SOAS U of London: Senior Lecturer/Reader in Anthropology: Migration & Diaspora (UK)

“JobSenior Lecturer / Reader in Anthropology, Department of Anthropology & Sociology, SOAS University of London, London, UK. Deadline: 5 February 2023.

The Department of Anthropology and Sociology welcomes applications for a Senior Lectureship/Reader in Anthropology (starting in September 2023). The successful candidate will be an outstanding anthropologist/social scientist with the requisite teaching and research experience and topical expertise to deliver undergraduate and postgraduate modules in migration and diaspora studies, as well as in the wider discipline of anthropology. Regional specialism is open to any area of Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and their diasporas. It is expected that you will have expertise relevant to the vision and strategy of SOAS, including a strong interest in applying a global lens to the critical issues of our time.

You must have a PhD in Social/Cultural Anthropology or closely allied field and a record of excellence in anthropological research on diaspora, migration and displacement. This will be evidenced by original ethnographic field research, high-quality publications and other research outputs, keynotes and conference presentations, as well as a track record of successful grant applications. We particularly welcome candidates who demonstrate the potential to contribute to the development of innovative pedagogies and have experience working with students of diverse backgrounds and life experiences.

In addition to teaching and research, the role holder will be expected to act as chair of the Centre for Migration and Diaspora Studies, supervise dissertations at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, supervise doctoral research and writing, contribute to academic advising, and hold administrative roles as appropriate within the Department, College, and School.

United Nations U: Academic Programme Advisor (Japan)

“JobAcademic Programme Advisor, United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability, Tokyo, Japan. Deadline: 31 January 2023.

The United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS) is one of 14 research and training Institutes that comprise that think tanks in the UNU system and is based at the university’s headquarters in Tokyo, dedicated to advancing global efforts towards a more sustainable future. UNU-IAS serves the international community through policy relevant research and capacity development focused on sustainability, integrating its social, economic, and environmental dimensions. The activities of the institute are in four thematic areas: i) governance for sustainable development, ii) biodiversity & society, iii) water & resource management, and iv) innovation & education. The work of UNU-IAS is directed towards priority issues for the UN system and Member States, contributing to high-level policymaking and debates to address problems of global concern. For more information, please visit http://ias.unu.edu.

Under the supervision of the UNU-IAS Director, the Academic Programme Advisor will manage a set of academic programmes and projects and develop relevant activities in the institute’s four thematic areas, serving as Academic Director. Advanced university degree (Ph.D.) in international development, sustainability, or a field related to sustainability science expected. Specific responsibilities include: 

  • Manage the UNU-IAS postgraduate degrees and training programmes
  • Lead academic and research activities
  • Run fundraising activities for the institute
  • Advance outreach activities
  • As a manager, participate in the regular academic and management meeting of UNU

U Oxford: Postdoc in International Mobility and World Development (UK)

Postdocs
Postdoctoral Researcher: International Mobility and World Development, Department of Education, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. Deadline: 20 January 2023.

This is an exciting opportunity for a post-doctoral researcher to join a research project, funded by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) of the U.S. Department of State, examining the links between international mobility and world development. Reporting to Prof Maia Chankseliani, the post-holder will join a team of six enthusiastic, interdisciplinary researchers based at the University of Oxford Department of Education. The post-doctoral researcher will be fluent in Arabic and possess familiarity with the Middle East & Northern Africa (in particular, Lebanon, Libya, Qatar, UAE, Morocco, Yemen, Iraq, Jordan, Palestinian Territories, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Israel), and will lead on the data collection, searches, analysis, and presentation of findings on the Middle East & Northern Africa and, if required, on other regions. They will also work on extensive searches of secondary sources, conduct elite interviews online and engage in conducting systematic literature reviews, as well as independently develop a holistic understanding of the designated global region (Middle East & Northern Africa) in order to be able to meaningfully contextualise and interpret numeric and narrative findings pertaining to the selected region.

U Notre Dame: Visiting Research Fellowships for 2023-24 (USA)

FellowshipsVisiting Research Fellowships, Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, Keough School of Global Affairs, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, USA. Deadline: January 31, 2023.

Each year, the Kroc Institute’s Visiting Research Fellows Program brings outstanding scholars focused on peace research to the University of Notre Dame for a semester or a full academic year. The Institute particularly seeks scholars who will actively integrate their research with ongoing Kroc research initiatives. Applicants must have completed a doctoral, or equivalent, degree (with the exception of the Alumni Visiting Research Fellow). Clearly identify the field to which you are applying (Gender, Intersectionality, Conflict & Peacebuilding; International Mediation; Systemic Racism in the United States; Alumni).

