Postdoctoral Position: Minority Ethnic Students in Higher Education – Aspirations, Resources and Institutional Norms

The Danish School of Education (DPU), Faculty of Arts, Aarhus University, invites applications for a postdoctoral position within the research project Educational Optimism – Aspirational Orientations and Mobility of Minority Ethnic Youth, funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark (Humanities).

The postdoctoral position is full-time (37 hours per week) and fixed-term for 24 months, starting on 1 June 2026 and ending on 31 May 2028. The position is based at DPU, Emdrup Campus, within the Department of Educational Anthropology and Educational Psychology.

The Danish School of Education is committed to diversity and encourages all qualified applicants to apply, regardless of their personal background. Given the nature of the project’s empirical work, applicants must be fluent, or near-fluent, in Danish.

Research context

The postdoctoral project forms part of the larger research project Educational Optimism – Aspirational Orientations and Mobility of Minority Ethnic Youth, which examines the social and cultural factors underlying the increasing number of minority ethnic young people who enrol in and complete upper secondary education, as well as the significant rise over the past 10–15 years in the number who complete higher education. The overall project comprises three subprojects that explore these themes across different age groups and educational institutions.

The postdoctoral project investigates how educational aspirations and mobility are experienced, challenged and realised among minority ethnic students in higher education, with a focus on the collective resources developed among the young people and possible changes in institutional norms. The project includes six months of ethnographic fieldwork in two higher education programmes that are popular among minority ethnic students, as well as interviews with the students and their families.

Further information

Applicants are encouraged to contact project manager Laura Gilliam (lagi@edu.au.dk) to obtain the full project description.

The position

The selected applicant will work in close collaboration with the project manager, Laura Gilliam, and a PhD student throughout the period of employment. This collaboration includes planning and conducting fieldwork, processing and analysing empirical material, and organising seminars and meetings with the advisory board.

In addition to conducting and completing the subproject, the postdoctoral researcher is expected to:

• Be an engaged and collaborative member of the research group
• Publish independently (two peer-reviewed articles) and in collaboration with the PI (one peer-reviewed article) in relevant Danish and international journals
• Initiate, co-organise and participate in activities together with the PI and PhD student (e.g. conferences, seminars and other relevant academic events)
• Collaborate with the international advisory board
• Undertake a one-month research visit at a relevant research institution outside Denmark
• Contribute to the dissemination of research findings to wider audiences.

Teaching and supervision

As a postdoctoral researcher, the position is primarily research-based but may involve teaching and supervision of up to a maximum of 20 per cent. The selected applicant may therefore be expected to participate in teaching and supervision activities at MA level within the Department of Educational Anthropology and Educational Psychology. Any teaching activities will be agreed with the head of department. The medium of instruction is Danish.

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