Month: July 2025

Maria Flora Mangano: Standing for Peace Without Weapons

Guest PostsStanding for Peace Without Weapons. Guest post by Maria Flora Mangano.

In 2025, we are celebrating the eightieth anniversary of several events related to the end of World War II, including the launch of the bombs which devastated Japan. Oppenheimer immediately realized the need to avoid global destruction, and soon he stepped back from atomic weapons, instead promoting disarmament and peace among the international community of physicists and scientists. His commitment to peace encountered strong opposition among the political and government contexts of that time. At the end of the war, he was removed from government and academic positions, and he charged with supporting communism through his pacifist ideas. He was rehabilitated, teaching in the US before his death. A few months after the creation of the atomic bomb, Oppenheimer delivered a speech in the same place where the group of physicists worked and helped to create the Association of Los Alamos Scientists. They, in turn, mobilized the scientists of the world to support a peaceful use of science and knowledge, arguing for global disarmament.

What may his words suggest to us, in this tragic and dark time for the whole world, when it seems that history has taught us nothing?

Are we really powerless and inexorably in the hands of our politicians’ choices, as the obvious vision of the world seems to suggest? Do we really believe that the end of the wars come from those with the loudest voices and as a result of weapons?

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Global Cities: Education Program Manager (USA)

“JobEducation Program Manager, Global Cities, Inc., New York, NY, USA. Deadline: open until filled; posted 12 July 2025.

The Global Cities seeks an experienced, creative, and tech-savvy Education Program Manager to join its team of accomplished educators who design and implement the Global Scholars virtual exchange program. As part of Global Cities’ collaborative and innovative team, they apply a diverse skillset to create student-centered, project-based curricula, teacher professional development, and a lively e-classroom environment for young people worldwide. Their responsibilities also include liaising with Global Scholars classroom teachers, school leaders, and education district/ministry officials, and contributing insights to initiatives for all K-12 educators interested in integrating global competency into their curriculum and instruction.

Global Cities, Inc., a Program of Bloomberg Philanthropies, promotes skills that today’s youth require for citizenship in tomorrow’s world. Global Cities has extensive experience using technology to forge connections among students and educators that promote learning, including through Global Scholars, our signature virtual exchange program for public school students. Through the program, students ages 10 to 13 engage in constructive dialogue with peers across the globe in e-classrooms. Their posts, replies, and digital projects are primary texts for them to learn about other cities and perspectives, and how to solve the shared global issue they are studying. Currently, Global Scholars connects over 10,400 students and more than 500 educators in 546 cities around the world.

In addition to operating Global Scholars, Global Cities has conducted research that demonstrates that direct peer-to-peer connections develop the knowledge, attitudes, skills, and behaviors that constitute global competency. What we have learned is relevant to all educators working to ensure every child has access to education that will prepare them for success in a globalized world, and we have an ambitious agenda to share this learning with the next generation of K-12 teachers. To learn more, please visit: https://www.globalcities.org/

U Jyväskylä: Intercultural Communication (Finland)

“JobUniversity Teacher in Intercultural Communication, University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Deadline: 3 August 2025.

The University Teacher’s position is allocated to the discipline of Intercultural Communication in the Department of Language and Communication Studies. The department provides high quality, research-based academic education in language and communication studies.

The University Teacher will be a part of a team responsible for research and education in the field of Intercultural Communication. The teaching takes place in the international MA degree programme Language, Globalization and Intercultural Communication and the study module in Intercultural Communication. The contents of the teaching modules deal for example with themes related to critical approaches to diversity in organizational communication, dynamics of migration, technology-mediated communication across contexts, issues related to intergroup communication, discourses of power, and both qualitative and quantitative methodology.

University Teachers are required to have a relevant master’s degree. The duties, qualification requirements and language skills of a University Teacher are stipulated by the University of Jyväskylä Regulations and language skills guidelines. Excellent proficiency in English is required in this position.

In addition, the following skills and achievements are regarded as merits: (i) experience in teaching, (ii) pedagogical training, (iii) development of teaching materials, (iv) other merits in teaching, (v) other skills and achievements relevant to the task of the University Teacher, and (vi) collaboration possibilities in teaching within the broader structure of the department. Research (vii) in one of the core research areas of the department or at their crossroads is also considered a merit (see https://www.jyu.fi/en/humsoc/kivi/research-at-kivi).

Fulbright Opportunities 2026-27

FulbrightsFulbright has announced open awards competitions for both US scholars to travel abroad, and international scholars to travel to the US. Deadlines vary by program.

The Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program is now open for applications with a deadline of 25 September 2025. The Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program offers over 400 awards in more than 135 countries for U.S. citizens to teach, conduct research and carry out professional projects around the world.  College and university faculty, as well as artists and professionals from a wide range of fields can join over 400,000 Fulbrighters who have come away with enhanced skills, new connections, and greater mutual understanding.

