King's College London

About us 

The Department of War Studies is one of the only academic departments in the world focused on understanding the complex realm of conflict, security, and international politics through inter-disciplinary teaching, research and engagement. We have a large and diverse faculty, with varied theoretical and methodological expertise in areas including, but not limited to, conflict resolution, contemporary and historical warfare, gender, international relations, migration and borders, security studies, strategic studies, technology and violence. 

The Department is located within the School of Security Studies and the Faculty of Social Science & Public Policy. Together, we are committed to embedding good diversity and inclusion practice into all of our activities. We are committed to encouraging further growth in our diversity, and we look forward to welcoming applicants of all abilities and backgrounds, whom we are able to support with our flexible varied working practices. Overall, King’s values the diversity of its staff and student body and recognises that this is both a strength and a defining feature of King’s as a London university in a global context.

At King’s, we believe that the diversity of our community and a culture that is welcoming, open, inclusive and collaborative, are great strengths of the university.

The Equality Act of 2010 protects the rights of our students and staff and provides a framework to fulfil our duties to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and in addition, to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between those who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. At times, this will include balancing rights and beliefs that can feel in tension.

We are committed to free speech and to academic freedom, believing that our foundational purpose as a university, is to create spaces where a wide range of ideas, including ideas that are controversial, can be discussed and debated, and where members of our community can express lawful views without fear of intimidation, harassment, or discrimination.

When engaging in the robust exchange of ideas, we ask that our community is mindful of our Dignity at King’s guidance

About the role 

The Department of War Studies seeks to appoint a Lecturer in Contemporary Asian Security (Education). The successful candidate will have an emerging track record in research dissemination and a clear research agenda. They will also be responsible for delivering high-quality, innovative and effective undergraduate and postgraduate teaching in the contemporary politics and security of Asia, with a particular focus on China.

The successful candidate will be expected to contribute to teaching, supervision and student support across a range of BA and MA programmes and modules, for example, our BA and MA modules on U.S.-China relations, BA module on contemporary strategy in East Asia, and MA module on East Asian security. They will also be expected to contribute to leadership in teaching through module convening and/or design. The successful candidate will work with students from a wide range of backgrounds and will be responsible for enabling student success.

The postholder will also engage in reflective practice and scholarship related to education in their disciplinary field, publish in peer-reviewed journals, engage with internal and external discussion and dissemination of teaching innovations and initiatives, and seek internal and external funding. They will be expected to participate in relevant professional associations and networks and engage in public outreach, to play a role in the institutional and intellectual development of War Studies, and to undertake Departmental, School, Faculty and University administrative duties as required.

This post is a five-year, fixed-term academic contract on the Academic Education Pathway (AEP). The AEP is designed to ensure the recognition, reward and opportunities for advancement for exceptional educators. Successful candidates will be expected to obtain membership of the Higher Education Academy. Around 80% of the successful candidate’s time will be dedicated to teaching, supervision, student support, educational leadership and innovation, and administration. The remaining 20% of the time will be dedicated to scholarship. The exact content of the workload will be decided in discussion with the Head of Department.

This is a full time post (35 hours per week), and you will be offered an a fixed term contract until 31 August 2031.

About you

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

Essential criteria

1. PhD awarded in War/Conflict/Security Studies, International Relations or a related field, with expertise related to the contemporary foreign and security policies of Asian countries, with a particular focus on China.
2. Ability to deliver innovative and effective teaching to undergraduate and/or postgraduate students in the area of contemporary Asian security as well as to contribute to the broader teaching in the department.
3. Publication and dissemination of education or discipline-related scholarship in peer-reviewed journals and/or conferences.
4. Evidence of contribution to community building within a higher education setting.
5. Excellent communication and presentation skills.

Desirable criteria

1. Experience supervising UG/PGT dissertations.
2. Experience of PhD supervision.
3. Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (HEA) or on-track to receive fellowship in the next 1-2 years.
4. A track record of wider administrative contribution to the delivery of departmental activities.
5. Emerging track record of dissemination of teaching innovations and engagement with external bodies.

Full details of the role and the skills and experience required, can be found in the attached job description which provided on the next page.

Further information

We pride ourselves on being inclusive and welcoming. We embrace diversity and want everyone to feel that they belong and are connected to others in our community.

We are committed to working with our staff and unions on these and other issues, to continue to support our people and to develop a diverse and inclusive culture at King's.

We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the advert. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible.

To find out how our managers review your application, please take a look at our ‘How we Recruit’ pages.