Research Assistant in Environmental Humanities (fixed-term contract)

The AU Centre for the Environmental Humanities (CEH) and the School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, invite applications for a part-time position of 10 hours weekly as Research Assistant in the Environmental Humanities. The position is a temporary position, starting 1 January 2025 or as soon as possible thereafter and running until 30 June 2025.

Place of employment: The applicant is expected to work primarily at Aarhus University, Centre for Environmental Humanities, Nobelparken, Jens Chr. Skous vej 4, 8000 Aarhus C, with occasional work at other locations, including AU facilities such as Moesgaard, the Agro-Foods Park (Skejby), and Campus Viborg, as needed to assist with events and to complete job tasks that require interdisciplinary collaboration.

In its pursuit of academic excellence, The Faculty of Arts is committed to creating an inclusive working environment and therefore encourages all qualified candidates to apply, regardless of personal background, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, ethnicity etc.

The position
We are seeking an innovative and dedicated research assistant with experience in academic project development and academic event organization and facilitation. The successful candidate is expected to work closely with the CEH director, Professor Heather Swanson, on a number of tasks including:

- Assisting CEH director with organizing academic events, guest speaker visits, and the
hosting international guest researchers, including input regarding academic content of
events and academic participation in the events (such as ability to serve as
discussant/moderator)
- Carrying out preliminary ethnographic and historical data collection, data management
and analysis on topics such as wetlands, agriculture, and water management (under
supervision).
- Performing research tasks within the area of the environmental humanities, e.g. literature
searches and summaries of texts.
- Supporting processes in connection with funding applications.
- Assisting CEH director in managing external research collaborations.
- Writing content (including announcements and short news briefs) for CEH website and
preparation of CEH newsletter

The weighting among the tasks may vary over time.

The Centre for Environmental Humanities/Work Environment

The primary aim of CEH is to promote and foster ongoing research projects and activities at AU within the diverse field of the environmental humanities, while also linking to international environmental humanities research. What makes CEH unique is our dedication to generating a diverse community of scholars, students, practitioners and experts by fostering plurality in how we learn, think and engage with important and pressing environmental questions and concerns. At CEH, we seek to create a space that begins with bottom-up learning in order to build worthwhile projects that address the continually transforming worlds and environments we inhabit. We seek to build a broad network of scholars, students, and others, who are committed to exploring what the humanities can contribute to conversations about pressing environmental issues, socio-environmental change, and ecological transformation.

Our center also explicitly reaches beyond humanities disciplines to engage with other fields. Our excitement for working across these boundaries starts from recognizing the limitations of any one approach in understanding how life is entangled and unfolds, and how worlds are made. Thus, one of the CEH’s central goals is to foster interdisciplinary collaborations not only among humanities scholars, but also between the humanities and other fields in the social sciences, natural sciences, and in artistic practice. While CEH is a research center, it also sees environmental scholarship as intimately bound up in, and necessarily connected to, other worlds within and beyond the university and thus also undertake collaborations with external partners.

CEH is housed within the AU School for Culture and Society (CAS) but also serves scholars from across the Faculty of Arts, i.e. the School of Culture and Communication and the Danish Pedagogical University. The Centre regularly hosts international guests, including visiting PhD students and post.docs.

The successful applicant will contribute to center’s high academic standards, embrace of interdisciplinarity, and collaborative spirit.

Qualifications
Applicants must have a MA or equivalent qualifications in Anthropology, Global Studies, Philosophy, History, or another field relevant to the work of the School of Culture and Society.

Applicants must furthermore be able to document:
• Experience conducting complex and theoretically engaged academic research on an
environmental topic.
• Knowledge of environmental humanities scholarship.
• Experience with project management.
• Familiarity with natural science research practices and interdisciplinary research
• Experience with seminar, workshop, and conference organizing.
• A methodological and structured approach to work, and good organisational and time-
management skills.
• Good interpersonal and collaborative skills, including ability to be flexible and adaptive.
• Fluency in English and Danish (spoken and written).

The following skills are considered an advantage:
• Experience with Typo3 and website management.
• Familiarity with interdisciplinary research on environmental topics at AU, as well as
Danish environmental humanities research environments.

References or recommendations should not be included with the application. Applicants who are selected for a job interview may be asked to provide professional references.
Past research achievements will be assessed based on the active research time of the applicant in question. We therefore ask applicants to specify any career breaks they have had (for instance due to maternity/paternity leave) in order to gauge their research productivity.

Applicants are expected to contribute to the centre’s academic environment. We emphasise the importance of good working relationships. In order to maintain and develop the centre’s research environment, the person appointed is expected to be present at the center approximately two days per week, with opportunities to negotiate the precise schedule.

Language and further information
Applications must be uploaded in English. Job tasks will require professional level competencies in both English and Danish.

For further information about the content of the position, please contact Centre Director, Professor Heather Swanson ([email protected])

For a more detailed description of the Centre for Environmental Humanities, please visit: http://ceh.au.dk

For more information on the School of Culture and Society, please visit: http://cas.au.dk.

Formalities
Faculty of Arts refers to the Ministerial Order on the Appointment of Academic Staff at Danish Universities (the Appointment Order).

• Appointment shall be in accordance with the collective labour agreement between the Danish Ministry of Taxation and the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations.
• Further information on qualification requirements and job content may be found in the Memorandum on Job Structure for Academic Staff at Danish Universities .
• Further information on the application and supplementary materials may be found in Application Guidelines.

Shortlists may be prepared with the candidates that have been selected for a detailed academic assessment. A committee set up by the head of school is responsible for selecting the most qualified candidates. See this link for further information about shortlisting at the Faculty of Arts:shortlisting

Aarhus University’s ambition is to be an attractive and inspiring workplace for all and to foster a culture in which each individual has opportunities to thrive, achieve and develop. We view equality and diversity as assets, and we welcome all applicants.

Faculty of Arts
The Faculty of Arts is one of five main academic areas at Aarhus University.

The faculty contributes to Aarhus University's research, talent development, knowledge exchange and degree programmes.

With its 700 academic staff members, 200 PhD students, 9,000 BA and MA students, and 1,500 students following continuing/further education programmes, the faculty constitutes a strong and diverse research and teaching environment.

The Faculty of Arts consists of the School of Communication and Culture, the School of Culture and Society and the Danish School of Education. Each of these units has strong academic environments and forms the basis for interdisciplinary research and education.

The faculty's academic environments and degree programmes engage in international collaboration and share the common goal of contributing to the development of knowledge, welfare and culture in interaction withsociety.

Read more at arts.au.dk/en

The application must be submitted via Aarhus University’s recruitment system, which can be accessed under the job advertisement on Aarhus University's website.

Aarhus University
Aarhus University is an academically diverse and research-intensive university with a strong commitment to high-quality research and education and the development of society nationally and globally. The university offers an inspiring research and teaching environment to its 38,000 students (FTEs) and 8,300 employees, and has an annual revenues of EUR 935 million. Learn more at www.international.au.dk/

Department: Antropologi, Afdeling for/Anthropology, Department of

Deadline: 31 December 2024

Location: Højbjerg Moesgård Allé 20