The Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery (LNCR) is being established at the University of Oxford in 2022. Its purpose is to draw on and consolidate the world-leading expertise of the University and its partners to address the challenge of delivering effective and socially inclusive nature recovery at scale, in order to support goals of reversing national and global biodiversity decline by the end of this decade. The successful candidate will be examining the roles played by digital technologies in understanding and enabling nature recovery. Key themes will include: 1) how digital technologies enable and constrain the access of different social groups to meaningful encounters with the natural world; 2) the new modes of conservation governance enabled by the rise of digital technologies for monitoring, delivering and policing nature recovery; 3) the potential of social media methodologies for understanding the cultural dimensions of nature recovery; 4) how digital technologies might enable new modes of interdisciplinary conservation and nature recovery research.
The main duties include managing academic research activities, including coordinating multiple aspects of work to meet deadlines and desired goals. This will involve conducting field work online and, in the UK, working with a wide range of academics, stakeholders and project partners, which might include farmers and private land-owners, industry-bodies, governmental and non-governmental organisations. Research could be undertaken across the UK, but key focal landscapes will include Oxfordshire and the central Scottish Highlands. You will also be responsible for collecting and analysing data and preparing manuscripts for submission to peer-reviewed journals. The projects you will be working on are interdisciplinary and so the ability to work collaboratively across disciplinary boundaries is essential. Another duty is to contribute ideas and analyses for new research projects within the wider focus of the LNCR.
You must hold, or be close to completion of, a PhD in a relevant subject area, which could include Geography, Sociology, Science Studies, Anthropology, Digital Media, Politics/Political Ecology. You will possess relevant experience of conducting research in digital ecologies. You will have excellent communication skills, including the ability to write for publication, to present research proposals and results, and to represent the research group at meetings You will demonstrate experience of qualitative research using different methods to examine the social dimensions of digital technologies and media. Demonstratable understanding of the social dimensions of nature conservation and nature recovery, ideally in a UK context is essential.
Applications are particularly welcome and encouraged from women, black, and minority ethnic candidates, who are under-represented in posts in SoGE. SoGE are committed to equality and values diversity.
This is a full-time post for 3 years.
Applications for this vacancy are to be made online. You will be required to upload a CV and supporting statement as part of your online application.
The closing date for applications is 12:00 noon on 27th June 2022, and interviews will be held soon thereafter.
