Postdoctoral Fellowship - Pockets of Effectiveness Diffusion of Organizational Capacity

Postdoctoral Fellowship - Pockets of Effectiveness and the Diffusion of Organizational Capacity

The Department of Sociology at the University of Notre Dame, with the support of the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, invites applications for a one-year Postdoctoral Fellowship to join a research project on the spread of organizational effectiveness within low-income states. The project is led by Dr. Erin Metz McDonnell and asks whether, how, and under what conditions effective bureaucratic practices from "pockets of effectiveness"—government units that perform well despite institutionally challenging environments—can be successfully implemented elsewhere in the state.

The project design combines a comparative qualitative case analysis of six regional commercial courts in Ghana with a quantitative study of the spread of ADR across the broader Ghanaian court system. Beyond the already-collected Ghanaian qualitative data, the project will include an international field experiment and an extended set of international comparative cases tracking what happened after initial success — whether pockets of effectiveness spread their practices, maintained their niche, or organizational performance declined.

The Fellow will collaborate closely with Dr. McDonnell on data analysis, literature development, and the preparation of scholarly articles, with the expectation of co-authorship on articles where the Fellow has made substantive contributions. The project also supports Dr. McDonnell's in-progress solo-authored book, and the Fellow will have opportunities to contribute to that work through analytic support, literature synthesis, and editorial feedback.

Beyond the core project, the Fellow will be encouraged to develop independent research questions that extend the project's theoretical framework and to present findings at national conferences. If the candidate has established connections in a country with a case that would be suitable for development as a comparative case for the project, some fieldwork funding may be possible.

This position is based at the University of Notre Dame, and all project work can be conducted from South Bend using data already collected or currently being collected by the PI. No fieldwork in Ghana is required. The project is methodologically flexible: candidates with strengths in qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods are all encouraged to apply, and the specific balance of responsibilities will be shaped in part by the Fellow's own training and interests.

The Fellow will benefit from the interdisciplinary intellectual community at Notre Dame, including the Kellogg Institute for International Studies—which brings together scholars of states, development, and governance across sociology, political science, economics, and law—and the Sociology Department's strengths in political, organizational, and development sociology, with a growing cluster of scholars working in the Global South.

This is an in-person postdoctoral position based at the University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Indiana. The appointment is for a one-year term beginning July 1, 2026, with the option of a June start date if preferred by the candidate. The position opens on April 20, 2026, with rolling review of applications until the position is filled. The salary is $70,000, and the appointment includes a comprehensive benefits package with health insurance and access to university resources.

Applicants must have a PhD in sociology or a related field (political science, public policy, development studies, organizational studies, or similar) by the time of the position start. We are looking for an intellectually curious researcher with strong analytic, writing, and time management skills, the ability to juggle multiple work streams independently, a genuine interest in organizational and political sociology, and comfort moving between theoretical development and empirical analysis.

Particularly welcome skills and experiences include:

• Training in qualitative methods, including qualitative comparative analysis
• Training in quantitative methods, including panel data. GIS spatial analysis would be a plus.
• Experience…