Two Postdoctoral Positions in Environmental Histories with a focus on Denmark/Mexico

The Department of Anthropology, School of Culture and Society, Faculty of Arts, Aarhus University invites applications for 2 fixed-term postdoctoral positions in Environmental History, each for 2 years in duration. One position will be focused on Denmark; the other Mexico. The appointments begin on 1st January 2026 or as soon as possible thereafter.

The university is keen for its staff to reflect the diversity of society and thus welcomes applications from all qualified applicants regardless of their personal background.

Research context

The successful applicants will join the ERC-funded project FILTERSCAPES – Filtering Futures: Contaminant Flows, Landscape Governance and the Making of New Anthropological Knowledge for Planetary Health led by P.I. Professor Ciara Kierans. The project focuses on contaminating flows in water ecologies as a critical problem for planetary health. It adopts filtration as a conceptual lens to analyse ecological, infrastructural and embodied filtering relations in Danish and Mexican river basins.

We are looking for two innovative environmental historians, with a completed PhD in environmental history, historically-oriented anthropology or related fields, and with experience working in the Danish or Mexican context. Interdisciplinary cross-overs with ethnographic-anthropological research and Geographical Information Systems and forms of environmental mapping are advantages, but not requirements.                                    

The position

Both positions will run for two years. The successful applicants are expected to:

• Develop research focusing on riparian filter histories in either Denmark or Mexico to include, e.g. changes in land-water usage, drainage projects and wetland exploitation; shifts in land ownership; changes to population growth and health; changes to sanitation, sewage, waste and water treatment; the emergence of hydrocracies, bureaucratic infrastructures, policy formations, systems of government and land-water management, working in close collaboration with the project P.I. and team
• Present their research at national and international events and publish results in peer-reviewed international scientific journals in a timely fashion, actively participate in the daily on-site working environment at Aarhus University
• Collaborate with team members, for instance, by co-authoring articles and reviewing relevant literature
• Initiate and help to organise research workshops, conferences, seminars, and other activities
• Demonstrate a commitment to interdisciplinarity, e.g. a willingness to think with scholars working in other intellectual traditions
• Demonstrate experience of and familiarity with the Danish or Mexican context,
• Demonstrate a commitment to public engagement in the Danish project and to locally engaged research practices in the Mexico project
• Engage with research environments at AU beyond the project itself, including the AU Centre for Environmental Humanities and the Department of History, by participating in events and presenting own work.

Applicants for the positions must hold a PhD degree in history or document equivalent qualifications and must be able to document:

• Expertise in environmental history
• An interest in interdisciplinary and collaborative working
• A research profile of high international quality
• The ability and willingness to engage in close collaboration with the team and the local research environment
• Fluency in written and spoken English and Danish for the Danish project and English and Spanish, for the Mexican project.

The application must be submitted in English.

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