Research Fellow
Bioethics and Health Humanities
The University of Texas Medical Branch
Galveston, TX

The Institute for Bioethics & Health Humanities (IBHH) at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) invites applications for two Research Fellows. This mentored fellowship program is intended for scholars who have recently completed their PhD or other terminal degree or will have defended by Summer 2025. Research Fellows will be integrated into interdisciplinary research projects while also being afforded time to focus on their own research. Fellows can also potentially teach a graduate-level seminar.

This is an ideal opportunity for humanities and social science scholars to gain experience working in a dynamic, multidisciplinary unit within an academic health science center.

The IBHH seeks to hire two Research Fellows. Areas of research could include one or more of the following:

• Empirical social sciences and humanities related to health, including empirical bioethics; health policy studies; history of medicine or public health; medical anthropology; medical sociology; communication studies; legal studies/law and society; political science; and related areas.
• Science and Technology Studies (STS), including history of medicine; history and philosophy of science; sociology and anthropology of science and technology; information studies; human-computer interaction; social theory; and related areas.
• Bioethics, including philosophical and conceptual bioethics; normative analyses of longstanding issues (e.g., medical aid in dying, informed consent, public health ethics) or emergent issues (e.g., artificial intelligence, post-genomics, psychedelics); or critical approaches such as feminist bioethics, disability bioethics, anti-racist bioethics, queer bioethics, trans bioethics, and related areas.
• Health humanities, including narratives of health and illness in literature or other media (e.g., television, cinema, new media); cultural studies or critical theory in health; historical perspectives on health; and related areas.
• Global and transnational health studies, including critical global health studies; global health ethics and governance; area studies (e.g., Latin American and Caribbean Studies, American Studies, African Studies, South Asian Studies, etc.); and other international or translational approaches to social dimensions of health.

Research fellows will be expected to develop their own programs of research and to engage in interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, and applied work with IBHH faculty and other units across campus. Priority will be given to applicants who have interests aligned with one or more faculty members. In their letter of interest, applicants should identify at least one IBHH faculty member who they would want to serve as their primary mentor (find faculty profiles here).

Fellows will be supported and mentored by IBHH faculty and collaborators from other UTMB departments in multiple ways, including developing their research program and applying to permanent positions in academia and other sectors. Fellowship activities can also include writing grants and/or fellowship applications through major funding agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, Social Science Research Council, National Endowment for the Humanities, philanthropic funders, as well as the variety of internal funding mechanisms available at UTMB.

Eligibility and other information:

• Candidates must have a PhD, JD, MD, or other terminal degree.
  
  
• Applicants must submit the following materials as a single PDF file:
  • A letter of interest with a description of experience, research interests, career goals, and potential IBHH faculty mentors
  • Curriculum Vitae with contact information for 3-5 references
  • A writing sample (article or chapter)
    
    
• Materials should be submitted by email directly to the Search Committee Chair, subject line “Research Fellow Application – [LastName]”:
  • Stephen Molldrem, PhD
  • Assistant Professor and Research Program Director
  • Bioethics and Health Humanities
  • stmolldr@utmb.edu
    
    
• In addition to a salary of $65,000, fellows will receive health insurance, professional development funds, office space, computer, library access, and other UTMB benefits.
  
  
• Review of applications will begin immediately and will continue until the positions are filled. Applications received by February 28^th, 2025 will receive full consideration. The start date is September 1, 2025.

This is a one-year, full-time position with an option to extend for a second year at the Research Program Director’s discretion dependent on satisfactory performance.

Established in 1973, the IBHH is an interdisciplinary research and teaching program rooted in philosophy, literature, religion, history, bioethics, law, and the social sciences. We seek to illuminate value questions in healthcare settings, elicit meaning from illness, and cultivate critical intelligence that probes the making, meaning, and authority of diverse knowledges. This broad-gauged inquiry provides the foundation for the activities of the Institute faculty in medical and graduate teaching, clinical and research ethics consultation, health policy analysis, community engagement, and multidisciplinary, collaborative research.

The successful candidate will join an interdisciplinary faculty group with training in ethics, humanities, and social sciences who collaborate with more than 40 research centers and institutes located on campus, covering a wide range of research interests including aging, rehabilitation sciences, women’s health, environmental health, translational sciences, infectious diseases, vaccines, and substance use (see www.utmb.edu/centers/ for more information).The faculty engage in research, clinical and community service, and the teaching of graduate students and medical and other health professions trainees. The IBHH houses the nation’s only PhD program in Bioethics and Health Humanities. More information can be found at https://ibhh.utmb.edu/

UTMB was established in 1891 as the first academic health center in Texas and is a component of the University of Texas System. Today UTMB includes five schools (medicine, nursing, health professions, public and population health, and graduate biomedical sciences), a network of hospitals and clinics that provide a full range of primary and specialized medical care, and numerous research facilities.  

The city of Galveston is a popular tourist and cruise ship destination that includes beaches, museums, historical architecture, a vibrant arts community, and excellent restaurants, all located only 45 minutes away from Houston, the nation’s fourth largest city.

UTMB Health strives to provide equal opportunity employment without regard to race, color, national origin, sex, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, or veteran status.  As a VEVRAA Federal Contractor, UTMB Health takes affirmative action to hire and advance women, minorities, protected veterans, and individuals with disabilities.

Candidates must have a PhD, JD, MD, or other terminal degree, or have defended by Summer 2025.

About University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB)

UTMB was established in 1891 as the first academic health center in Texas and is a component of the University of Texas System. Today UTMB includes five schools (medicine, nursing, health professions, graduate biomedical sciences, and public and population health), a network of hospitals and clinics that provide a full range of primary and specialized medical care, and numerous research facilities. The city of Galveston is a popular tourist and cruise ship destination that includes beaches, museums, historical architecture, a vibrant arts community, and excellent restaurants, all located only 45 minutes away from Houston, the nation’s fourth largest city.

Connections working at University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB)