University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work Postdoc

The University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work

Postdoctoral Fellowship Program

The University of Pittsburgh, School of Social Work and Center on Race and Social Problems is offering one postdoctoral fellowship to begin in September 2010.

The Postdoctoral Fellowship is for one year and is renewable for an additional year. The Fellow will be working under the mentorship of Dr. John Wallace, the Philip Hallen Professor of Community Health and Social Justice on the Comm-Univer-City of Pittsburgh Project. The annual compensation will be $45,000 plus benefits, attendance for one academic conference per year, and a one-time reimbursement of up to $1,500 for moving expenses.

Project Background:

The Comm-Univer-City of Pittsburgh is an integrated program of research, teaching and service designed to investigate and ameliorate social problems that disproportionately impact economically disadvantaged children, families, and communities.
The Fellow will work in collaboration with researchers, students, community residents, leaders of faith- and community-based organizations, city and local government and funders, to implement and evaluate the Homewood Children’s Village—a comprehensive community-based participatory demonstration project whose mission is, “to simultaneously improve the lives of Homewood’s children and to reweave the fabric of the community in which they live.”  The HCV is modeled after Geoffrey Canada’s internationally acclaimed Harlem Children’s Zone project.
The fellow will work with the faculty mentor, community members and other key collaborators to examine a wide variety of individual- and contextual-level data, and where appropriate, to collect and analyze primary data on the educational, social, mental and physical health and well-being children, youth and families and the community.

Eligibility

We invite applications from qualified candidates in social work, public health, sociology, education, anthropology, psychology or other related social science discipline, who have received their PhD from outside the University of Pittsburgh (preferred).  Applicants must have completed their PhD after 2005 and before August 15, 2010.  Applicants who do not have the PhD in hand at the time of application must provide a letter from the department chair or the advisor stating that the PhD degree will be conferred before the term of the fellowship begins.
The candidate should a strong research background (especially in community-based participatory research), training in quantitative and qualitative methods, the ability to work independently and as part of a collaborative team, experience working in low income communities of color and a track record of publication in peer-reviewed journals. Experience using GIS, hierarchical linear modeling and other advanced statistical methods is also desirable.

Application Deadline

Applicants should submit a writing sample (preferably a first- or solo-authored peer-reviewed journal article), a current CV, three confidential letters of recommendation from faculty members with whom you have worked and a 3-5 page personal statement that describes your past research experience, your research goals for the post-doc and your future research plans.  Completed application materials should be mailed to John Wallace, University of Pittsburgh, School of Social Work, 2117 Cathedral of Learning, Pittsburgh PA, 15260 by July 15, 2010.   Please call at Megan Soltesz at (412) 624-6343 with any questions.
The University of Pittsburgh is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer and educator. Women, minorities, and international candidates are especially encouraged to apply