Postdoctoral Research Associate in Human Geography

Working at Durham University

A globally outstanding centre of teaching and research excellence, a warm and friendly place to work, a unique and historic setting - Durham is a university like no other.

As one of the UK's leading universities, Durham is an incredible place to define your career.The University is located within a beautiful historic city, home to a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and surrounded by stunning countryside. Our talented scholars and researchers from around the world are tackling global issues and making a difference to people's lives.

We believe that inspiring our people to do outstanding things at Durham enables Durham people to do outstanding things in the world. Being a part of Durham is about more than just the success of the University, it's also about contributing to the success of the city, county and community.

Our University Strategy is built on three pillars of research, education and wider student experience, but also on our keen sense of community and of inspiring others to achieve their potential.

Our Purpose and Values

We want our University to be a place where people can be free to be themselves, no matter what their identity or background. Together, we celebrate difference, value one another and are each responsible for creating an inclusive community that is respectful and fair for all.

Find out more about the benefits of working at the University and what it is like to live and work in the Durham area on our Why Join Us? - Information Page

The Role and Department

The Department of Geography at Durham comprises 65 academic staff (approximately equally divided between Human and Physical geography), a graduate school of around 100 research students, around 40 taught postgraduate students and 850 undergraduates. The Department is well supported with technical staff, including a cartography unit, and administrative staff.

We are ranked 14th in the QS World University Rankings by Subject (2023). We are recurrently ranked in the top handful of programmes in the UK by various league tables, including 3rd in the Complete University Guide 2023. The most recent Research Excellence Framework (REF) in 2021 placed us joint 1st in the UK for iGPA (average score scaled by proportion of staff submitted), with a 100% 4* score for our research environment.

Our aim is to sustain and support hubs of leadership in geographical scholarship - broadly conceived. We will maintain our reputation for theoretical and conceptual innovation so that we are shaping and leading debates globally.

We will continue to engage concepts and materials from across disciplinary boundaries to renew geographical scholarship and bring geographical perspectives to bear in other domains. We work across every continent and most major oceans and embrace the full diversity of methods and data available to the discipline.

We are further developing our core undergraduate programmes and will be recruiting world leading staff accordingly to ensure these programmes continue to offer the highest quality of education that develop students with skills to advance scholarly and public debates to which geography is central. The quality of our undergraduate students, and the degree programmes which ensue, combine with our large graduate school to provide a teaching experience for staff that is truly excellent.

The Role

We are seeking to appoint a 3 year Postdoctoral Research Associate in Human Geography to work within the Leverhulme Trust funded project "Unfeeling climate change: Disaffection and the climate crisis".

Unfeeling climate change focuses on how, why and with what consequences the climate crisis is lived and felt through 'disaffected feelings' - boredom, numbness, indifference, and other forms of disaffection. It will investigate how disaffected feelings emerge, happen and change, and their consequences for climate (in)action across business, policy, art, activism and everyday life. The project aims: to gather new empirical material on how 'disaffected feelings' are represented, encountered and experienced, and governed in relation to the climate crisis; to understand the relations between 'disaffected feelings' and forms of climate (in/non) action; and to develop a new conceptual framework for understanding the relation between feelings and the climate crisis. The research has two work packages. Work Package 1 - Mediating Climate Change - involves interviews with actors of four types on how disaffected feelings are problematised and governed in their work, as well as how disaffected feelings emerge for them (policy makers and practitioners, businesses, media creators, and artists). Work Package 2 - Encountering Climate Change - uses diary work, interviews, and other qualitative methods to follow how disaffected feelings surface in people's everyday life in the North-East, England as they encounter climate change.

The successful applicant will work alongside Prof. Ben Anderson (PI, Department of Geography, Durham University) and Prof. Lauren Rickards (Sociology, La Trobe University) on the project.

The primary duties will be to contribute to the development of the project's conceptual approach and to the preparation and planning for the research, undertake research across the two work packages, organise project meetings and workshops, and contribute to the writing up and dissemination of the research to multiple academic and non-academic audiences.

