Program Officer Position Necessary Knowledge for a Democratic Public Sphere Program Social Science Research Council April 2007 The SSRC seeks a program officer to support the 'Necessary Knowledge for a Democratic Public Sphere' program and related work in the Public Spheres program area. The Necessary Knowledge program fosters collaboration between academic and advocacy communities on media and communications issues, ranging from media policy to media reform and media justice. It operates both domestically and internationally. The program officer will have responsibility for several aspects of the program, including administration of our two-tiered grants competition for research-advocacy collaboration. This work is supplemented by efforts to facilitate and coordinate collaboration in the field, ranging from managing working groups, to organizing conferences, to information brokering via online tools. The latter responsibilities vary widely, and are developed in dialogue with research and advocacy partners. Public representation and evaluation of the program is an important part of the program officer role. This program needs to speak in distinctive ways to academic, NGO and funder constituencies. Experience across these lines is highly desirable. Program officers also play an important part in project development at the SSRC, with responsibilities for project design, outreach, and fundraising. The ideal candidate will have substantive grounding in an area of domestic (US) media or communications policy, while also being a strong generalist in the field who can quickly learn new issues. Organizational and writing skills are crucial. Web skills, NGO experience, and international expertise are a plus. A complete or near-complete PhD in a relevant field or comparable research experience outside the academy is a requirement. This is not primarily a research position, although SSRC program staff are active researchers in their respective fields. It is a position of intellectual entrepreneurship, and offers a unique perspective on and capacity to effect change within the field. The new program officer will work with the program director and program assistant for the Necessary Knowledge program, as well as with partners engaged in other aspects of the work, such as activist outreach and grant monitoring. Program information can be found here: http://programs.ssrc.org/media . Interested applicants should send a letter describing their background and reasons for interest in this position, recent curriculum vitae, relevant writing samples and the names of at least three professional colleagues who can serve as references. Salary is negotiable and will be commensurate with relevant experience and qualifications. Applications may be submitted by e-mail to applications@ssrc.org . Please put 'Public Spheres position' in the subject line.