Call for post-doctoral scholarships NEV-CEPID/FAPESP Program

9 de November de 2023

The Center for the Study of Violence of the University of São Paulo (NEV-USP) announces the selection process for postdoctoral positions on the Research Program “Building Democracy Daily: Human Rights, Violence and Institutional Trust”, sponsored by the Research Support Foundation of the State of São Paulo (CEPID-FAPESP). The vacancy will be open to Brazilian and foreign candidates until November 30th, 2023; the scholarship will last one (1) year, scheduled to start in 2024.

Should be directly related to the program and in dialogue with the literature employed and data produced. Only one proposal per candidate will be accepted, which should indicate a research topic between the eight ones listed below. The content of each of these topics, which must be considered in the proposals, is attached to this call. For all topics, we stimulate proposals that consider gender and race inequalities.

Leia isto em Português

 

SELECTION

Candidates will be selected in two phases. The first phase will consist of an evaluation of the candidate’s CV, the publications, and the research proposal. This first phase is eliminatory. The second phase will consist of an interview (by videoconference) with the Selection Committee. The list of candidates selected for the second phase and the schedule of interviews will be posted on the NEV-USP website.

 

Call for Post-doctoral scholarships Document:

 

CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF VIOLENCE (NEV) | CEPID – FAPESP

 CALL – POST-DOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP  2023

 

The Center for the Study of Violence (NEV-USP) at the University of São Paulo announces the call for post-doctoral fellowships in the Institutional Research Program “Building Democracy Daily: Human Rights, Violence, and Institutional Trust,” supported by the São Paulo Research Foundation (CEPID-FAPESP). The vacancies will be open to Brazilian and foreign researchers and the fellowships will last for one year, and are planned to begin in March, 2024. Depending on the Center’s needs and on the deliberation of the Selection Committee, up to seven proposals can be approved.

 

The Center for the Study of Violence at the University of São Paulo (NEV-USP)

NEV-USP was created in 1987 as part of the context of Brazil’s return to democracy. Since its foundation, NEV has analyzed various aspects of the complex relationships between persistent violence and violations of human rights during the process of re-democratization. Topics studied by NEV include state violence, human rights, public security policies, criminal justice, exposure to violence, attitudes regarding human rights and rule of law, and the quality of democracy in Brazil.

 

The “Building Democracy Daily: Human Rights, Violence, and Institutional Trust” Program

The Program focuses on how laws, rules and procedures are implemented over time and how this relates to the legitimacy of key institutions for democracy. The proposal is to analyze how this legitimacy is built daily through contacts between citizens and authorities, and their implications for human rights and violence. The program also involves education, knowledge transfer and dissemination projects.

The proposals applied to this call should be directly related to the program and in dialogue with the literature employed and data produced. The candidates can access the reports from the first ten years of the research and other relevant material at the following link:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1KoCQMXUMAgJhKTmihcRgHMPdYnJwRCDj?usp=sharing

Published articles with results from the NEV’s researchers can also be found at NEV-USP’s website: https://nev.prp.usp.br/publicacoes/

Only one proposal per candidate will be accepted, which should indicate a research topic between the eight ones listed below. The content of each of these topics, which must be considered in the proposals, is attached to this call. For all topics, we stimulate proposals that consider gender and race inequalities.

 

Thematic

  1. Legitimacy from the perspective of citizens
  2. Self-legitimacy and authority relations in police organizations and the judiciary
  3. Legal Socialization
  4. Juvenile Justice
  5. Cities, organized crime and prisons
  6. Socially implanted authoritarianism
  7. Public opinion, democratic political culture and legitimacy
  8. Human Rights Observatory in Schools Project (PODHE)

 

Requirements for candidates

  1. Doctoral degree or equivalent (PhD), obtained in the last seven years, with experience in quantitative or qualitative methodologies, depending on the specificities of each research topic;
  2. Advanced level in English;
  3. Academic publications in the last five years, especially in peer-reviewed journals;
  4. Full-time dedication to the research (except under conditions determined in FAPESP resolution PR N. 13/2009, of July 15, 2009);
  5. Availability to work in person at the NEV-USP headquarters in São Paulo;
  6. Not receive another fellowship, salary, or payment of any sort from other institutions (excepting conditions established by FAPESP resolution PR No. 13/2009, of July 15, 2009).

 

Application Documents

  1. Lattes CV (www.lattes.cnpq.br) or Curriculum Vitae, if a foreigner;
  2. MyResearcherID and/or MyCitation (Google Scholar);
  3. Research proposal containing: i. Summary; ii. Introduction and Justification; iii. Research Questions; iv. Methodology; v. Work Plan and Schedule
  4. Copy of two prominent publications (articles, books or book chapters);

 

The proposals might be written in Portuguese, English or Spanish and are limited to 7 pages.

 

Contact and application deadline

To apply, candidates should send the documents by email (nevselecao@gmail.com) with the subject heading “NEV-PD 2023” between November 06 and November 30, 2023 (23h59 BRT). Questions about the selection process can be sent to nevselecao@gmail.com. Incomplete applications will not be accepted and it is the candidate’s exclusive responsibility to verify them.

 

Selection process

Candidates will be selected in two phases. The first phase will consist of an evaluation of the candidate’s CV, the publications, and the research proposal. This first phase is eliminatory. The second phase will consist of an interview (by videoconference) with the Selection Committee. The list of candidates selected for the second phase and the schedule of interviews will be posted on the NEV-USP website.

 

The postdoctoral program

The FAPESP Postdoctoral fellowship includes monthly remuneration, currently in the amount of 9,047.40 BRL (approximately US$1,850.00), and Research Contingency Funds equal to 10% of the annual value of the grant. The use of the Research Contingency Funds is regulated by FAPESP. For more information access http://www.fapesp.br/en/postdoc.

