Postdoctoral Fellow Position in the Social Study of Epigenetics and Transgenerational Inheritance

The Institute for Society and Genetics (ISG) at the University of California at Los Angeles, invites applications for a postdoctoral fellow position beginning September 1, 2017. The Institute for Society and Genetics, housed in the Division of Life Sciences at UCLA, is an interdisciplinary research and teaching unit focused on issues at the intersection of biology and society. The successful candidate will work with Drs. Patrick Allard, Amander Clark, and Hannah Landecker on the social and historical analysis of transgenerational epigenetics. Review of applications will start July 15th and continue until the position is filled.
The position is part of a John Templeton Foundation funded award entitled “A chance to equality in health: Is people’s health determined by ancestral environmental exposures?”. The aim of the grant is to study how environmental exposures become embedded into germ-line epimutations, and the transgenerational impact of these exposures. The postdoctoral fellow will actively participate in generating systematic literature reviews and historical analysis on the topic of transgenerational inheritance and epimutations, attend meetings of the participating laboratories, conduct interviews and narrative analysis of collected data, write up results and findings with the project PIs. Additionally, the fellow may assist in the organization of a workshop on these issues.

Applicants with relevant training and research interests in a wide range of fields, including sociology, science studies, life sciences, philosophy, history or anthropology are invited to apply. This project is a collaboration between life and social scientists, and therefore the ideal candidate will be comfortable working across different disciplinary domains, and possess a basic understanding of both social science methodologies and the relevant biological science. 
Applicants must have completed all Ph.D. requirements by August 2017, or have received their degree in the last five years. Certification of completion of Ph.D. degree requirements must be in hand at the time of the appointment start. This is a one-year appointment renewable for up to three years pending positive review. The pay scale follows NIH guidelines. Applicants are requested to submit a letter of application, which includes an explanation of the candidate’s research experience and interest in the topic, a curriculum vitae, and the names and contact of three references.