Job Description

Applications are invited for a three-year 20% FTE Archivist Research Officer (Postgraduate) to work on a new, exciting research project, \'Free Clinics and a Psychoanalysis for the People: Progressive Histories, Collective Practices, Implications for our Times\' (FREEPSY), funded by a UKRI Frontier Research Grant (ERC Consolidator Grant guarantee), held by Prof Raluca Soreanu, PI.

The project brings together a team of eight researchers across four strands. It aims to produce a new global figuration of psychoanalysis as a progressive discourse and practice, by tracing the little-known histories of free psychoanalytic clinics. This is an interdisciplinary project spanning from psychosocial studies to social theory, historical research, and arts methods. It investigates how collectives of clinicians invested in the social mission of psychoanalysis innovate in the clinical and institutional domain, and in mental health cultures, by reconfiguring the meaning of time, space, money, suffering and their interrelations. FREEPSY includes a multi-sited psychosocial ethnography and archival research of free clinics in London, Budapest, Berlin, Vienna, Rio de Janeiro, Sa\xcc\x83o Paulo, Buenos Aires, New York and Philadelphia.

Appointment to this post will be made as Research Officer and will be referred to by this title throughout the attached job description.

Duties of the Role

The post will be primarily held in the Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies, University of Essex. The Postgraduate Archivist Research Officer will have a key role in the construction of The Free Clinics Archive. They will contribute to the conception and preparation of exhibitions and other archive-material centred events and activities of this multi-strand project. They will take an active role in networking and out-facing activities for the project. They will be an integral part of the research team, and they will collaborate with the PI, two postdoctoral fellows, a PhD researcher and the communication and events officer. The successful applicant will be able to contribute to delivering the research objectives of FREEPSY.

A full list of duties and responsibilities can be found in the job pack.

Qualifications and Skills required

Applicants will possess an MA in archival studies OR the management of the cultural sector and excellent research skills. The successful applicant will also have experience with working with psychoanalytic archives. You will also have knowledge of all aspects of constructing and maintaining an archive. Applications will be considered from candidates with an understanding archival research in health and social contexts. Language skills in German constitute an advantage.

This post is fixed-term, part-time (7.2 hours per week) until 15 October 2026.

At the University of Essex, internationalism and diversity is central to who we are and what we do. We are committed to being a cosmopolitan, internationally oriented university that is welcoming to staff and students from all countries, faiths and backgrounds, where you can find the world in one place.

Please use the \'Apply\' button to read further information about this role including the full job description and person specification which outlines the full duties, skills, qualifications and experience needed for this role. You will also find details of how to make your application here. Our website contains more information about the University of Essex. If you have a disability and would like information in a different format, please email .

\xc2\xa333,966 to \xc2\xa337,099 per annum, pro-rata

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