The Urban Education Institute (UEI) at the University of Chicago is an internationally and nationally renowned institute with the aim of promoting field-based research on youth development and learning in formal and informal settings. UEI conducts rigorous applied research, trains researchers and practitioners, operates a preK-12 public school, and provides research-based tools and resources to schools in 62 major cities across 34 states.
Position Summary:
We invite applications for two Postdoctoral Scholar positions in the area of youth development and learning across multiple ecological contexts with an emphasis on diversity, opportunity, and equity.
The initial appointment will be one year with the possibility of renewal for up to two years. The position involves work on several multi-method, large-scale longitudinal studies exploring how sociocultural and psychological factors influence youth’s identity development, academic learning, and socioemotional well-being during middle childhood and adolescence. In particular, the scholar will work on multi-jurisdictional, longitudinal datasets to examine the individual, interpersonal, and contextual factors that mitigated or worsened the impact of school disruptions on youth’s academic adjustment and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic among youth from historically marginalized and socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. The work will take an interdisciplinary, applied approach to examining youth development in elementary and secondary school settings.
The scholar will receive strong mentorship with well-established scholars focused on the demanding aspects of producing high-quality scholarship. The scholar will have access to resources in Committee on Quantitative Methods in Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences and will be expected to build a research program by formulating research questions, generating research designs, writing grants, conducting analysis, and writing and presenting findings.
Qualifications
Education: Applicants must have a doctorate.
Required experience: Applicants must have a strong publication record; substantive knowledge and background in the field of child/adolescent development, risk and prevention/intervention, or learning science; and excellent academic writing and analytic skills. The position will require strong quantitative skills (e.g., HLM, SEM, and multilevel and growth modeling) and experience working with large-scale, multiple waves of longitudinal datasets (e.g., daily diary data).
Preferred experience: Candidates with formal training in quantitative psychology or longitudinal research methods in applied fields are preferred.
Required Job Seeker Documents
To apply for this position, please submit (1) a cover letter describing your research goals and training, including why your background and interests are a good match for the position, (2) Curriculum Vitae, (3) one writing sample, (4) three letters of reference to crownhr@crownschool.uchicago.edu.
We strongly encourage early application, and review will begin on 5/1/2023 though review will continue until the position is filled. Applicants are also encouraged to reach out to Dr. Ming-Te Wang, at mtwang@uchicago.edu, to discuss the fellowship and their qualifications prior to applying.