a range of benefits to recognise and reward great work, alongside policies and flexible working that contribute towards a great work life balance. Get all the details of what benefits we offer by visiting our Staff Benefits page (clicking this link will open a new window).

Flexible working

We are open to discussions about flexible working. Whether it’s a job share, part time, compressed hours or another working arrangement. Please reach out to us to discuss what works best for you.

Working Location: It is anticipated that a hybrid working pattern can be adopted for this role, where the successful candidate can work from home and the office. This role is contractually aligned to our Belfast Office, and it will be expected that the successful candidate will need to travel in and around Belfast for archival work and meetings. Full-time working based from our Belfast site is also supported if this is preferred by the candidate.  Expenses associated with travel to our Belfast site are not reimbursable.

Please note that the funding for this role does not include travel for archival and stakeholder work and therefore it is recommended that the successful candidate be based in Ireland. 

Next steps in the Recruitment process

Interviews are likely to take place via Teams at the end of November.

Early closing date notification

While most roles will remain open until the advertised closing date, applications may be reviewed on an ongoing basis. In some cases, vacancies may close earlier if a sufficient number of suitable applications have been received and equality impacts have been appropriately considered. All roles will remain advertised for a minimum of one week before any early closure is implemented.

If you have started an application or were in the process of applying when the advert closed, we encourage you to get in touch. We are committed to understanding individual circumstances and can offer further support where needed, including reasonable adjustments for applicants with protected characteristics.

How to apply

To apply for this role, please submit the following documents:

• A Supporting Statement of up to 1000 words. You should set out in your statement why you are interested in the role and provide examples of where your skills and experience meet the essential criteria for this role as detailed above.
• CV

You can view your progress and application communications when you are logged into our recruitment system.  Please check your spam/junk folders if you do not receive associated email updates.