Key responsibilities:

• To prepare and deliver presentations on research outputs/activities to audiences which may include: research sponsors, academic and non-academic audiences.
• To publish high quality outputs, including papers for submission to peer reviewed journals and papers for presentation at conferences and workshops under the direction of the Principal Investigator or Grant-holder.
• To assist with the development of research objectives and proposals.
• To conduct individual and collaborative research projects under the direction of the Principal Investigator or Grant-holder.
• To work with the Principal Investigator or Grant-holder and other colleagues in the research group, to plan and prepare for the research, and develop the project's conceptual approach.
• To deal with problems that may affect the achievement of research objectives and deadlines by discussing with the Principal Investigator or Grant-holder and offering creative or innovative solutions.
• To liaise with research colleagues and make internal and external contacts to develop knowledge and understanding to form relationships for future research collaboration.
• To plan and manage own research activity, research resources in collaboration with others and contribute to the planning of research projects.
• To organise project meetings and workshops, under the direction of the Principle Investigator or Grant-holder.
• To contribute to fostering a collegial and respectful working environment which is inclusive and welcoming and where everyone is treated fairly with dignity and respect.
• To engage in wider citizenship to support the department and wider discipline.
• To engage in continuing professional development by participation in the undergraduate or postgraduate teaching programmes or by membership of departmental committees, etc. and by attending relevant training and development courses.

This post is fixed term for three years. The funding for the project will end on 31st December 2027, therefore the post is not extendable beyond this date.

The post-holder is employed to work on research/a research project which will be led by another colleague. Whilst this means that the post-holder will not be carrying out independent research in his/her own right, the expectation is that they will contribute to the advancement of the project, through the development of their own research ideas/adaptation and development of research protocols.

Successful applicants will, ideally, be in post by or close to 1st January 2025

Working at Durham

A competitive salary is only one part of the many fantastic benefits you will receive if you join the University: you will also receive access to the following fantastic benefits:

• 30 Days annual leave per year in addition to 8 public holidays and 4 customary days per year - a total of 42 days per year.
• The University closes between Christmas and New Year - please include or delete if not applicable.
• We offer a generous pension scheme, As a new member of staff you will be automatically enrolled into the University Superannuation Scheme (USS).
• No matter how you travel to work, we have you covered. We have parking across campus, a cycle to work scheme which helps you to buy a bike and discount with local bus and train companies.
• There is a genuine commitment to developing our colleagues professionally and personally. There is a comprehensive range of development courses, apprenticeships and access to qualifications and routes to develop your career in the University. All staff have dedicated annual time to concentrate on their personal development opportunities.
• Lots of support for health and wellbeing including discounted membership for our state of the art sport and gym facilities and access to a 24-7 Employee Assistance Programme.
• On site nursery is available plus access to holiday camps for children aged 5-16.
• Family friendly policies, including maternity and adoption leave, which are among the most generous in the higher education sector (and likely above and beyond many employers).
• The opportunity to take part in staff volunteering activities to make a difference in the local community
• Discounts are available via our benefits portal including; money off at supermarkets, high street retailers, IT products such as Apple, the cinema and days out at various attractions.
• A salary sacrifice scheme is also available to help you take advantage of tax savings on benefits.
• If you are moving to Durham, you may be eligible for help with removal costs and we have a dedicated team who can help you with the practicalities such as house hunting and schools. If you need a visa, we cover most visa costs and offer an interest free loan scheme to pay for dependant visas.

Discover more about our total rewards and benefits package here.

Durham University is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion

Equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) are a key component of the University's Strategy and a central part of everything we do. We also live by our Purpose and Values and our Staff Code of Conduct. At Durham we actively work towards providing an environment where our staff and students can study, work and live in a community which is supportive and inclusive. It's important to us that all colleagues undertake activities that are aligned to both our values and commitment to EDI.

We welcome and encourage applications from those who are currently under-represented in our work force, including people with disabilities and from racially minoritised ethnic groups.

