Research Fellow in the Environmental History of Socialism at the Postsocialist Art Centre (PACT)
- Ref Number: B03-01361
- Professional Expertise: Research and Research Support
- Department: UCL SLASH (B03)
- Location: London
- Working Pattern: Part time
- Salary: £38,308- £46,155
- Contract Type: Fixed-term
- Working Type: Hybrid (20% - 80% on site)
- Available For Secondment: No
- Closing Date: 30-Nov-2022
About us
Applications are invited for the position of Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Environmental History of Socialism within the framework of ‘The Socialist Anthropocene in the Visual Arts’, a five-year interdisciplinary research project awarded in the ERC Consolidator Grant competition and funded through a UKRI Frontier Research grant.
The Socialist Anthropocene in the Visual Arts (SAVA) sets out to radically transform current debates on the Anthropocene, addressing the major lacuna in existing accounts by establishing the Socialist Anthropocene as a novel conceptual framework that asserts the constitutive role of the twentieth century environmental histories of socialism in the formation of the new geological age. It is the first large-scale interdisciplinary research project that institutes the Socialist Anthropocene as a new field of study within the critical corpus concerned with challenging and decentring the West-centric discourses of the Anthropocene. The approach of the project is to reconstruct the histories of the Socialist Anthropocene through visual arts led interdisciplinary research, which entails analysing historical artworks and engaging with contemporary art practices that act as a catalyst to integrate the insights of multiple disciplines and as a critical agent to pose ambitious and expansive questions, challenging assumptions and engendering new cross-disciplinary paradigms to illuminate the specificities of the Socialist Anthropocene.
About the role
The Postdoctoral Research Fellow will carry out an individual research project into an aspect of the environmental history of socialism. They will also contribute to the reconstruction of the histories of the Socialist Anthropocene with a focus on the themes of extractivism, infrastructure and agriculture by engaging in an interdisciplinary dialogue with fellow members of the SAVA team. Based at the Postsocialist Art Centre in the Institute of Advanced Studies UCL, the successful candidate will contribute through their work on the environmental history of socialism to the research outcomes of the SAVA project.
About you
The Postdoctoral Fellow in the Environmental History of Socialism will have a research specialisation in Central and Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union or another global region of the socialist world. Projects based on case studies or comparative approaches to the environmental history of socialism during the great acceleration of the twentieth century are likely to be of particular relevance. The candidate will hold a PhD in Environmental History or a related discipline awarded within the last three years, although career breaks will also be taken into account. They will have a strong record of peer-reviewed publications and other equivalent research outputs. They will be expected to demonstrate an openness to interdisciplinary and artistic methodologies, as well as skills in dissemination and communication of research and a willingness to participate fully in public facing events.
What we offer
As well as the exciting opportunities this role presents, we also offer some great benefits some of which are below:
- 41 Days holiday (27 days annual leave 8 bank holiday and 6 closure days)
- Additional 5 days’ annual leave purchase scheme
- Defined benefit career average revalued earnings pension scheme (CARE)
- Cycle to work scheme and season ticket loan
- Immigration loan
- Relocation scheme for certain posts
- On-Site nursery
- On-site gym
- Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption pay
- Employee assistance programme: Staff Support Service
- Discounted medical insurance
Visit https://www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/reward-and-benefits to find out more.
Our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
As London’s Global University, we know diversity fosters creativity and innovation, and we want our community to represent the diversity of the world’s talent. We are committed to equality of opportunity, to being fair and inclusive, and to being a place where we all belong.
We therefore particularly encourage applications from candidates who are likely to be underrepresented in UCL’s workforce.
These include people from Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds; disabled people; LGBTQI+ people; and for our Grade 9 and 10 roles, women.
Available documents
Attached documents are available under links. Clicking a document link will initialize its download.