For those outside the US, interested in a stay in the US, the Visiting Scholar Program is the obvious beginning point. In addition, the Scholar-in-Residence Program accepts applications from U.S. institution of higher education to host a scholar from outside of the United States for a semester or full academic year to teach courses, assist in curriculum development, guest lecture, develop study abroad/exchange partnerships and engage with the campus and the local community.

Library of Congress: Kluge Fellowships (USA)

FellowshipsKluge Fellowships, Kluge Center, Library of Congress, Washington, DC, USA. Deadline: 15 September 2025.

The Kluge Center welcomes applications from promising post-graduate scholars for research in an array of subjects that can be supported by the Library’s collections and digital resources. These positions are filled by a range of competitions managed by the Kluge Center. Fellows receive individual carrels within the Library of Congress’ Thomas Jefferson Building to pursue their work.

The Kluge Center is pleased to announce that applications are now being accepted for endowed fellowship programs at the Library of Congress. The Center offers residential fellowships to scholars and thought leaders to make use of the Library’s vast collections and digital resources.

The Kluge Center encourages humanistic and social science research that makes use of the Library’s large and varied collections. Interdisciplinary and cross-cultural research is particularly welcome in the Kluge Fellowship program, which is open to scholars who received their terminal degree within the past seven years. Up to 12 fellowships are offered to scholars in the humanities, social sciences, and professional fields such as architecture or law, for periods of four to 11 months.

Among the collections available to researchers are the world’s largest law library and outstanding multi-lingual collections of books and periodicals. Deep special collections of manuscripts, maps, music, films, recorded sound, prints, and photographs are also available. In-residence scholars have access to the Library’s specialized staff and to the intellectual community of Washington. Further information about the Library’s collections can be found on the Library’s website.

(NOTE: Other fellowship programs are also available: Fellowship in Digital Studies, David B. Larson Fellowship in Health and Spirituality, and Philips Lee Phillips Society Fellowship.)

Maastricht U: PhD Studentship in Sustaining Borders and Displacement Through Refugee Entrepreneurship (Netherlands)

“Studentships“Sustaining Borders and Displacement Through Refugee Entrepreneurship Ph.D. Studentship, Maastricht University, Netherlands. Deadline: 31 August 2025.

The Department of Society Studies is looking for a PhD candidate to undertake in-depth ethnographic research on the bordering practices in entrepreneurship and other life-sustaining programs for refugees in protracted situations in the Global South. You will be part of the Globalisation, Transnational, and Development research group at Maastricht University.

For many refugees, sustaining life is a catch-22. On one hand, refugees living indefinite periods of displacement are often perceived as a burden to their countries of asylum. On the other hand, they are restricted from and can be punished for obtaining employment or other sources of livelihood that would allow them to become self-reliant. ‘Durable solutions’ to manage refugees’ return, local integration, or resettlement continue to be unattainable for the majority of the world’s refugee population. Institutions such as UNHCR and other state and non-state actors have turned towards more ‘comprehensive solutions’ that promote refugees’ self-reliance and economic inclusion in the society in which they live. This research aims to critically investigate how such programmes, in the form of entrepreneurship training and other youth employment initiatives designed to help refugees autonomously navigate the informal urban economies in the ‘Global South’, may also entail bordering practices that shape refugees’ continued experiences of displacement.

The PhD candidate will investigate entrepreneurship programmes and other initiatives that promote refugees’ self-reliance while living indefinite periods of displacement. These initiatives often target young refugees, which make up the majority of refugees, and are promoted as opportunities for refugees to learn new skills, widen networks, and improve future prospects after resettlement, despite declining opportunities for resettlement. The PhD candidate will get an opportunity to develop and undergo in-depth ethnographic research in a refugee asylum country in the Global South, preferably in Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. The research will engage with the following critical perspectives:

  1. A youth-centric perspective to understand how refugee entrepreneurship and other self-reliance programmes shape the experiences of young refugees, surviving and thriving amidst the fraught realities they face during displacement.
  2. An urban-refugee perspective to understand how refugee entrepreneurship and other self-reliance programmes are designed and implemented by state and non-state actors that support refugees in finding opportunities in the underregulated informal urban economies where they live.
  3. A border-making perspective to understand how refugee entrepreneurship and other self-reliance programmes are potentially used as border governing structures by state and non-state actors to keep refugees in protracted situations while not according them status.

The research project will be based on multi-scalar ethnographic research comparing different types of entrepreneurship and other self-reliance programmes in the PhD candidate’s chosen case study country. It will explore how these programmes are experienced by the refugees that participate in them, the trainers that are involved in designing and delivering the programmes, and the international organisations that fund them.

CFP: Mapping the Creative and Cultural Sectors

“Publication

Call for papers: Mapping the Creative and Cultural Sectors: Insights, Challenges, and Democratic Possibilities in Data and Policy, a special issue of Cultural Trends. Deadline for abstract: 18 August 2025.