If you have taken a career break or periods of leave that may have impacted on the volume and recency of your research outputs and other activities, such as maternity, adoption or parental leave, you may wish to disclose this in your application. The selection committee will take this into account when evaluating your application.

The University has been awarded the Disability Confident Employer status. If you are a candidate with a disability, we are committed to ensuring fair treatment throughout the recruitment process. We will make adjustments to support the interview process wherever it is reasonable to do so and, where successful, reasonable adjustments will be made to support people within their role.

Contact Information

Department contact for academic-related enquiries

Please contact Prof. Ben Anderson - ben.anderson@durham.ac.uk - with any questions about the post.

Contact information for technical difficulties when submitting your application

If you encounter technical difficulties when using the online application form, we prefer you send enquiries by email. Please send your name along with abrief description of the problem you're experiencing toe.recruitment@durham.ac.uk

Alternatively, you may call 0191 334 6801 from the UK, or +44 191 334 6801 from outside the UK. This number operates during the hours of 09.00 and 17.00 Monday to Friday, UK time. We will normally respond within one working day (Monday to Friday, excluding UK public holidays).

University contact for general queries about the recruitment process

How to Apply

To progress to the assessment stage, candidates must evidence each of the essential criteria required for the role in the person specification below. It will be at the discretion of the recruiting panel as to whether they will also consider any desirable criteria, but we would urge candidates to provide evidence for all criteria.

While some criteria will be considered at the shortlisting stage, other criteria may be considered later in the assessment process, such as questions at interview.

Submitting your application

We prefer to receive applications online. We will update you about your application at various points throughout the selection process, via automated emails from our e-recruitment system. Please check your spam/junk folder periodically to make sure you have not missed any of our updates.

What to Submit

All applicants are asked to submit:

• a CV and cover letter (maximum 2 pages) which details your experience, skills, and achievements in meeting (or the potential to meet) the criteria set out below.
• A sample of writing, specifically a published, in-press, submitted, or draft output (journal article or book chapter).

Next Steps

Short-listed candidates will be invited to the University, either virtually or in-person and will have the opportunity to meet key members of the Department. The assessment for the post will include an interviews, and we anticipate that the assessments and interviews will take place over one day in late October.

In the event that you are unable to attend in person on the date offered, it may not be possible to offer you an interview on an alternative date.

Please note that in submitting your application Durham University will be processing your data. We would ask you to consider the relevant University Privacy Statement Job Applicants/Potential Job Applicants - Durham University which provides information on the collation, storing and use of data.

When appointing to this role the University must ensure that it meets any applicable immigration requirements, including salary thresholds which are applicable to some visas.
Person Specification

Essential Criteria:

Qualifications

A good first degree in human geography or a related social science or humanities subject.

A PhD (or be close to submission) in Geography or a related social science or humanities subject. The PhD must be submitted by the start date of the post.

Experience

Experience in conducting high quality academic research focusing directly on the relations between affect and climate change.

Demonstrable ability to write material of a quality commensurate with publication in highly-ranked journals.

Experience in designing, developing, and conducting innovative qualitative methods for researching affective life.

Publication record related to climate change in peer-reviewed journals (or in-press/accepted), commensurate with stage of career.

Skills

Demonstrable ability to work cooperatively as part of a team, including participating in research meetings.

Ability to work independently on own initiative and to strict deadlines.

Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.

Knowledge of and expertise in social science and humanities research on climate change.

Knowledge of and expertise in theoretical debates around affect, and the implications of affect related work for the politics of climate change.

Desirable Criteria

Experience

A track record of presenting research at conferences, symposia, or meetings, commensurate with stage of career.

A track record of organising conferences, symposia, or meetings, commensurate with career stage.

Experience in engaging with climate change related organisations.

Skills

Knowledge of literatures in the social sciences and humanities on disaffected feelings, and their politics.

Knowledge of trends in climate change related public engagement.

Ability to analyse research materials generated through innovative qualitative methods.