Junior Research Fellowship in Religion and the Frontier Challenges Programme

Pembroke College wishes to appoint a Junior Research Fellow to the ‘Religion and Frontier Challenges’ research programme. Junior Research Fellowships are full-time fellowships offered to early career researchers who have recently completed or are about to complete a doctorate before taking up the post. They provide an unrivalled opportunity to establish a research profile as a member of a collegiate community. One Junior Research Fellow will be elected with effect from October 2025 or as soon as possible thereafter for two years. 

‘Religion and the Frontier Challenges’ is an ambitious academic fellowship programme, sitting at the intersection of Theology and other academic disciplines. The programme will support projects which ask how religious traditions and ideas might provide/are providing knowledge & leadership in facing the major contemporary challenges confronting humanity. The programme will chiefly support projects focused upon Christian traditions, but is also open to projects which apply the concept of religion more broadly.

The programme is inspired by the need for religion to provide creative intellectual and practical responses to the major ‘frontier challenges’ of our age. These frontier challenges include: 

• those presented by contemporary ideologies and epistemologies (e.g. secularism, liberalism, atheism, populist & post-truth politics), as well as changes in access to or dissemination of knowledge (e.g. new communications, media, or AI). We particularly welcome project proposals which relate to any of these themes. 
• those incurred by modern technologies & medical, biological and other sciences, as well as the challenges of sustainability and environmental responsibility.
• those concerning social injustices such as inequality, discrimination & marginalisation in human societies. 

The programme seeks to employ fellows of the highest academic reputation, with clear plans to develop their role as future leaders in their fields and to lead projects with a dimension of outreach and/or commitment to the betterment of society. 

Duties & Responsibilities

The successful candidates will be expected to:

• propose, plan and conduct a high-quality programme of original academic research in a chosen project that investigates the responses & contributions of contemporary religion to meeting the major intellectual, moral, social and scientific challenges of the contemporary world. 
• build their profile as research leaders in their fields; for example, by developing academic collaborations and communicating their research as widely as possible through the presentation of papers, publications & other applications.
• develop research projects with a clear dimension of outreach, societal engagement and/or public benefit. 
• play an active role as part of the wider college community and build wider networks among the community of scholars & students working in cognate subject areas across the university. 
• engage in a limited level of teaching & networking activities on behalf of the Religion and the Frontier Challenges programme: for instance, building connections with other scholars, participating in Theology-based outreach and education programmes, and reporting on research activities. Holders of this post will also be supported in taking on a limited level of other responsibilities (e.g. tutoring) in line with their career development strategy.

Interviews are planned to be held in early-mid-March and will be held online. 

Informal enquiries may be addressed to the programme co-ordinator:

Professor Justin Jones (justin.jones@pmb.ox.ac.uk).

The annual stipend is £38,700. Benefits include a research allowance of £1,711 per annum (at the discretion of the college), a shared office space and all lunches & dinners when the college kitchens are open.

Type / Role:

Subject Area(s):

Location(s):