Job description

A Doctoral Research Fellowship (SKO 1017) in environmental humanities is available at the Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages, University of Oslo.

The fellowship is part of the research project Transcendence and Sustainability: Asian Visions with Global Promise. The project currently engages 13 junior and senior scholars based in Norway, China and India, and is financed by the Research Council from 2021-2027. Transsustain explores spiritually and religiously inspired environmental movements in Asia. It is largely based on fieldwork studies of selected cases that may exemplify how religious and spiritual practices and beliefs are put in motion to mobilize people’s active involvement in addressing and solving problems of environmental degradation or climate change.

The new doctoral research fellow will carry out an individual sub-project as part of the larger Transsustain team in the context of Vietnam. Vietnam is of particular interest to Transsustain because it has a political system that is comparable to China’s but has kept a much more open attitude towards religious practices. It is heavily influenced by climate change and has seen a surge of environmental activities among various religious groups, connected to temples, indigenous peoples, etc. The doctoral candidate should formulate and implement an individual project based on fieldwork in one or several sites in Vietnam, focusing on one or several spiritually inspired environmental movements. The candidate will join the Transsustain team and engage in general theoretical and methodological discussions, share findings and experiences from fieldwork, engage in joint publications in the team, etc. Other members of Transsustain are doing anthropological fieldwork in China, Taiwan and India and the candidate must therefore rely entirely on his/her own connections in Vietnam to ensure that fieldwork is possible.

The position is defined within the broader interdisciplinary field of environmental humanities and while based at the Department of IKOS, the candidate will also be affiliated with the Oslo School of Environmental Humanities.

The person appointed will further be affiliated with the Faculty's organized PhD research training. The academic work is to result in a doctoral thesis (preferably article based) that will be defended at the Faculty with a view to obtaining the degree of PhD. Read more about the doctoral degree.

The appointment is for a duration of 3 years. All PhD candidates who submit their doctoral dissertation for assessment with a written recommendation from their supervisor within 3 years or 3½ years after the start of their PhD position, will be offered, respectively, a 12 or 6 month Completion Grant.

Qualification requirements

• A Master's degree or equivalent in one of the social sciences or humanities. The Master's degree must have been obtained and the final evaluation must be available by the application deadline
• Fluent oral and written communication skills in Vietnamese
• Fluent oral and written communication skills in English
• Experience with ethnographic or other forms of social science fieldwork in Vietnam
• Personal suitability and motivation for the position

To be eligible for admission to the doctoral programmes at the University of Oslo, applicants must, as a minimum, have completed a five-year graduation course (Master’s degree or equivalent), including a Master’s thesis of at least 30 ECTS. In special cases, the Faculty may grant admission on the basis of a one-year Master course following an assessment of the study programme’s scope and quality.

In assessing the applications, special emphasis will be placed on:

• The project's scientific merit and research-related relevance to the Transsustain project
• The applicant’s ability to gain access to doing the necessary fieldwork in Vietnam
• The applicant's academic and personal ability to complete the project within the time frame
• The applicant's ability to complete research training
• Good collaboration skills and an ability to take part in the interdisciplinary academic communities of Transsustain and Oslo School of Environmental Humanities

Applicants who have recently graduated with excellent results may be given preference.

We offer

• Salary NOK 491 200 – 534 400 per annum depending on qualifications
• A professionally stimulating working environment
• Membership in the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund
• Attractive welfare benefits

How to apply

The application must include:

• Application letter describing the applicant’s qualifications and motivation for the position
• Curriculum Vitae (with a list of education, positions, teaching experience, administrative experience and other qualifying activities, including a complete list of publications)
• Transcript of records of your Bachelor’s and Master's degrees. Applicants with education from a foreign university must attach an explanation of their university's grading system
• Documentation of Language requirements (if applicable)
• Project description, including a detailed progress plan for the project (3 - 5 pages, maximum 14,000 characters. See Template for project descriptions)

Please note that all documents must be in English or a Scandinavian language.

Educational certificates, master theses and the like are not to be submitted with the application, but applicants may be asked to submit such information or works later.

The application with attachments must be delivered in our electronic recruiting system, jobbnorge.no.

Short-listed candidates will be invited for an interview.

Formal regulations

Please see the guidelines and regulations for appointments to Research Fellowships at the University of Oslo.

No one can be appointed for more than one PhD Research Fellowship period at the University of Oslo.

According to the Norwegian Freedom of Information Act (Offentleglova) information about the applicant may be included in the public applicant list, also in cases where the applicant has requested non-disclosure.

The appointment may be shortened/given a more limited scope within the framework of the applicable guidelines on account of any previous employment in academic positions.

The University of Oslo has an agreement for all employees, aiming to secure rights to research results etc.

Inclusion and diversity are a strength. The University of Oslo has a personnel policy objective of achieving a balanced gender composition. We also want to have employees with diverse expertise, combinations of subjects, life experience and perspectives. We will make adjustments for employees who require this.

If there are qualified applicants with special needs, gaps in their CVs or immigrant backgrounds, we will invite at least one applicant in each of these groups to an interview.

Contact information

For questions about the position:

• Professor and PI of Transsustain: Mette Halskov Hansen

For questions on how to apply:HR-Officer Steffen Remvik

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