Research Associate

Select how often (in days) to receive an alert: Create Alert Full-time/Part-time: Part Time (>910 hrs/year) Campus: Waterloo Reports to: Professor Audra Mitchell Employee Group: Other Application Deadline: 09/17/2026 Requisition ID: 11658 Wilfrid Laurier University is a leading multi-campus university that excels at educating with purpose. Through its exceptional employees, students, researchers, leaders, and educators, Laurier has built a reputation as a world-class institution known for its rich student experience, academic excellence, and global impact. With a commitment to Indigenization and commitment to equity, diversity, inclusion , Laurier’s thriving community has a place for everyone. Laurier has more than 21,000 students and 2,100 faculty and staff across campuses in Waterloo and Brantford, as well locations in Kitchener and Milton. The university is committed to providing an inclusive workplace, a flexible work policy and employing a workforce that is reflective of local and national demographics. Laurier's Waterloo, Kitchener, and Brantford campuses are located on the shared traditional territory of the Neutral, Anishnaabe, and Haudenosaunee peoples. This land is part of the Dish with One Spoon Treaty between the Haudenosaunee and Anishnaabe peoples and symbolizes the agreement to share, protect our resources, and not to engage in conflict. Laurier's Milton campus is located on the traditional territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit, and part of the Nanfan Treaty of 1701 between the British Crown and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. This job posting is for a current vacancy. Position Summary We are hiring a research assistant/associate for the SSHRC Insight Development Grant-funded project“Confronting Contemporary Eugenics: Resistance and Redefinition”led by Dr. Audra Mitchell (Laurier) and Dr. Kelly Fritsch (Carleton). This position is suitable for early career scholars (advanced doctoral or recent post-doctoral)with significant experience ofqualitative research techniques and ethics, in fields such as: science and technology studies (STS); critical disability studies; sociology and anthropology; human geography; social movement studies; gender, sexuality, and trans studies; Indigenous studies; Black studies; and related fields. This interdisciplinary project examines transformations not only in the tools and techniques of eugenics in contemporary Canada and the USA, but also the ways that communities targeted by these processes are redefining and critically deploying concepts of (anti-)eugenics. These groups and movements include but are not limited to Black, Indigenous, People of Colour, disabled (including d/Deaf, Mad and neurodivergent) and 2SLGBTQIA+ communities, incarcerated people and other marginalized groups. Specifically, these communities are mobilizing the language and conceptual frameworks of ‘eugenics’ in ways that explicitly highlight structural,systemic,and eliminative forms of violence. They are re-framing definitions of eugenics that are limited to direct biological interventions, highlighting instead a wide range of processes, norms and interventions that erode the social, cultural and community integrity of targeted groups. Rejecting paradigmatic narratives thatcasteugenics asrelatively rare, episodic and epiphenomenal tostateand society,these communities are redefining eugenics as a foundational, systemic,ongoingand constantly transformingfeature of contemporary polities,including the settler colonial states of Canada and the USA. The project will involve anexploratory scoping and knowledge synthesis reviewof the multi-disciplinary and multi-media sources of this knowledge (including academic work, social media, the arts, and social movement communications). It will also involve aseries of interviews with key informantsfrom academic and community-based networks; and an online speaker series of public talks featuring scholars and community-based knowledge-makers. Its aims are to map out major discursive formations surrounding changes concepts of eugenics and to track patterns of change in how this framework is being used and transformed by those it affects most intensely. The successful candidate will be responsible for
- carrying out ascoping/knowledge synthesisreview
- planning and undertaking a series of key informantinterviews
- developing theREB applicationand implementing its terms
- supporting the planning and execution of thespeaker series
- knowledge mobilization(e.g. co-writing with the PIs, presenting findings at conferences). The successful candidate will work closely with both Mitchell and Fritsch, and will receive support and training in all of the tasks listed above. It is anticipated that the successful applicant will have the opportunity to present at one or two national or international conferences and co-author project outputs. Accountabilities
- Designing and undertaking a scoping/knowledge synthesis review of multi-disciplinary a