About the position

The Department of Geography at NTNU has a vacancy for a four-year full-time PhD position on the topic: Towards a new vocabulary for displacement: Articulating the everyday co-production of places in Uganda (InPlace). Working within the fields of human geography, the candidate to be employed will conduct fieldwork-based doctoral research responding to the need for new theories and vocabularies for protracted displacement that consider the uneven co-production of place. The position will be located under the department thematic area Globalization, mobility and citizenship and in the Geographies of community, politics and place researcher group. 

For a position as a PhD Candidate, the goal is a completed doctoral education up to an obtained doctoral degree. This work will result in an article-based PhD dissertation in English. The position includes 25% teaching duties at the Department.

Your immediate leader will be Head of Department.

Thematic focus

There is a need for new theory and accompanying language for today's displacement settings. Current theoretical frameworks and policies do not capture the realities of displaced persons stuck without solutions in sight. With protracted conflicts, permanent losses of livelihoods, and an increasingly hostile refugee politics in Europe and beyond towards non-European refugees, ‘never-ending displacement’ in precarious conditions has become the norm for most of the 86.5 million people fleeing conflict worldwide. This has put global displacement policies and refugee studies at a crossroads. To solve the conundrum, there is increasing emphasis on combining development and humanitarian approaches, collaborating with local actors and hosts, and promoting self-reliance and area-based assistance for sustainable solutions. However, displaced people are seldom included in ideas, plans, and decisions about the future in the places they inhabit, even though they contribute to present and future development trajectories of those places. Moreover, policies at national and international levels do not consider the diverse experiences and cultural backgrounds that displaced people carry with them, which influence their relationship to place and their current and future desires and possibilities to make it and be ‘in place’.

The doctoral research position will examine how understanding people's everyday acts and intersectional relation to place can inform a vocabulary for policy that is closer to, and informed by, displaced people's lived realities. In collaboration with project participants in selected areas in Uganda, new formulations and concepts will be sought that transgress binaries and recapture displaced people’s active, but constrained agency as co-producers of place. The candidate is thus expected to adopt a bottom-up approach to policy analysis and engagement that responds to the criticism of forced migration studies for privileging the worldview of policymakers.

Duties of the position

• Develop and carry out a PhD project on the theme Towards a new vocabulary for displacement: Articulating the everyday co-production of places in Uganda
• Teaching and supervision in association with the department’s study programmes

Required selection criteria

• You must have a professionally relevant background in  human geography, or equivalent social sciences or humanities education
• Your education must correspond to a five-year Norwegian degree programme, where 120 credits are obtained at master's level.  Applicants who can document the submission of their Master thesis in the spring 2022 may also be considered.
• You must have a strong academic background from your previous studies and an average grade from the master's degree program, or equivalent education, which is equal to B or better compared with NTNU's grading scale. If you do not have letter grades from previous studies, you must have an equally good academic basis. If you have a weaker grade background, you may be assessed if you can document that you are particularly suitable for a PhD education. 
• Very good written and oral English
• You must meet the requirements for admission to the faculty's doctoral program in Social Sciences with a specialization in Geography.

The appointment is to be made in accordance with the regulations in force concerning State Employees and Civil Servants and Regulations concerning the degrees of Philosophiae Doctor (PhD) and Philosodophiae Doctor (PhD) in artistic research national guidelines for appointment as PhD, post doctor and research assistant  

Preferred selection criteria

• Experience with conducting field work in displacement settings
• Experience with participatory methodologies and action research
• Ability to spend weeks to months in the field for data collection
• Knowledge of refugee and other languages spoken in Uganda 

Personal characteristics

Qualities such as a willingness to learn independently and with others, good communication, motivation to contribute to a positive working environment, ability to work in a structured manner and to adapt to changing conditions and situations are important characteristics for success.

We offer

• exciting and stimulating tasks in a strong international academic environment
• an open and inclusive work environment with dedicated colleagues
• favourable terms in the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund
• employee benefits

Salary and conditions

PhD candidates are remunerated in code 1017, and are normally remunerated at gross from NOK 491 200 per annum before tax, depending on qualifications and seniority. From the salary, 2% is deducted as a contribution to the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund.

