The University of Oslo is Norway’s oldest and highest ranked educational and research institution, with 26 500 students and 7 200 employees. With its broad range of academic disciplines and internationally recognised research communities, UiO is an important contributor to society.
The Institute of Health and Society is one of three institutes at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Oslo. The Institute covers various disciplines and consists of six departments: General Practice, Health Sciences, Health Management and Health Economics, Medical Ethics, Community Medicine and Global Health and Public Health Science.
The Institute of Health and Society bases its work on a complex understanding of disease, health and health systems. Culture, environment, economics, society and biology play direct and indirect roles. Our teaching responsibilities include seven Master’s programs, one Bachelor program and part of the Faculty’s medical school and PhD-program. We employ about 220 FTE and have almost 700 Bachelor and Master students. Annual income is about 200 mill NOK, half of which is external funding. Our researchers play an active part of public policy and disseminate new knowledge through many channels.
Bridging epistemological and ontological perspectives and their normative implications for clinical decision-making in transgender care.
About the PhD position
We seek a highly motivated PhD Research Fellow to join the Centre for Medical Ethics (CME), Institute of Health and Society (HELSAM), University of Oslo, to study different epistemic perspectives on transgender care (e.g. in literature, policy texts, etc), interview health care professionals and transgender clients about normative implications of different epistemic perspectives for transgender care, and co-create an ethics support tool that helps health care professionals and clients navigate these so-called ‘meta-moral challenges’ in transgender care. The position is part of the international “Gender-InSIGHT” network (see below) and includes a 6-12-month secondment at a transgender clinic in the Netherlands as well. You will perform literature and text analyses, individual and focus group interviews and use participatory research methods for the co-creation of an ethics support tool.
About Gender-InSIGHT
‘Gender-InSIGHT’ is an international network for the Investigation of biopsychosocial Influences on Gender during (diverse) Hormonal Transitions. The network brings together a range of disciplines including psychology, history, ethics, endocrinology, neuroscience and public health. Through co-creation and mixed methods research the projects will increase our understanding of the influence of biopsychosocial factors during hormonal transitions such as puberty and menopause, both in the general population, in people with variations of sex characteristics and in trans and gender diverse individuals. Historical, clinical and societal lenses will focus attention on different aspects. The historical lens will document historical and ethical implications of the shifts in meaning given to biopsychosocial factors in the framing of hormones and gender over time. The clinical lens will provide clinical guidance informed by a biopsychosocial understanding of gender to assist patients and healthcare providers with decision-making regarding diverse hormonal transitions. The societal lens will uncover societal pressures and polarisation regarding the biopsychosocial nature of gender and how these are communicated across cultures and through different channels. Collaborating with a range of partners from the non-academic domain, the project aims to have a lasting impact on culture and media, healthcare, and public policy.
Gender-InSIGHT consists of 15 doctoral projects, all of which are now open for applications (you can find a list of all projects at www.genderinsight.eu).
More about the position / Project description
This PhD project aims to:
- Analyse different ontological and epistemological presuppositions in scientific and societal narratives about gender dysphoria, and their implications for transgender care.
- Study how Norwegian and Dutch transgender clients and health care professionals experience ‘meta-moral challenges’ in clinical contexts and identify needs for ethics support.
- Co-create and pilot an ethics support tool for clients and health care professionals to recognise, address and constructively handle these challenges in concrete, comprehensible ways (meta-communication).
The duration of appointment is 3 years.
The PhD candidate will get positioned within the Centre for Medical Ethics (CME) at the University of Oslo in Norway. CME, established in 1989, is positioned within the Institute of Health and Society (HELSAM) and is one of Europe's largest centers for medical and healthcare ethics and hosted 41 PhD candidates who actually graduated. CME’s area of study spans from moral challenges in the patient-provider encounter, priority setting in health care, to research ethics and philosophy of medicine and science. CME has a strong record when it comes to clinical ethics, medical ethics and clinical ethics support, yet also a strong interdisciplinary approach to ethics with an international staff from 15 different countries. Since decades they have the national responsibility (given by Norwegian Health Care Authorities) to support all Norwegian health care institutions and health care professionals with various moral challenges. They are responsible for the teaching of research integrity to all PhD students at the Medical Faculty. Furthermore, CME often integrates the work of theoretical and philosophical scholars, such as philosophy of science and meta-ethics, into the field of medical ethics.
The secondment (6 to 12 months) will take place at transgender clinics in the Netherlands and the department of Ethics, Law & Humanities at Amsterdam UMC.
