Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Intellectual History of Liberal Political Economy in Edinburgh

Grade and Salary: Grade 7 - £37,694 - £47,389 per annum

FTE and working pattern: Full Time (1FTE), Fixed Term for 33 months

Holiday Entitlement: 33 days annual leave plus 9 buildings closed days (and Christmas Eve when it falls on a weekday)

Based at Panmure House, Edinburgh. Reporting to Professor Adam Dixon, Adam Smith Chair (Principal Investigator).

The Project Markets Under Siege investigates why liberal democracies increasingly depart from free market principles when facing competitive pressure from China, often on the basis of simplified narratives about Chinese “state capitalism” that may not align with the accumulated empirical evidence. The project runs for 33 months and comprises three research components operating in parallel, each led by a postdoctoral researcher and integrated through monthly team meetings and quarterly integration workshops:

• Component 1 — Mechanisms of Justification for Geoeconomic Intervention: systematic mapping of the rhetorical strategies and institutional mechanisms through which liberal democracies justify departures from market principles.
• Component 2 — Systematic Evidence Review on Market Competition: systematic literature review and meta-analysis of evidence on competitive dynamics in Chinese and Western markets.
• Component 3 — Intellectual History of Liberal Market Principles Under Competitive Pressure: analysis of how liberal thinkers from Adam Smith to the Cold War liberals understood the relationship between international competition and market freedom.

The project launches in 2026, the 250th anniversary of the publication of The Wealth of Nations, and includes an international workshop series in Edinburgh, Washington DC, Asia and London. Planned outputs include seven to nine peer-reviewed articles, policy briefs, public essays and a project monograph.

Purpose of the Role: Each postholder takes day-to-day intellectual and operational responsibility for one of the project’s three research components, under the supervision of the Principal Investigator. The posts are designed to give early-career scholars substantial autonomy and first-authorship opportunities within a coordinated collective endeavour: each postholder leads the design and delivery of their component’s research, publishes from it, and contributes actively to the integration of findings across components. The posts also carry a significant engagement dimension, including delivery of the workshop series, policy briefs and public-facing outputs. Supervision is provided through biweekly one-to-one meetings with the Principal Investigator, alongside mentorship in publication strategy and peer review. Postholders will also work directly with the project’s visiting scholars during their residencies at Panmure House.

Responsibilities Common to all Three Posts:

• Research delivery: Design, plan and deliver the research programme for the assigned component within the 33-month timetable, in consultation with the Principal Investigator. Conduct primary and secondary research using the methods specified for the component, including the collection, coding, management and analysis of qualitative and/or quantitative material. Design and conduct semi-structured elite interviews, including topic guides, participant recruitment, transcription and analysis. Secure and maintain research ethics approval and manage data in line with University policy, funder requirements and applicable data protection law. Maintain transparent and reproducible research records, including search protocols, coding frameworks and analytical decisions.
• Publication and dissemination: Lead the drafting of approximately two to three peer-reviewed articles from the component, and contribute as co-author to cross-component publications. Draft two to three policy briefs or public-facing essays translating findings for policy and general audiences. Contribute chapter drafts and analytical input to the project monograph. Present findings at academic conferences, project workshops and policy events. Contribute to digital dissemination, including short-form video explainers, the project Substack and the Panmure House podcast, working with the House’s digital media coordinator.
• Integration and collaboration: Contribute substantively to monthly full-team meetings and quarterly integration workshops, including preparation of the agreed integration deliverable for each workshop. Engage critically with the work of the other two components, attending colleagues’ presentations and providing constructive feedback outside one’s own primary expertise. Pursue co-authorship across components where intellectually appropriate.
• Events and engagement: Contribute to the intellectual design and delivery of the four project workshops (Edinburgh, Washington DC, Asia and London), including identification of participants, preparation of materials and drafting of proceedings summaries. Build and maintain academic, policy and practitioner networks relevant to the component. Contribute to the wider intellectual life of Panmure House through seminars and public events.

Intellectual History of Liberal Political Economy: This post leads Component 3, which investigates how liberal thinkers historically understood the balance between market freedom and state intervention under conditions of international competition. The work centres on Adam Smith’s treatment of defence and opulence and the legitimate scope of state action, on Cold War liberal thought during strategic competition with the Soviet Union, and on how contemporary policy intellectuals mobilise or depart from these traditions.

Post-Specific Duties: Conduct close readings of primary texts by Adam Smith, later classical liberals and Cold War liberal thinkers, focusing on passages addressing security, competition and state intervention, and engage systematically with the associated secondary literature. Engage with critics and alternative traditions, including Friedrich List and the national system of political economy, to provide analytical balance. Conduct conceptual analysis extracting principles, boundaries and limiting conditions from historical texts and apply them to contemporary policy debates, assessing continuity and rupture. Develop explicit analytical bridges between historical frameworks and current interventions, for example evaluating contemporary semiconductor and export control policy against Smith’s defence-versus-opulence principle. Lead the drafting of one to three long-form public-facing essays and take a lead role in public engagement connected to the 250th anniversary of The Wealth of Nations.

Essential Criteria: PhD (awarded, or expected before the start date) in intellectual history, economic history, history of economic thought, political theory, political economy or a cognate discipline. Demonstrable expertise in the history of liberal political economy, including detailed knowledge of Adam Smith and the Scottish Enlightenment and/or twentieth-century liberal thought. Proven capacity for rigorous close textual and contextual analysis of primary sources, evidenced by publications or a completed doctoral thesis. Demonstrated ability to connect historical scholarship to contemporary questions without collapsing the distinction between them. Excellent scholarly writing, with the capacity to write for non-specialist as well as specialist audiences.

Desirable Criteria: Reading knowledge of German and/or French sufficient to work with primary texts (for example List, Hayek). Familiarity with Cold War intellectual history and the political economy of strategic technology competition. Experience of archival research. Track record of public-facing writing in essays, long-form journalism or comparable venues. Experience contributing to public history or anniversary-linked engagement activity.

How to Apply: Applications can be submitted up to midnight (UK time) on Sunday 27th September 2026. We expect interviews to take place on 01 October 2026.

Heriot-Watt University is committed to securing equality of opportunity in employment and to the creation of an environment in which individuals are selected, trained, promoted, appraised, and otherwise treated on the sole basis of their relevant merits and abilities. Equality and diversity are all about maximising potential and creating a culture of inclusion for all. Heriot-Watt University values diversity across our university community and welcomes applications from all sectors of society, particularly from underrepresented groups.