The fellowship also includes financial support for researchers who need to move to São Paulo. If necessary, this support may be required at the end of the selection process. For more details on the postdoctoral fellowship, visit: www.fapesp.br/bolsas/pd.

 

ATTACHMENT: CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF VIOLENCE CEPID – FAPESP

 CALL – POST-DOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP 2023

 Themes

 

  1. Legitimacy from the perspective of citizens

 

This research focuses on the legitimacy of key democratic institutions and authorities (such as laws, justice, and police) from the perspective of citizens living in the city of São Paulo. Empirically, we seek to answer the question: What are the predictors and consequences of the recognition of legitimacy? What is the importance of contact between citizens and authorities for the development and maintenance of this legitimacy? What is the impact of elements such as fear, victimization and perceived misconduct of the authorities for legitimacy? Does legitimacy vary according to social, urban and demographic characteristics? This research theme has used quantitative methodology to answer its questions. In the last four years, we collected five sets of data, which included two cross-sectional surveys carried out with representative samples of the residents of the city of São Paulo (n = 1806) and three waves of a longitudinal panel (2015, 2017 and 2018) carried out in 8 districts of the city of São Paulo (1st wave, n = 1200). The questionnaire addresses neighborhood and public services, social capital, interpersonal trust, fear and attitudes towards violence, obedience to laws, victimization, perceptions and contact with the police and courts, and trust in democracy.

 

  1. Self-legitimacy and authority relations in police organizations and the judiciary

 

This research is dedicated to investigating what the literature calls the “self-legitimacy” of public servants, i.e. the belief that these actors have the right to exercise authority over the population. The institutions directly responsible for enforcing the law are investigated: the police and the judiciary. I) The research on the police is composed of a survey carried out with civil and military police officers working on different districts of the city of São Paulo and qualitative interviews with military police officers, exploring similarities and differences between the two police forces, authority relations within the organizations, the confidence of their officers in their authority and perceptions of contact with the public. II) The research on the judiciary involved three stages: i. qualitative interviews with judges from different areas of law to explore the perspective of these actors on their legitimacy, on contact with the public and authority relations within the judiciary; ii. observation of custody hearings to analyze the exercise of judicial authority in interactions with legal operators and the population; iii. analysis of documents and information on the forms of control over the conduct of judges in order to understand how authority relations occur within the São Paulo judiciary.

 

  1. Legal Socialization

 

This line of research aims to understand the characteristics, tendencies and processes that lead children and adolescents to subjectively assimilate and obey laws and legal and non-legal authorities (police, parents and teachers) as they move towards adulthood. It considers childhood and adolescence essential in constructing social and political order and obedience. It explores how links are built between children and adolescents and the institutions responsible for promoting justice, security and recognition of the rights enshrined in democratic societies. Four waves (2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019) of a longitudinal panel were conducted with students from public and private schools in the city of São Paulo, born in 2005. It is a survey with questions on the legitimacy of authorities, experiences of victimization at home, at school and exposure to violence in the neighborhood, rule-breaking behavior; interpersonal trust; contact with the police; perception of laws.

 

  1. Juvenile Justice

 

This line of research develops theoretical and empirical studies to understand the legal provisions, justice apparatuses and institutions designed for children and young people. It seeks to address how adolescents who have committed offenses have been treated and how the juvenile justice and socio-educational systems work. The study involves quantifying and analyzing the types of measures adopted by the judiciary for the detention of children and adolescents, both for reasons of abandonment and as a result of comitting  an offense. It also explores contemporary trends in the control of adolescent offenders, considering the rise and fall in the number of young people serving socio-educational measures.

 

 

  1. Public opinion, democratic political culture and legitimacy

 

This line explores the role of what has come to be called public opinion in the stability of social and political life in democratic societies. It also focuses on the relationship between public opinion and legitimacy in democratic societies. In addition to studying the classic mechanisms of public opinion formation, its empirical interest lies in examining the role of new technologies, such as social networks and media, in transmitting knowledge, circulating ideas, and public debates. This study is developed through the mapping of social media, case studies and discourse analysis.

 

 

  1. Cities, organized crime and prisons

 

This research seeks to analyze how prisons and the control of so-called ‘organized crime’ affect people’s perceptions of urban space, the institutions of social control and the legitimacy of their agents. It seeks to interrelate urban spaces, illegal markets, public security policies, criminal justice institutions and the prison system with elements that make up perceptions of territories, the law, social order and their institutional dimensions.

 

 

  1. Socially Implanted Authoritarianism

 

The concept of Socially Implanted Authoritarianism has been employed in NEV’s research as a tool of interpretation to explain the continuity of extreme Human Rights violations in Brazil, even after the return to democracy. Unfolding in different research agendas on the continuity of authoritarianism, not only in the Brazilian political system but also in the perceptions, practices and institutions, especially in the realm of criminal justice, juvenile justice and public security, this notion encompasses the historical and social dimensions of the rooting and updating of authoritarian practices in the realm of political culture and everyday life.

 

  1. Human Rights Observatory in Schools Project (PODHE)

 

The Human Rights Observatory in Schools Project (PODHE) is a human rights education initiative by CEPID NEV-USP that works in public schools in the municipality of São Paulo and aims to offer adolescents and young people training and experience in human rights based on the construction of a collaborative space for monitoring human rights. The work is carried out through workshops with students on topics such as human rights, bullying, ancestry, gender equality, ethnic-racial diversity and mental health. PODHE also involves researchers who contribute to the project by producing quantitative and qualitative studies based on evaluations of the project and specific themes derived from it, such as racial, gender and class issues, participatory methodologies and interculturality.

 

Leia isto em Português