PhD Position in Environment Science at the University of Oldenburg, Germany

The University of Oldenburg is offering a PhD position within the recently established Research Group: Marine Governance led by Professor Kimberley Peters for the academic session 2021-2022. Female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.

Summary

Project Description

The Helmholtz-Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity (HIFMB) is a new institute on interdisciplinary marine biodiversity research, established on the campus of the University of Oldenburg. It joins the scientific profiles of the Institute of Chemistry and Biology of Marine Systems (ICBM) Oldenburg and the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research Bremerhaven (AWI). The university is home to a vibrant Institute for Social Science, which is developing ties to the HIFMB. Within the HIFMB, expertise in marine functional ecology, data science and theory are joined with a strong social science and humanities profile. The HIFMB at the University of Oldenburg invites applications for a

The Marine Governance Group of the HIFMB uniquely understands governance as an inherently geographical process. The Group explores how governance does not just happen anywhere, but somewhere. Group members investigate how the geographies of what we seek to govern or do govern at sea, is shaped by the location, character and qualities of place and relations with surrounding spaces.

How do you feel about the seas and oceans? Such a question might seem irrelevant in the field of marine governance. Yet recent work has demonstrated the importance of grappling with emotions in making better sense of environmental management. The impacts of climate change, sea-level rise, degraded oceans and biodiversity loss are issues that are viscerally and affectively felt by research scientists, policymakers, charities and everyday citizens.

This PhD position will use a suite of social science methods and creative case studies to take seriously the place of emotion in the formulation, designation and monitoring of marine management tools. Although emotion can seem a slippery or subjective topic, it is essential to broach to make better sense of society-sea interactions.

Whilst there is longstanding work on emotions, and their role in governance, across the social sciences and humanities, there are few understandings of the place of feelings in marine management: from the perspectives of scientists to policymakers to community-level stakeholders. This position will attend to this crucial area, whilst also examining the ways in which emotional understanding might be practically built into marine governance approaches.

Application Deadline

The deadline for applications is March 08, 2021 

Eligibility

• An academic university degree (Masters or Diploma (not of a University of Applied Sciences)) in a discipline such as Human Geography, Anthropology, Social Science, Environmental Humanities, Interdisciplinary Environmental Sciences.
• Experience in designing, conducting, and completing a research project in the social sciences (or a project with social science components).
• Experience in using qualitative methodologies such as in-depth interviewing, ethnography and textual analysis.
• Ability to be creative and inventive in thinking about research problems.
• Fluent English language skills.
• An openness, willingness and enthusiasm to work in an interdisciplinary environment and to collaborate with the sciences.
• Ability to work independently but also as part of the Marine Governance team.
• An awareness of key debates in the Marine Social Sciences is preferred.
• Evidence of working with key conceptual ideas such as space, place, emotion and affect is desirable but not essential.

HIFMB offers a multi-disciplinary, international, and fascinating professional environment for researching the marine environment. The HIFMB is committed to being a diverse, inclusive community. We have a range of equality employment policies and practices, family friendly and flexible working arrangements, staff engagement forums, campus facilities and services to support staff from a variety of backgrounds.

The University of Oldenburg is dedicated to increasing the percentage of female employees in the field of science. In accordance with Lower Saxony regulations (§ 21 Section 3 NHG), female candidates with equal qualifications will be preferentially considered. Disabled applicants will be given preference when equal qualifications are present.

Application Process

An application should consist of a letter (2 pages maximum) explaining your background, interests and motivation for undertaking a PhD in the area described, alongside a CV and relevant qualifications documents, for example, degree certificates. This should be submitted as a single PDF file to kimberley.peters@hifmb.de

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