Doctoral/postdoctoral fellowship on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

European Friends of Armenia (EuFoA) is a young NGO which seeks to build bridges between Europe and Armenia. Goals include encouraging people to people contacts between key members of civil society, raising public awareness of Europe in Armenia, as well as raising awareness of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh in Europe. For a truly exclusive research placement, we are now seeking a highly motivated European PhD student or young post-doc researcher to be granted our first Karabakh Research Fellowship in Stepanakert (Nagorno-Karabakh).

Goal of the Fellowship

There is comparatively little knowledge and academic research about the situation today in Nagorno-Karabakh (NK) and the conflict, the most precarious of the so-called frozen conflicts in the post-Soviet space. The Karabakh Research Fellowship seeks to tackle this gap by offering a unique opportunity to get first-hand knowledge about the NK conflict and conduct research on the ground. The goal is not to add purely theoretical contributions to the academic research on NK. The Fellow will be offered a 12-months EuFoA-funded grant, with possible prolongations. The Fellow will receive access to EuFoA's network to conduct research and further his/her expertise on NK, thus enabling the Fellow to acquire unique knowledge and use this for their research project.

Key responsibilities:

- Become involved with local actors and sources to allow for tangible contributions to this research field

- Publish articles on a regular basis about NK and the conflict

- Research for and publish one comprehensive related thesis. This can be your PHD or (for post-doc) a book.

Skills and qualities required:

- PhD student or post-doc researcher in a relevant field in a university, think tank or similar organisation based in the EU

- Interest in and knowledge of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and relevant security issues in the South Caucasus

- Demonstrated interest in publishing or publishing experience will be considered an asset

Language skills:

- native English speaker or near native fluency with good analytical and drafting skills

- knowledge of Armenian or Russian, or any European language, will be considered an asset

- Candidates should be well-organised, self-motivated and reliable. They should be able to work on their own initiative and to conduct their research independently

- Candidates need to present their thesis/book project on up to three pages for this application, naming the suggested title, research gap to be filled, why/how this Fellowship in NK can make a difference, and a short timeline with key milestones until the publication

- Computer skills (Microsoft Office, Internet applications) are required. A driving license will be an asset.