A curious characteristic of the profession of international law scholars is that many of its day-to-day responsibilities require skills and sensitivities that are rarely addressed or taught. Indeed, despite the growing recognition to discuss ´research methods', conversations on methods of supervision, peer-review or knowledge transfer tend to be limited to the margins. The early career professional skills lab is a venue for post-doctoral scholars to discuss such methods of the academic profession, to learn from one another and to hear from experienced scholars in the field.

Among the formats that we will use are the peer2peer community corner, which is a participants-driven exchange, which puts the experiences of the participants front and centre, the peer2peer skills-share, where we will cover topics, such as putting research into action and communicating with non-scientific audiences and mentoring seminars with experienced scholars on professional responsibilities, such as peer review, postgraduate supervision and leading a research project. The skills lab is open to recent PhD graduates who are now in (or on the market for) entry-level positions for any discipline related to international law.

We kindly ask you to apply with a short bio (approx. 250 words), as well as with a brief description of one academic ‘skill’ that you would like to discuss with the community of peers (approx. 250 words). Most importantly, we ask you to apply only if you are able and willing to attend all sessions. We are hoping to develop a community spirit of mutual trust and respect and are thus asking for a full commitment.

The application deadline was July 1st 2021. Any questions can be addressed to: acil-fdr@uva.nl.

Convenors: Lys Kulamadayil and Andrea Leiter