Research Associate - International Consultancy

The Research Associate will contribute to the Camp Origins Project by conducting archival research into the establishment of Palestine refugee camps, preparing archival material for legal clearance, applying approved redactions, and producing accurate, evidence-based written accounts for institutional and external use.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute search strategies across the Agency’s digitized archive for each camp, using historical name variants, transliterations, localities, and field office designations.
• Retrieve and compile relevant archival material on camp establishment, including site and land agreements, camp plans, population records, health and sanitation surveys, education records, field office reports, and correspondence.
• Maintain complete search logs, including nil returns, and document search decisions and working methods.
• Assess relevance and distinguish records on camp establishment from later operational material, supplementing keyword searches with direct review where OCR or scan quality is limited.
• Draft concise narrative profiles for each camp, ensuring all factual statements are traceable to cleared and cited sources and that evidential gaps are clearly reported.
• Contribute to comparative synthesis across the historical periods covered by the project.
• Perform other related duties as required.

Requirements

• Advanced university degree (Master's or equivalent) in history, archival studies, library and information science, information management, Middle East studies, political science, social sciences or a related field. A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced degree.
• At least 2 years of demonstrated experience conducting research in primary source or archival collections, including identifying relevant material and assessing source relevance and evidential value.
• At least 1 year of international relevant experience outside of the candidate’s home country, country of citizenship and country where the candidate have permanent residence.
• Demonstrated experience producing well-cited analytical or narrative outputs from evidence.
• Excellent drafting skills in English, with the ability to write clearly and concisely for a non-specialist audience.
• Experience working with digitized archives, document management systems, or similar research databases (desirable).
• Experience preparing materials for legal, disclosure, or declassification review, including redactions (desirable).
• Knowledge of the history of Palestine refugees, the Agency’s operations, or the modern history of the Middle East (desirable).
• Experience working in the United Nations common system or a comparable international organization (desirable).
• Excellent command of written and spoken English is required.
• Working knowledge of Arabic would be an asset.

Skills

• Archival Studies
• Primary Source Analysis
• Source Relevance Assessment
• Analytical Writing
• Narrative Writing
• Drafting for Non-specialists
• Digitized Archives
• Document Management
• Legal Material Preparation
• Redaction Techniques
• History of Palestine Refugees
• Middle East History
• International Research Experience
• United Nations Experience
• English Drafting

Languages

English, Arabic