Director, Research and Learning

Position description

Scholars at Risk is seeking a highly-organized, proactive and detail-oriented researcher/educator and team leader to lead SAR’s research and learning activities. The Director will play a key role within the SAR’s leadership team by building out a new project focused on responding to recent threats to higher education in the US and abroad. The project will focus on producing reports, models, and guidance address recurring patterns of threats to higher education, as seen throughout SAR’s twenty-five years working with thousands of at-risk scholars from over 100 countries. The project will aim specifically to “move the needle” with activities that go beyond one-offs with single groups or campuses to those that can be widely disseminated and scaled, domestically and internationally. This means grounding activities in international, universal standards supporting academic freedom and related values. It requires reaching higher education leaders and administrators who make decisions on institutional policy and connecting them with their international peers. It also means reaching wider audiences including faculty, students, policymakers, media, and the public to demonstrate the connection between higher education, knowledge production, and the greater public good. Working with SAR’s membership, protection, and advocacy teams, the project will bridge domestic academic freedom activities and discourse with the conversation, networks, and experience in SAR’s global network through a combination of activities focused on (i) mobilization and convenings (including drawing on SAR’s global network to inform responses to threats on US-based scholars and institutions), (ii) thought leadership, and (iii) experience-sharing (including reports, training materials, models, case examples, and research developed collaboratively with partners and project participants through workshops, working groups, and fellowships).

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES & DUTIES:

Research and project leadership

• Primary responsibility for conceptualizing and producing project reports, including reports on (1) student expression/protest on campus, (2) institutional autonomy/neutrality, and other such reports as may be warranted.
• Primary responsibility for conceptualizing and developing assessment tools to help advance academic freedom protection in practice, designed for maximum scalability and impact. These include a rubric identifying key structural elements that should be in place if academic freedom is to be protected and fully enjoyed, and complementary audit tools that can be used to assess the extent to which the elements of the rubric have been implemented in specific contexts.
• Develop such other reports, models, case examples, and guidance instruments as may be appropriate to meet project and SAR goals and objectives.
• Building on SAR’s past success with convening domestic and international working groups, lead in convening expert working groups to participate in the researching, drafting, editing, and deployment of the above reports, related materials, and assessments, drawing from faculty at network member institutions, advocacy partners, and members of SAR-affiliated regional academic freedom coalitions.
• Lead the development of project activities, including conceptualizing strategies and outputs, recruiting partners and contributions, and delivery and dissemination aimed at maximizing impacts.
• Coordinate communication across all SAR teams and invite inputs on the project and specific activities.
• Cultivate opportunities for participation by faculty at network member institutions, advocacy partners, coalition partners, or others in project activities and dissemination of outputs.
• Supervise researchers, offering direction, feedback, and guidance toward project goals and staff development.
• Report to SAR leadership on progress toward project goals, obstacles, and strategies for overcoming them. Prepare reporting on updates on project activities for SAR leadership, the SAR board, funders, and prospective funders.

Education, training, and public-facing presentation and communications for project impact

• Develop and deliver trainings, workshops, webinars and other outreach efforts aimed at widely disseminating project outputs, with an emphasis on scalability and maximizing impacts.
• Increase the visibility of the project and SAR through conferences, webinars, social media, press outreach, e-blasts, mailings, website updates, audio/video outputs (e.g., podcasts), and additional communications-related activities, as warranted.

Project-related and general SAR administration and operations

• Develop appropriate data tracking systems to demonstrate project reach and impacts.
• Develop appropriate team member goals and performance metrics, consistent with SAR-wide practices and SAR strategic plan goals.
• Lead and/or contribute to project or SAR-wide administration and operations as required.

Qualifications

• Graduate degree in a related field, or extensive comparable experience required
• 5+ years of related work experience in a non-profit or higher education setting or a combination of related education/experience
• Exceptional communication skills and proven proficiency in public speaking and presentations
• Skilled in team leadership and management while navigating competing interests and priorities
• Experienced in project and event management with a demonstrated solution-focused mindset
• Demonstrated ability to synthesize and distill complex information for general audiences; excellent research, writing, and editorial skills
• Strong attention to detail and organizational and multitasking abilities
• Demonstrated commitment to human rights and/or international education
• Fluency in an additional language preferred, Spanish and/or French desirable

Application instructions

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