PhD position in Environmental communication at SLU

SweDevNetwork; Indiana (PA); On-site; USD 31,000 - 36,000; Full time

Job summary

Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences seeks a PhD candidate in Environmental Communication to study multispecies relations around maize in South Africa, exploring how crop properties interact with human and non-human actors. The PhD student will conduct ethnographic fieldwork among smallholders and contribute to publications.

The role includes time in Sweden and South Africa, possibly requiring isiXhosa interpretation and close collaboration with the project team for co-authored outputs.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree holders with competence in qualitative social science methods and social theory.
• Experience in theoretically grounded, qualitative empirical research.
• Excellent English skills, written and spoken.

Responsibilities

• Lead ethnographic investigations with South African smallholders studying maize relations.
• Collaborate on publications with the project team and other researchers.
• Spend significant time in Sweden and South Africa, with potential travel and interpreter support if needed.

Skills

Qualitative research

English proficiency

Education

Master’s degree in a relevant subject

Job description

Jobs within the network

PhD position in Environmental communication at SLU

December 12, 2024

The Department of Urban and Rural Development at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences is now recruiting a PhD candidate

Photo: Ash Willson/Unsplash

Deadline: January 9, 2025

The Department of Urban and Rural Development at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences is now recruiting a PhD candidate in the Division of Environmental Communication, in a project on “The properties and relations of maize: a multispecies study of the role of crop biotechnology in African smallholder farming”.

Description

The PhD position is part of a project that adopts multispecies perspectives on agrarian change in South Africa, using maize as a lens for a wider analysis of factors that shape smallholder agriculture trajectories. This might include analyses of how insect-resistance or drought- tolerance properties in crops produce certain outcomes and how these properties are enacted as a result of relations with other human and non-human actors. We will work with South African smallholders to investigate how locally used maize varieties are appreciated and used; how maize is entangled with smallholders’ practices, insects, and agricultural policies as well as wider political economies and ecologies to produce outcomes across time and space. The result will be an improved understanding of the wider set of factors that together impact whether or not smallholders can benefit from new crop technologies.

The PhD student is expected to spend several months in smallholder communities in rural South Africa, studying the relations of maize through ethnographic methods. The student will also investigate the wider (in time and space) discursive and material factors that shape local and contemporary multispecies relations. If the recruited PhD student is not fluent in isiXhosa, they will work closely with an interpreter. The PhD student will lead publications co-authored with the project team, and contribute to publications led by other team members. The position will demand that significant amount of time is spent both in Sweden and in South Africa.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree in a relevant subject leading to documented acquired competence in qualitative social science methods and social theory.
• Experience in theoretically grounded, qualitative empirical research.
• Excellent English skills, written and spoken.

Additional Desirable Qualifications

• Practical or theoretical knowledge of agriculture, experience from smallholder farming contexts.
• Interest in interdisciplinary work and more than human/ multispecies perspectives.

The deadline to apply is 9 January 2025.