Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Environmental Anthropology

Job title:

Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Environmental Anthropology

Company

University College London

Job description

About us The Socialist Anthropocene in the Visual Arts (SAVA) sets out to radically transform current debates on the Anthropocene, addressing the major lacuna in existing accounts by establishing the Socialist Anthropocene as a novel conceptual framework that asserts the constitutive role of the twentieth century environmental histories of socialism in the formation of new geological times. It is the first large-scale interdisciplinary research project that institutes the Socialist Anthropocene as a new field of study within the critical corpus concerned with challenging and decentring the West-centric discourses of the Anthropocene. The approach of the project is to reconstruct the histories of the Socialist Anthropocene through visual arts led interdisciplinary research, which entails analysing historical artworks and engaging with contemporary art practices that act as a catalyst to integrate the insights of multiple disciplines and as a critical agent to pose ambitious and expansive questions, challenging assumptions and engendering new cross-disciplinary paradigms to illuminate the specificities of the Socialist Anthropocene. The research incorporates insights from the fields of art history, environmental history, the history of science, anthropology and the history of global socialisms, along with the work of contemporary artists who contribute to the SAVA team as creative fellows. The distinctiveness, epistemologies, relationalities and potentialities of the Socialist Anthropocene are analysed through annual thematic streams. The focus of this cohort of research fellows and creative fellows will be on agrarian and botanical politics of socialism, animal husbandry and species under socialism and the cultures of the Socialist Anthropocene, from official to dissident and Indigenous approaches to the natural world.About the role The Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Environmental Anthropology is a 30-month 0.5 FTE role which starts on 1 January 2025 and ends on 30 June 2027.The Research Fellow will carry out an individual research project into an environmental aspect of Indigenous cultures under socialism and/or beyond human anthropology of socialism. They will also contribute to investigation of the Socialist Anthropocene with a focus on the themes of agrarian politics, species under socialism and cultures of the Socialist Anthropocene, by engaging in an interdisciplinary dialogue with fellow members of the SAVA team. Based at the Postsocialist Art Centre in the Institute of Advanced Studies UCL, the successful candidate will contribute through their work on the environmental anthropology of socialism to the research outcomes of the SAVA project.The successful candidate will be required to contribute through an individual research project and participation in collaborative discussions to expanding knowledge of the Socialist Anthropocene. They will take part in regular group meetings and play an active role in biannual research weeks by contributing to the planning and realization of seminars, conferences and other public programmes. They will take advantage of the opportunity provided by the project to undertake individual fieldtrips to conduct their research in relevant archives and collections. They will also join the other members of the SAVA team on annual field trips to global sites of the Socialist Anthropocene. Working within a collaborative framework, they will contribute papers to project conferences and peer-reviewed special issues on the Socialist Anthropocene. They will contribute to the production of content for multimedia outputs, including podcasts and blog entries. The Research Fellow is also expected to act as an ambassador for the SAVA project within their discipline, by presenting their research at relevant conferences, publishing on the topic in scholarly journals and raising the visibility of the Socialist Anthropocene within their discipline and across the wider fields of the Environmental Humanities and Anthropocene Studies.About you The Postdoctoral Fellow in Environmental Anthropology will hold a PhD in anthropology or a related field in the humanities and social sciences awarded within the last three years. Their research should be focused on Indigenous cultures under socialism, including Soviet North and Central Asia and Mongolia, or the beyond human anthropology of socialism. Projects based on either case studies or comparative approaches to environmental anthropology of socialism, which deal with Indigenous ecological praxes and epistemologies, or which relate to the SAVA thematic focus on beyond human ecologies and cultures of the Socialist Anthropocene are likely to be of particular relevance. The candidate will have a record of peer-reviewed publications or other equivalent research outputs. They will be expected to demonstrate an openness to interdisciplinary and artistic methodologies, as well as skills in dissemination and communication of research and a willingness to participate fully in public facing events.What we offer As well as the exciting opportunities this role presents, we also offer some great benefits some of which are below: • Approximately 41 Days of holiday • Additional 5 days’ annual leave purchase scheme • Defined benefit career average revalued earnings pension scheme (CARE) • Cycle to work scheme and season ticket loan • Immigration loan • Relocation scheme for specific posts • On-Site nursery • On-site gym • Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption pay • Employee assistance programme: Staff Support Service • Discounted medical insuranceOur commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion As London’s Global University, we know diversity fosters creativity and innovation, and we want our community to represent the diversity of the world’s talent. We are committed to equality of opportunity, to being fair and inclusive, and to being a place where we all belong. We therefore particularly encourage applications from candidates who are likely to be underrepresented in UCL’s workforce. These include people from Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds; disabled people; LGBTQI+ people. You can read more about our commitment to Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion here: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/equality-diversity-inclusion/.Available documents

Expected salary

Location

North West London

Job date

Fri, 26 Jul 2024 01:24:22 GMT

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