Research Associate in Historical Climatology and Historical Glaciology

About the role

This 3-year Research Associate position sits within the European Research Council project ‘AdaptAIR: Climate Adaptation through Artificial Ice Reservoirs in the Himalayas’. This project explores the social, cultural and environmental context of the deployment of Artificial Ice Reservoirs (AIRS) as water management tools in the Himalayan cold desert regions, in the context of rapidly retreating glaciers. The project combines high-resolution climate, glacier and hydrological modelling with approaches from anthropology, history and critical agrarian studies to understand water use and agrarian change in the region, and how AIRs affect this.

The role will explore the archive sources of the Moravian Missionary Society and colonial archives in the UK – and possibly India – to gain a deeper understanding of climate and glacier variability in the region. Following methodologies common in historical climatology, you will look for both evidence of variability in the physical environment that is recorded in written sources, and the relationship of communities in the region to the natural world. You will work closely with climatologists and glaciologists on the project, and with anthropologists exploring human relationships with ice, water and climate in the present day. The research conducted will contribute to AdaptAIR’s overall aims of understanding long-term climate vulnerability in the region, and exploring the possibility of artificial ice reservoirs as an adaptation tool. You will also have the potential to develop your own research agenda based on the materials explored in the archives.

The primary records will be from the Moravian Missionary Society, active in the region from 1856, and archives of the colonial government of India. You will be working primarily between London and Herrnhut (Germany), with the possibility of travel to India and Nepal. Proficiency in reading German and English is therefore essential.

You will be supervised by, and work closely with, PIs George Adamson (Kings College London, historical climatology), and Jeremy Ely (University of Sheffield, glaciology), as well as anthropologists at Guelph university and colleagues in the UK and India.

This is a full-time post, and you will be offered a fixed term contract for 3 years.

About you

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

Essential criteria

1. PhD qualified in historical climatology, environmental history, glaciology, geography or a related area, or PhD near completion
2. Substantial experience of archival research in the field of historical climatology, environmental history or historical geography
3. Strong competency in written English and German
4. Excellent communication skills, including the ability to write for publication, present research findings at conferences, and represents the research team at meetings
5. Ability to take responsibility for personal time management and work proactively and independently to ensure that relevant objectives and milestones are met
6. Ability to work as part of an international, interdisciplinary team

Desirable criteria

1. Knowledge of current literature on social vulnerability, resilience and adaptation to climate change, in the past and/or present
2. Ability to work across quantitative and qualitative disciplines
3. Direct experience of climate and/or glacier reconstruction
4. Experience of working on South Asia, and/or mountain environments

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