NYU: Postdocs in Liberal Studies: Global Works and Society (USA)

Postdocs
Postdoctoral faculty fellows: Global Works and Society, Liberal Studies, New York University, NY, USA.  Deadline: 15 November 2025.

Liberal Studies at New York University invites applications for two Postdoctoral Faculty Fellow positions to begin September 1, 2026, pending administrative and budgetary approval. The Liberal Studies Core is a dynamic liberal arts curriculum that provides a global and interdisciplinary foundation for nearly 100 NYU majors. The curriculum emphasizes conceptual and spatial frameworks to trace the movement of ideas and the interconnectivity of material culture, through the study of different texts, histories, exchanges, structures and systems, languages, arts, and writing from early antiquity through contemporary times. Small seminar-style classes and close faculty-student interaction ensure the benefits of a liberal arts college within a large urban research university. They are especially interested in hiring qualified candidates who can contribute through their research, teaching and service to the intellectual diversity and excellence of the Liberal Studies community.

Liberal Studies Postdoctoral Faculty Fellows teach two courses each semester in the Core Curriculum. Fellows work closely with an assigned Faculty Mentor, they attend pedagogy workshops that explore innovative approaches to interdisciplinary global teaching, and they have the opportunity to lead faculty development workshops or host program wide events in their area of scholarly, creative, or pedagogical expertise.The initial appointment is for one (1) year, and it may be renewed for two additional years, based upon satisfactory performance reviews and mutual agreement. Postdoctoral Faculty Fellows are limited to a maximum of three (3) years in rank; they are non-tenure track.

GLOBAL WORKS AND SOCIETY

PhD in Political Theory, Philosophy, History, or related fields in the social sciences. Candidates must demonstrate the ability to draw on ancient and early modern sources in their teaching with a global emphasis in the Global Works and Society sequence of the Core Curriculum. Candidates must embrace interdisciplinary and intersectional approaches from a variety of global perspectives and must have the ability to examine relationships of power and to interrogate the historical roots of current challenges.

Princeton: Postdocs in International and Regional Studies (USA)

Postdocs
Postdoctoral research fellowships, International and Regional Studies, Princeton University, NJ, USA.  Deadline: 15 September 2025.

The Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies (PIIRS) at Princeton University is pleased to announce the call for applications to the PIIRS Postdoctoral Fellowship Program for the 2026-27 academic year. As a leading global institution in interdisciplinary research on international issues, PIIRS is dedicated to advancing innovative scholarship that addresses the world’s most pressing challenges. The PIIRS Postdoctoral Fellows Program is integral to that mission.

They will award two postdoctoral fellowships to the 2026-27 cohort. PIIRS seeks recent PhDs in the Social Sciences who have demonstrated exceptional scholarship, congruent with the Institute’s intellectual focus, that simultaneously advances theoretical debates in their disciplinary field; creatively speaks to and engages with a multidisciplinary audience; and deepens substantive regional knowledge of specific places.

Appointments are for one year (12 months) with the possibility of renewal pending satisfactory performance and continued funding. Postdoctoral Research Associates (PDRAs) are expected to be in residence at Princeton or the local vicinity for the entire academic year or demonstrate to the program’s satisfaction the ability to be on campus on a daily basis and on short notice in order to fulfill responsibilities relating to in-person participation. The position requires PDRAs to be on campus at least four days per week.

U Reading: Postdoctoral Research Associate in Languages & Cultures (UK)

Postdocs
Postdoctoral research associate: Nation of Refuge, Languages and Cultures, University of Reading, UK.  Deadline: 5 September 2025.

The University of Reading is seeking a Postgraduate Research Associate (PDRA) starting 01/11/2025, fixed term until 31/10/2029, full time (1FTE). This post forms part of a 4-year research project ‘Nation of Refuge’, funded by a UKRI Future Leader’s Fellowship and led by Dr Ellen Pilsworth (University of Reading). The project explores Britain’s track record of offering refuge to asylum seekers and refugees from ca. 1930 to the present, exploring the perspectives of refugees and ‘ordinary’ British citizens, and their interactions with institutions and the state, throughout the period. The successful candidate will collect and analyse mid-late twentieth-century material from mostly unpublished sources in UK archives; contribute to physical and digital exhibition curation; produce high-quality academic publications; contribute to academic symposia; and contribute to the university’s research culture.

