Postdoctoral Position in Sapere Aude-project on ‘Imaginaries of Existential Risks’

The Department of Digital Design and Information StudPes within the School of Communication and Culture at Aarhus University invites applications for a postdoctoral position affiliated with the Sapere Aude research project ‘Imaginaries of “Existential Risks”: Making, Governing, and Contesting Humanity’s Future ’ funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark.

The postdoctoral position is a full-time and 2-year fixed-term position. The position begins on 1 September 2025 or as soon as possible thereafter.

The School of Communication and Culture is committed to diversity and encourages all qualified applicants to apply regardless of their personal background.

Project

Since the beginning of the 21st century, scientists, policymakers, and social movements have been increasingly embracing a vision of the future in which ‘existential risks’ to humanity’s long-term survival figure as a central concern for social, economic, and political action in the present. The project investigates the production of existential risk imaginaries, their uptake in global governance, and their contestation through social movements.

Grounded in Science and Technology Studies (STS) and in-depth, qualitative fieldwork at various sites where imaginaries of existential risks are mobilised, authorised, and essentialised, the project closes important gaps in critically assessing the politics of these new powerful forms of futuring.

Postdoctoral position

The successful applicant will be expected to carry out specific work package in the project, which seeks to understand the making of imaginaries of existential risks within prestigious academic institutions, such as Oxford University’s Future of Humanity Institute (FHI), University of Cambridge’s Centre for Existential Risk (CSER), Stanford University’s Existential Risk Initiative (SERI) and the US-based Future of Life Institute (FLI).

The postdoc will develop a map of the institutions and actors involved in existential risk analysis, which, through controversy and issue mapping, visualizes the similarities and differences of what issues are analyzed as risks and what methods are employed in the analyses. The map constitutes the backdrop for deeper ethnographic fieldwork at selected institutions, which will provide insights into how knowledge of existential risks is being produced in Europe and the US. While being based at research institutions, existential risks initiatives are often funded by large grants from major actors in the tech-industry.

To understand the nature of the new alliances between research institutions and the tech-industry and their ability to impact collectively held imaginaries of the future, the fieldwork also includes interviews and meetings with funders.

The postdoctoral researcher is, moreover, expected to carry out a research stay (funded by the project) at one of our advisory board members’ institutions (Stanford University, University of Oxford, or L’institut national de recherche pour l’agriculture, l’alimentation et l’environnement.

Teaching and supervision

As a postdoctoral researcher, your position is primarily research-based but will also involve a small degree of teaching and supervision. To that end, the successful applicant will be expected to participate in the department’s teaching and supervision activities and teach and supervise at BA and MA levels at the Department of Digital Design and Information Studies.
Given the international focus of the degree programmes, the successful applicant will be expected to teach in English as well as Danish.

Qualifications

Applicants must have a PhD degree or document equivalent qualifications in a relevant field related to STS and or /policy-analysis.

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