The period of employment is 4 years with teaching duties.

Appointment to a PhD position requires that you are admitted to the PhD programme in Social Sciences with a specialization in Geography within three months of employment, and that you participate in an organized PhD programme during the employment period.

The engagement is to be made in accordance with the regulations in force concerning State Employees and Civil Servants, and the acts relating to Control of the Export of Strategic Goods, Services and Technology. Candidates who by assessment of the application and attachment are seen to conflict with the criteria in the latter law will be prohibited from recruitment to NTNU. After the appointment you must assume that there may be changes in the area of work.

It is a prerequisite you can be present at and accessible to the institution daily.

About the application

The application and supporting documentation to be used as the basis for the assessment must be in English (ta stilling til dette)

Publications and other scientific work must follow the application. Please note that applications are only evaluated based on the information available on the application deadline. You should ensure that your application shows clearly how your skills and experience meet the criteria which are set out above. 

The application must include: 

• CV, certificates and diplomas
• Transcripts and diplomas for bachelor's and master's degrees. If you have not completed the master's degree, you must submit a confirmation that the master's thesis has been submitted within the application deadline.
• A copy of the master's thesis. Documentation of a completed master's degree must be presented before taking up the position.
• Project proposal including research plan 4-6 pages
• Academic works - published or unpublished - that you would like to be considered in the assessment (up to 3 works)
• Name and address of three referees

If all, or parts, of your education has been taken abroad, we also ask you to attach documentation of the scope and quality of your entire education, both bachelor's and master's education, in addition to other higher education. Description of the documentation required can be found here. If you already have a statement from NOKUT, please attach this as well.

Joint works will be considered. If it is difficult to identify your contribution to joint works, you must attach a brief description of your participation.

In the evaluation of which candidate is best qualified, emphasis will be placed on education, experience and personal and interpersonal qualities. Motivation, ambitions, and potential will also count in the assessment of the candidates. 

NTNU is committed to following evaluation criteria for research quality according to The San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment - DORA.

General information

Working at NTNU

A good work environment is characterized by diversity. We encourage qualified candidates to apply, regardless of their gender, functional capacity or cultural background. 

The city of Trondheim is a modern European city with a rich cultural scene. Trondheim is the innovation capital of Norway with a population of 200,000. The Norwegian welfare state, including healthcare, schools, kindergartens and overall equality, is probably the best of its kind in the world. Professional subsidized day-care for children is easily available. Furthermore, Trondheim offers great opportunities for education (including international schools) and possibilities to enjoy nature, culture and family life and has low crime rates and clean air quality.

As an employee at NTNU, you must at all times adhere to the changes that the development in the subject entails and the organizational changes that are adopted.

In accordance with The Public Information Act (Offentleglova), your name, age, position and municipality may be made public even if you have requested not to have your name entered on the list of applicants.

If you have any questions about the position, please contact Hilde Refstie hilde.refstie@ntnu.no If you have any questions about the recruitment process, please contact Renate Lillian Johansen, e-mail: renate.johansen@ntnu.no

Please submit your application electronically via jobbnorge.no with your CV, diplomas and certificates. Applications submitted elsewhere will not be considered. Diploma Supplement is required to attach for European Master Diplomas outside Norway. Chinese applicants are required to provide confirmation of Master Diploma from China Credentials Verification (CHSI).

If you are invited for interview you must include certified copies of transcripts and reference letters. Please refer to the application number SU-700 when applying.

Application deadline: 24.05.2022

NTNU - knowledge for a better world

The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) creates knowledge for a better world and solutions that can change everyday life.

Department of Geography

We conduct research and teach in subject areas related to the major societal challenges of our time: climate change, migration, urbanization, economic transition and environmental threats. We have a robust fieldwork tradition, and our teaching activities are closely linked to our research. The Department of Geography is one of seven departments at the Faculty of Social and Educational Sciences.

Deadline 24th May 2022
Employer NTNU - Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Municipality Trondheim
Scope Fulltime
Duration Fixed Term
Place of service Dragvoll