You will have 1) a completed PhD in a Humanities subject, preferably History, Cultural/Literary Studies, or Social Sciences, 2) Expertise relevant to the topic of refuge/asylum in the UK in the mid-late twentieth century, or to post- Second World War UK immigration more broadly (including contemporary immigration/asylum), and 3) A research record commensurate to your academic experience. Relevant language skills are desirable, but not a requirement for the post. Preference may be given to candidates who have experience of working with national and international archives that are relevant to this project, particularly those relating to the Ugandan Asian Expulsion.

Osnabrück U: Postdoctoral Researcher in Reflexive Migration Research (Germany)

Postdocs

Postdoctoral Researcher in Reflexive Migration Research, Osnabrück University, Osnabrück, Germany. Deadline: 25 June 2025.

The DFG-funded Collaborative Research Centre ›Production of Migration‹ (SFB 1604) examines the conditions and functions of the social production and negotiation of migration across disciplines. The aim of SFB 1604 is to establish reflexive migration research as an approach to the study of society. SFB 1604 is located at Osnabrück University (Germany) – a university with diverse research activities that attract students and scientists from all over the world to a city with a high quality of life. The SFB 1604 is seeking to appoint a Postdoctoral Researcher (m/f/d) (Salary level E 13 TV-L, 100%). The position is to be filled as soon as possible and is initially limited to two years.

Your tasks:

  • Development and submission of a high-quality funding proposal (Heisenberg Programme (DFG), ERC Grant, Emmy Noether Programme (DFG) or comparable programmes) for a research project within the topics of the Collaborative Research Centre by mid-2026. In terms of concept and research focus, the project should be closely aligned with the Collaborative Research Centre and deepen and/or supplement its ongoing work.

  • On-site participation in the events and activities of the SFB in Osnabrück

  • Active participation in the theoretical development of the SFB and its publication projects

GIGA: Postdoc in Comparative Politics with a focus on Sub-Saharan Africa (Germany)

Postdocs

Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Comparative Politics with a focus on Sub-Saharan Africa, German Institute for Global and Area Studies, Hamburg, Germany. Deadline: 26 May 2025.

The German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA) / Leibniz-Institut für Globale und Regionale Studien is an independent social science research institute based in Hamburg. It analyses political, social, and economic developments in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East, and links this knowledge to questions of global significance. It combines region-specific analysis with innovative comparative research on accountability and participation, peace and security, globalisation and development, and global orders and foreign policies. The GIGA seeks to appoint a Postdoctoral Research Fellow (M/F/D) in Comparative Politics With a Focus on Sub-Saharan Africa.

Applications are invited for a full-time position, with an initial contract of three years and the possibility of another three years after successful evaluation and depending on the availability of funds. The successful applicant should start as soon as possible. The successful candidate will work on key questions and challenges in comparative politics with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa. Potential research areas include but are not limited to autocratisation and democratisation, domestic politics and/or institutions, external actors, comparative political economy, the comparative study of conflicts, questions of misinformation or repression, and the political challenges arising from digitalisation. They expect the candidate to outline a corresponding research agenda.

Osnabrück U: Postdoc in Futures of Migration (Germany)

Postdocs

Postdoc in Futures of Migration, Institute of Migration Research and Intercultural Studies, Osnabrück University, Germany. Deadline: 7 January 2025.

As part of the research area ‘Futures of Migration’ (FuturMig) funded by the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture, Osnabrück University is seeking to appoint a Postdoctoral Researcher.

The Institute for Migration Research and Intercultural Studies (IMIS) at Osnabrück University, the Center for Global Migration Research (CeMig) at the Georg August University Göttingen, the Center for Educational Integration (ZBI) at the University of Hildesheim, the Leibniz Institute for Educational Media, Georg Eckert Institute (GEI), Brunswig, and the Friedland Museum are cooperating in the Lower Saxony research area ‘FuturMig’ (2025–2029).

‘FuturMig’ deals with ideas and strategies for shaping the future of societies that are shaped by migration and diversity in political, media, and societal debates, fields of practice and migration research. ‘FuturMig’ is reviewing the academic state of the art, is planning the establishment of an international guest professorship and the development of a follow-up collaborative research initiative. ‘FuturMig’ focuses in particular on educational contexts – early childhood institutions, schools, universities, civil society initiatives, museums and memorials.

U Mass Amherst: Postdoc in Relationality and Ethics (USA)

Postdocs

Relationally and ethics postdoctoral research associate, CBIKS, University of Massachusetts Amherst, MA, USA. Deadline: open until filled; posted 20 August 2024.

