LEDIG STILLING VED UNIVERSITETET I BERGEN

4-year PhD position at the Department of Social Anthropology (Seatimes)

Deadline: 23.01.2022

University of Bergen

The University of Bergen is a renowned educational and research institution, organised into seven faculties and approximately 54 institutes and academic centres. Campus is located in the centre of Bergen with university areas at Nygårdshøyden, Haukeland, Marineholmen, Møllendalsveien and Årstad.


There are seven departments and three centres at Faculty of Social Sciences. Read more about the faculty and departments.

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PhD position

There is a vacancy for a PhD research fellow position at the Department of Social Anthropology, University of Bergen, as part of the project ‘Seatimes: How Climate Change Transforms Human-Marine Temporalities’, which is funded by the Research Council of Norway’s Program for groundbreaking research, running from 2022 until 2025. The position is for a fixed-term period of 4 years, of which 25% will be dedicated to teaching, supervision and administrative tasks at the Department.

About the project/work tasks:

‘Seatimes: How Climate Change Transforms Human-Marine Temporalities’ is a project that will examine the changing entanglements of humans and marine life as climate change causes significant transformations in marine ecologies across the Atlantic. Based on comparative ethnographies from three different case studies – West-Africa, North-Atlantic and Maine (US) – the project will investigate how these transformations impact the temporal aspects of human-marine ecologies, including the role of marine life in people’s relations to the past, present and future, the seasonal rhythms of people’s lives, and the temporal practices through which people respond to these changes. Drawing on recent developments in posthumanist and multispecies anthropology, Seatimes aims to develop a new marine anthropology that provides a broader and better understanding of how humans and marine life are entangled and how climate change causes transformations in these entanglements.

This announcement is for the PhD position that will have a primary responsibility for the case study in the North-Atlantic. This can be Greenland, Iceland, Faroe Islands or Norway.

Applicants are requested to develop a research proposal, including descriptions of fieldwork and timeline, that addresses the issues outlined in the project’s overall research aims, available at https://uib.no/en/seatimes/149750/project-idea.

Qualifications and personal qualities:

  • The applicant must hold a master's degree or the equivalent in social anthropology; degrees in related disciplines (e.g. human geography or qualitative sociology) can be considered.
  • The degree must include ethnographic fieldwork
  • The requirements are generally a grade B or better on the Master thesis and for the Master degree in total
  • The degree must be completed by the application deadline
  • As an applicant you should be able to work independently while also cooperating in a larger research group, have a considerable work capacity as well as an enthusiasm for research and communication of research results, also beyond an academic audience.

About the PhD position:

The duration of the PhD position is 4 years, of which 25 per cent of the time comprises obligatory duties associated with research, teaching and dissemination of results. The working environment for this position will be the Department of Social Anthropology, University of Bergen. The successful candidate is expected to be based in Bergen during the project period (except for fieldwork-periods). As a PhD research fellow, you will take part in the PhD programme at the Faculty of Social Sciences, UiB. The programme corresponds to a period of three years and leads to the PhD degree. To be eligible for admission you must normally have an educational background corresponding to a master’s degree with a scope of 120 ECTS credits, which builds on a bachelor’s degree with a scope of 180 ECTS credits (normally 2 + 3 years), or an integrated master’s degree with a scope of 300 ECTS credits (5 years). Master’s degrees must normally include an independent work of a minimum of 30 ECTS credits. It is expected that the topic of the master’s degree is connected to the academic field to which you are seeking admission. For more about life as a PhD candidate at UiB, see video.

We can offer:

  • Salary at pay grade 54 upon appointment (Code 1017) on the government salary scale (equivalent to NOK 491 200 per year). Further promotions are made according to length of service in the position
  • A good and professionally challenging working environment
  • Enrolment in the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund
  • Good welfare benefits

Your application must include:

  • Cover letter: a brief (1-2 pages) account of your research interests and motivation for applying for the position
  • Project proposal: A research proposal of 5-8 pages that presents the topic, the research problem(s) and choice of theory and methods. These must align with the overall aims of the Seatimes project. The proposal should also include a progress plan for the different parts of the project. Admittance to the PhD programme will be based on the research proposal.
  • CV
  • Transcripts and diplomas showing completion of the bachelor's and master's degrees.
  • A list of academic publications (if applicable)
  • Master thesis
  • The names and contact information for two reference persons. One of them must be the main advisor for the master's thesis or equivalent thesis.

When evaluating the application, emphasis will be given to the project proposal and the applicant’s academic and personal prerequisites to carry out the project.

If you have a master's degree from an institution outside of the Nordic countries, or a 2-year discipline-based master's degree (or the equivalent) in a subject area other than the one associated with the application, you may later in the application process be asked to submit an overview of the syllabus for the degree you have completed.

The application and appendices with certified translations into English or a Scandinavian language must be uploaded at Jobbnorge following the link on this page marked “Apply for this job”.

Applications submitted without a project description or applications sent as e-mail will not be considered. Only submitted documents will be subjected to assessment.

Closing date: January 23, 2022.

The application has to be marked: 21/20370

General information:

Additional information about the position and the Seatimes project is obtainable by contacting Associate Professor Jon Henrik Ziegler Remme, jon.remme@uib.no

Practical questions regarding the application procedures should be directed to Adviser – HR, Pernille.Hole@uib.no

Appointed research fellows will be admitted to the PhD programme at the Faculty of Social Sciences. Questions about the programme may be directed to Adviser-PhD: Hanne.Gravermoen@uib.no.

The state labour force shall reflect the diversity of Norwegian society to the greatest extent possible. People with immigrant backgrounds and people with disabilities are encouraged to apply for the position.

The University of Bergen applies the principle of public access to information when recruiting staff for academic positions.

Information about applicants may be made public even if the applicant has asked not to be named on the list of persons who have applied. The applicant must be notified if the request to be omitted is not met.

The successful applicant must comply with the guidelines that apply to the position at all times.

For further information about the recruitment process, click here.

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