CFP South Asian Perspectives on Securing Health and Well-Being (USA)

“PublicationCall for Book Chapter Manuscripts: The Handbook of Communication in (pre & post)Pandemics: South Asian Perspectives on Securing Health and Well-Being. Deadline: 15 February 2023.

“We are inviting authors to submit chapter manuscripts for a forthcoming handbook, tentatively titled The Handbook of Communication in (pre & post)Pandemics: South Asian Perspectives on Securing Health and Well-Being, under consideration by Routledge and edited by Gita Bamezai (Former Head, Communication Research, Indian Institute of Mass Communication), Pradeep Sopory (Wayne State University), and Uttaran Dutta (Arizona State University).

Research on health communication in South Asia tends to center around media health campaigns and media health discourse analysis. The proposed handbook seeks to shift the focus from the media as a site of health communication to other contexts such as communities, organizations, work groups, and family. It seeks to highlight everyday South Asian experiences of communicative exchanges about health and well-being in these contexts, which may be located in both the geographical South Asia as well as its Diasporas, through de-colonial, indigenous, and de-westernized perspectives.

The proposed edited handbook will examine communication related to physical and mental health and wellbeing during (and beyond) the Covid-19 pandemic in South Asia. The region comprises eight countries (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Maldives) that share many geopolitical, socio-structural, and cultural characteristics. Its citizens face a range of noncommunicable and communicable disease burdens in the context of a dense population (1.9 billion people, 25% of global population) and an inadequate health infrastructure. The Covid-19 (& post) pandemic scenario has added to the health burdens and posed significant short- and long-term challenges to people’s physical and mental wellbeing. The handbook chapters will cover the full range of communication contexts from intrapersonal to societal/cultural, with a focus on communities, organizations, work groups, and family, to examine communicative contents, structures, and processes that both enhance and harm health and well-being in South Asian countries and its diasporas.”

Harvard U: Multiple Fellowships in Law & Society or Negotiation (USA)

FellowshipsMultiple fellowships for 2023-24 relating to either law and society or negotiation, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA. Deadline: Varies by program.

Harvard University is offering a number of fellowship opportunities:

  1. The Program on Law and Society Visiting Fellowship Program provides opportunities for outstanding scholars and legal practitioners to undertake research, writing, and scholarly engagement on law and society in Muslim majority and minority contexts. They are particularly interested in applicants whose work focuses on human rights, women’s rights, children’s rights, minority rights, animal welfare and rights, constitutional law, food law, environmental law and climate change in particular, migration and refugee studies, LGBTQ issues, and related areas. They welcome applicants with advanced degrees (e.g., JD, LLM, SJD, PhD or other comparable degree) and experienced practicing lawyers who aim to draw upon their legal experience in their Fellowship project. Fellows may spend from one month up to one academic year (excluding June-August) in residence at Harvard Law School working on an independent project. Deadline: 1 February 2023.

  2. The Program on Negotiation Graduate Research Fellowship provides support for one year of dissertation research and writing in negotiation and related topics in alternative dispute resolution and give fellows an opportunity to immerse themselves in the diverse resources available at PON. Deadline: 9 February 2023.

Mélodine Sommier Profile

ProfilesMélodine Sommier is currently working as an Academy of Finland Research Fellow at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. She received her Ph.D. in 2016 for work on representations of secularism as part of the French national imaginary in newspaper texts.

Melodine Sommier

Mélodine’s research interests cover a variety of themes related to intercultural communication, media representations, race and racism, migration, sustainability, and education. Within the field of intercultural communication, her work concentrates on the use of culture as a discursive and an interactional resource. She mostly relies on critical and discursive approaches to examine the construction of cultural realities and outcomes regarding the (re)production of difference. Her research project on ‘racial landscapes’ (2022-2027) focuses on the way race and racism materialize in everyday urban spaces across Europe in ways that contribute to (re)produce and contest existing discourses and processes of racialization.

Mélodine is co-founder of the Intercultural Communication & Diversity division at the Netherlands-Flanders Communication Association (NeFCA) which she co-chaired between 2018-2022. She is the chair of the Intercultural and International Communication division at the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA) and a board member of the Society for the Study of Ethnic Relations and International Migration (ETMU).

Selected publications:

Fanari, A., Sommier, M., & Rahmani, D. (2025). (Re)defining intercultural communication theorizing: Mapping the current landscape of the field. Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, 54(5), 287-97.