This postdoctoral position is with the Center for Braiding Indigenous Knowledges and Science (CBIKS), a National Science Foundation Science & Technology Center. CBIKS is an interdisciplinary center that utilizes community-based research to examine how to effectively and ethically braid Indigenous and Western science research, education, and practices related to the urgent and interconnected areas of climate change, care of cultural places, and food sovereignty.

CBIKS activities include conducting place-based research in regional Hubs worldwide while documenting and promoting ethical community-based practices of braiding Indigenous and Western science. The person who holds this position will assist two CBIKS thematic working groups (TWGs): the Ethics TWG and the Relationality & Research Development TWG.

This is an on-site position at CBIKS Central on the UMass Amherst campus in Amherst, MA with the expectation of some remote work. This is a one-year position with the possibility of renewal in a second year.

UCL: Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Global Socialisms (UK)

Postdocs
Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Global Socialisms, University College London, London, UK. Deadline: 15 September 2024.

Applications are invited for the position of Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Global Socialisms within the framework of the ‘The Socialist Anthropocene in the Visual Arts’, a research project funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) under the UK government’s Horizon Europe funding guarantee. 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 new geological times. 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. The research incorporates insights from the fields of art history, environmental history, the history of science, anthropology and the history of global socialisms, along with the work of contemporary artists who contribute to the SAVA team as creative fellows. The distinctiveness, epistemologies, relationalities and potentialities of the Socialist Anthropocene are analysed through annual thematic streams. The focus of this cohort of research fellows and creative fellows will be on agrarian and botanical politics of socialism, animal husbandry and species under socialism and the cultures of the Socialist Anthropocene, from official to dissident and Indigenous approaches to the natural world.

U Penn: Postdoc in Communication, Group Identity, and Computational Methods (USA)

Postdocs
Postdoctoral Researcher in Communication, Group Identity, and Computational  Methods, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA. Deadline: 15 August 2024.

The successful candidate for this position will work in the Annenberg School for Communication under the supervision of Dr. Deen Freelon. A recent hire at Annenberg, Freelon is in the process of starting a new lab, and this postdoc will play a crucial role in helping him do so. The unifying idea of the new lab’s work is that many facets of group identity—including race, gender, sexuality, religion, nationality, and others—have historically been neglected as potential factors in co-determining communication patterns and outcomes. Quantification of such characteristics must be done carefully to maximize construct validity and minimize harm and exclusion. (The term “group identity” is used broadly and without reference to any particular theoretical tradition.) Applicants with strong interests in these and related issues are encouraged to apply, as are those with experience analyzing under-studied media types including podcasts, images, and video.

Roughly half this individual’s time will be spent working on Freelon’s projects, while the other half will be devoted to projects initiated independently and with other research groups. The position is designed to allow a highly motivated researcher to build a strong CV under the mentorship of a longtime innovator in political communication and computational social science. Extension of the position to a second year (if desired) will depend on effective performance in the first.

U Aarhus: Postdoc in 2nd Language Learning in Danish Social & Healthcare Education (Denmark)

Postdocs
Postdoc in Second Language Learning in Danish Social and Healthcare Education, Department of Educational Anthropology and Psychology, University of Aarhus, Emdrup Campus, Denmark. Deadline: 10 June 2024.

The research project Sociolinguistic Barriers and Potentials among Second Language Learners in Danish Social and Healthcare Education explores social and linguistic barriers and potentials among second language learners in Danish social and healthcare education (‘SOSU-hjælperuddannelsen’ and ‘SOSU-assistentuddannelsen’), an educational field which has attracted increasing political attention due to a drastic projected shortfall in healthcare personnel in coming years and high dropout rates. More than 30% of SOSU students are assumed to have Danish as a second language, representing more than 109 different nationalities and a vast array of linguistic repertoires.

The project focuses on the linguistic practices of students with Danish as a second language, the linguistic barriers and demands associated with different parts of their healthcare training, and how students respond to these barriers and demands in everyday interaction, drawing on linguistic and sociocultural registers of healthcare, education and care. The SOSU programme includes a variety of educational arenas for linguistic minority students, including healthcare training, language lessons and internships across nursing homes, hospital wards and private homes, where students are expected to interact with teachers, supervisors and co-students along with patients, elderly citizens, relatives and various kinds of healthcare personnel. An in-depth linguistic-ethnographic approach is applied, including extensive digital sound recordings, qualitative interviews and participant observation, to explore students’ linguistic practices, barriers and potentials, along with the various linguistic skills and sociocultural registers associated with becoming a ‘good SOSU worker’ across different institutional arenas.