Responsibilities/ Your main tasks
- Conduct historical-philosophical analysis of narratives about gender dysphoria across disciplines and public discourses.
- Design and carry out qualitative studies with transgender clients and health care professionals in Norway and the Netherlands.
- Co-create, document, and pilot an ethics support tool; evaluate feasibility and acceptability in clinical settings.
- Collaborate closely with supervisors and international partners; contribute to Gender-InSIGHT training events and secondments.
- Disseminate findings through publications, presentations, and stakeholder engagement.
Qualifications requirements
Master’s degree (five-year or equivalent) in either philosophy, (clinical/bio/healthcare) ethics, health care sciences or social sciences; focusing on relevant topics and eligible for admission to a PhD programme at UiO.
Demonstrated training and experience in qualitative research methodology.
Experience with health care contexts; ideally familiarity with trans gender care, the transgender community and/or clinical ethics support.
Strong analytical and academic writing skills; scientific and moral/philosophical curiosity.
To be employed as a PhD Research Fellow, admission to a doctoral program is required, or there must be a binding agreement for admission. Normally, one must apply for admission to a Ph.D. program within 3 months after the start of the research project leading to the Ph.D. degree.
Eligibility for MSCA Doctoral Networks: mobility rule (must not have resided or carried out main activity in Norway for more than 12 months in the 36 months before the appointment start) and must not already hold a PhD.
Personal skills / Personal qualities
- Excellent communication and collaboration skills; capable of independent work and effective teamwork.
- Sensitivity to ethical, cultural, and societal dimensions of transgender care.
- Organized, proactive, and capable of advancing co-creation processes with diverse stakeholders.
Employment in the position is based on a comprehensive assessment of all qualification requirements applicable to the position, including personal qualifications.
We need different perspectives in our work
UiO is an open and internationally oriented comprehensive university that strives to be an inclusive and diverse workplace and academic environment. You can read more about UiO’s work on equality, inclusion, and diversity at uio.no.
We fulfill our mission most effectively when we draw upon our variety of experiences, backgrounds, and perspectives. We are looking for great colleagues—could you be the next one?
We will do our best to accommodate your needs. Relevant adjustments may include modifications to working hours, task adaptations, digital, technical, or physical adjustments, or other practical measures.
If you have an immigrant background, a disability, or CV gaps (Norwegian), we encourage you to indicate this in the job application portal. We always invite at least one qualified candidate from each group for an interview. In this context, disability is defined as an applicant who identifies as having a disability that requires workplace or employment-related accommodations. For more details about the requirements, please refer to the Employer portal (Norwegian).
The selections made in the job application portal are used for anonymized statistics that all state employers include in their annual reports.More information about gender equality initiatives at UiO can be found here.
We hope you will apply for the position with us.
Why should you choose us?
Exciting, meaningful in an organization with an important societal mission, contributing to sustainable, fair, and knowledge-based societal development.
Committed colleagues and a stimulating work environment.
Membership in the Statens Pensjonskasse, which is one of Norway's best pension schemes with beneficial mortgages and good insurance schemes.
Salary and conditions under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Networks (MSCA) regulations for early-stage researchers.
Salary in position as Doctoral Research Fellow, position code 1017 in salary range NOK from 550 800 - 610 000, depending on competence and experience. From the salary, 2 percent is deducted in statutory contributions to the State Pension Fund.
In addition to the individual project, six 5-day training events (Amsterdam, Berlin, Copenhagen, Oslo, two online), internships and secondments, transferable skills courses, master classes, keynotes, and social events.
Read more about the benefits of working in the public sector at Employer Portal.
Application
Your application should include:
Application letter.
CV.
A complete list of publications.
Transcripts and certificates.
Contact information for 2-3 references.
Application with attachments must be submitted via our recruitment system Jobbnorge, click "Apply for the position".
When applying for the position, we ask you to retrieve your education results from Vitnemålsportalen.no. If your education results are not available through Vitnemålsportalen, we ask you to upload copies of your transcripts or grades. Please note that all documentation must be in English or a Scandinavian language.
General information
The best qualified candidates will invited for interviews.
Applicant lists can be published in accordance with Norwegian Freedom of Information Act § 25. When you apply for a position with us, your name will appear on the public applicant list. It is possible to request to be excluded from this list. You must justify why you want an exemption from publication and we will then decide whether we can grant your request. If we cannot, you will hear from us.