Sommier, M., Roiha, A., & Lahti, M. (Eds.) (2023). Interculturality in higher education: Putting critical approaches into practice. London: Routledge.

Sommier, M. (2022). Race et espace: La ville comme lieu d’étude des représentations raciales [Race and space: Exploring racial representations in the city]. Itinéraires: Littérature, Textes, Cultures, 2021(3).

Sommier, M., Wang, Y., & Vasques, A. (2022). Transformative, interdisciplinary and intercultural learning for developing HEI students’ sustainability-oriented competences: A case study. Environment, Development and Sustainability.

Sommier, M., Lahti, M., & Roiha, A. (Eds.) (2021). From ‘intercultural-washing’ to meaningful intercultural education: Revisiting higher education practice. (Special issue). Journal of Praxis in Higher Education, 3(2).

Galy-Badenas, F., & Sommier, M. (2021). “A baby bump for women’s rights”: Analysing local and international media coverage of Jacinda Ardern’s pregnancy. Feminist Media Studies.

Sommier, M. (2020). “How ELSE are you supposed to dress up like a Black Guy??”: Negotiating accusations of Blackface in online newspaper comments. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 43(16), 57–75.

Work for CID:
Mélodine Sommier is the co-author of KC107: Interculturality and of a Guest Post on Implementing Critical Approaches to Interculturality in Higher Education., and the translator of KC107: Interculturality into French.

Happy New Year 2023

About CIDHappy New Year 2023 from the Center for Intercultural Dialogue. Wishing peace, happiness, and good health to all our followers in the coming year. May this be an easier year for everyone than the last several have been.

handmade tile with sun from Albuquerque NM
handmade tile with sun seen in Albuquerque NM

Thank you to all those who have supported CID over the past year, and over the past 13 years. Our work would not be possible without the considerable contributions of scholars and practitioners around the world. See the acknowledgments for specific names, but you know who you are. Your time and effort are much appreciated.

Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz, Director
Center for Intercultural Dialogue

Casey Man Kong Lum, Associate Director
Center for Intercultural Dialogue

World Food Prize Foundation: Program Manager, International Dialogues (USA but Remote Possible)

“JobProgram Coordinator/Manager, International Dialogues, World Food Prize Foundation, Des Moines, Iowa, USA (Remote Considered). Deadline: 4 January 2023.

The Program Coordinator/Program Manager, International Dialogues supports the planning and implementation functions of the World Food Prize Foundation’s International Dialogues team. This includes a set of convenings designed around the foundation’s mission. These convenings will include the annual International Borlaug Dialogue, Laureate Announcement, Iowa Hunger Summit, Digital Dialogues and Webinars, essential food and ag meetings, and special events like “Live with the Laureate.”

Duties and responsibilities include:

  • Provide content research writing support on critical agriculture and food security issues in preparation for the International Borlaug Dialogue, Regional Dialogues, International Events, Digital Dialogues, Iowa Hunger Summit, the Announcement of the World Food Prize Laureate and other important meetings.

  • Provide support to the team in stakeholder management, especially associated with engaging stakeholders around their participation in the events of the World Food Prize Foundation.

  • Prepare materials for internal and external distribution about the work and direction of the Foundation and the International Dialogues team. Draft written communication – internal and external.
    Provide support in speaker/topic identification, invitations, and panel management at various dialogues – including helping to create a cohesive convening, creating briefing materials, and communicating about meeting outcomes.

  • Support the International Dialogues team through meeting preparation, meeting notes, Google Suite Management, contact database (i.e., SalesForce) and other technology support including the organization-wide project management platform.

Newcastle U: Second Language Acquisition (UK)

“JobSenior Lecturer in Second Language Acquisition, School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics, Newcastle University, Newcastle, UK. Deadline: 7 February 2023.

The School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics wishes to appoint an outstanding teacher and researcher to the open-ended, full-time post of Senior Lecturer in Second Language Acquisition. The appointee will make major contributions to teaching, learning, research and impact in the English Language and Linguistics subject group, and be an active member of the Language Evolution, Acquisition and Development research group.

Applicants will have a completed PhD in Linguistics or a related discipline, and be able to demonstrate success in teaching Second Language Acquisition at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Applicants will have an outstanding record in research (including outputs, engagement/ impact activities and bids for external grant income) that is informed by linguistic theory and firmly embedded in the field of Second Language Acquisition. Proficiency in the collection, handling and analysis of second language data is essential, as is a track record in attracting PhD students and supervising them to completion. Applicants will also demonstrate clear potential for making a strong contribution to the School’s and Faculty’s collaborative education and research culture.