Editors of the Special Issue:Inge Panneels and Caitlin McDonald (University of Edinburgh, UK)

This Call for Papers focuses on receiving articles that focus on cultural mapping from a Global South, or at least non-Western only perspective. The guest editors also call for papers that offer innovative methodological approaches, including creative approaches to mapping, or radical and alternative forms of mapping, or mapping approaches that don’t focus on physical spaces but are maybe mapping of place-based shifting cultural practices or policy issues.

UNAOC Youth Solidarity Fund 2025

Grants
Youth Solidarity Fund, United Nations Alliance of Civilizations, New York, NY, USA. Deadline: 15 August 2025.

The United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) invites youth-led organizations from eligible countries to apply for the 11th edition of the Youth Solidarity Fund (YSF). YSF supports projects that promote peace and social inclusion by enhancing mutual understanding, respect, and collaboration across borders, cultures, faiths, and beliefs.

YSF provides seed funding of up to USD 25,000 to implement impactful youth-led projects that advance intercultural and interfaith dialogue, and are aligned with the mandate and mission of UNAOC. To qualify, projects must be entirely developed and managed by young people for the benefit of society, especially youth.

Established in 2008, YSF was launched in response to the calls of young civil society leaders advocating for sustainable funding mechanisms to support their efforts on the ground. The Fund is tailored specifically to youth-led organizations and has, to date, invested a total of $2.59 million to support 80 youth-led projects in 43 countries, positively impacting more than 3.4 million beneficiaries worldwide.

Now in its eleventh edition, YSF continues its comprehensive support to youth-led organizations, with a particular focus on the role of young people in promoting cultural and religious pluralism, peace and mutual respect, preventing violent extremism when and as conducive to terrorism, addressing the increased stigma and discrimination, fostering respect for different religions and cultures, as well as tackling the root causes of polarization and identity-based conflicts. Through this support, UNAOC helps implement key global policy frameworks by fostering meaningful youth engagement in building peaceful and inclusive societies.

U Southern Denmark: Journalism &/or International Politics (Denmark)

“JobFull Professorships in Journalism and/or International Politics, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark. Deadline: 1 August 2025.

The Department of Political Science and Public Management, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, invites applications for a number of permanent professorships in political science and journalism as of March 1, 2026, or as agreed. With this call, the department is looking for strong profiles that can contribute to the department’s research section in either Journalism or International and Regional Politics.

Successful applicants must be able and willing to take a leading role in realizing the department’s four strategic objectives to:

  • produce high-quality and original research
  • build a sustainable portfolio of attractive, research-based study programmes
  • strengthen the outreach of our research and our focus on high societal relevance
  • secure a motivating and inspiring work environment for all employees.The department values a diversity of competences and profiles. The expectations for a full professorship at the department are described in the Scholarly Qualification Matrix – REEAD for the Department of Political Science and Public Management. Based on the criteria in the Scholarly Qualification Matrix – REEAD, the applicants must present a clear academic profile. By academic profile, the department understands the combined quality of research, education, external funding, academic citizenship, and dissemination.

    The successful applicants will be affiliated with the department’s research section for International and Regional Politics (IRP) or Journalism. The applicant is expected to outline how their academic profile and future research plans contribute to the strategy and current activities in one of these units.

U Westminster: Research Fellow: The Crisis of Migration Discourse (UK)

“JobResearch Fellow, School of Media and Communication, University of Westminster, Harrow campus, UK. Deadline: 22 July 2025.

The post holder will be based at the Harrow campus, School of Media and Communication, University of Westminster. However, hybrid working arrangements are supported. The post holder should also be prepared to occasionally travel to locations in the UK as needed for fieldwork, or to other locations in the EU for collaboration with project partners and participation in academic and knowledge exchange events.

A Research Fellow is wanted to join the British-based team of a CHANSE /AHRC awarded research project on “The Crisis of Migration Discourse: Towards a Participatory New Lexicon of Migration” (CMD). CMD engages with the impact of discourses and policies that construct migration through the lens of crises on people using unauthorised routes to enter the EU and the UK and are as a result illegalised. To do so, CMD posits illegalised migrants as agents of change working with them to impact the current narratives on migration and related practices and to enhance intercultural exchanges. The project is carried out in three successive modules across five European countries (Italy, France, Denmark, Spain, and the United Kingdom). Part of the project is to develop, test and disseminate educational resources in the form of a toolkit for action and a training programme to enhance the intercultural competence of stakeholders working in the above-specified fields.

The role offers an opportunity to work in an interdisciplinary, international research environment, contributing to innovative approaches in migration discourse analysis and participatory knowledge production. The post holder will be part of the UK based team and their work will focus primarily on working with researchers in the UK and in Italy.

The ideal candidate should have a strong academic background in migration studies, with expertise in critical discourse analysis and participatory research methods. They should be proficient in analysing migration narratives, policy and public discourses through a critical lens. The postholder will be able to take the initiative to develop research objectives and to collaborate with principal and co-investigators in ensuring that research activities and research goals are carried out according to the aims and objectives of the project.

In addition to these core requirements, desirable skills include proficiency in languages other than English (such as Italian or Arabic) which would enhance engagement with diverse communities and sources.