Research Fellow in the Environmental History of Socialism

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 insigh! ts of mul tiple 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 hold a PhD in history, anthropology, environmental humanities or a related field in the humanities and social sciences awarded within the last three years. Their research should be focused on Central and Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, or any other non-western country or region that was formerly aligned with the socialist world. Projects based on either case studies or comparative approaches to the environmental history of socialism, which relate to the SAVA thematic focus on extractivism, infrastructures or the countryside are likely to be of particular relevance. The candidate will have a record of peer-reviewed publications or 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 resea! rch and a willingness to participate fully in public facing events.

How to apply

Please apply through the UCL online recruitment page (http://www.ucl.ac.uk/hr/jobs/). Interviews will be held (online) in February 2023. We will offer feedback to all interviewees, but we regret that we are unable to provide feedback at any earlier stage of the application process. References will only be required for shortlisted candidates. Please ensure that your referees are aware and will be able to provide references at short notice in February if requested.

Advert information