Department of Geography, National University of Singapore (NUS)
THREE faculty positions in Social/Cultural Geographies addressing contemporary crises of sustainability in Asia (two positions at Assistant Professor level on the tenure-track and one at Associate or Full Professor level with tenure)
The Department of Geography at the National University of Singapore (NUS) seeks to appoint three established or emerging research leaders in the field of Social/Cultural Geography whose work addresses contemporary crises of sustainability in Asia. This could include, but is not limited to, issues of environmental justice, sustainable practices and futures, or the socio-spatial dimensions of climate change. The successful candidates will be expected to play leading and innovative roles in the Department’s Social and Cultural Geographies (SCG) group and to build an ambitious programme of research.
The NUS Department of Geography has a long and rich tradition of social and cultural geography research, with well-established strengths in scholarship on cultural/heritage landscapes, migration and transnationalism, cities, gender, and geographies of tourism. In more recent years the SCG research group has developed other research strands including ageing and care, children and young people, pedagogy innovations and urban liveability. The group is currently organised around two inclusive and overlapping themes: mobilities and urban life. SCG members have strong collaborative relations with colleagues in the other two research groups in the Department (Politics, Economies and Space, PEAS, and Tropical Environmental Change, TEC) and scholars in cognate disciplines, particularly as part of the NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. NUS more widely is among the world’s most highly reputed universities and provides a generous and well-resourced environment in terms of funding and other research support. For more information on the NUS Department of Geography, please see: https://fass.nus.edu.sg/geog/
We particularly welcome applications from social and cultural geographers who make use of innovative and creative methods and methodologies, including digital. For candidates who do not have previous experience of researching in/on Asia, it is important to demonstrate evidence of an ability and willingness to develop research projects in/from the region. Candidates must have a PhD in geography or a closely allied field.
Interested candidates should submit an application comprising: a letter of interest with details of their research credentials and future plans; the level of post they are applying to (professor, associate professor or tenure track assistant professor); a full curriculum vitae; and evidence of teaching experience, including feedback if available. Those applying for an Assistant Professorship position should also include the names and contact details of three referees (one of whom must be the applicant’s PhD supervisor). Those applying for the tenured Associate/Full Professor position will be asked to provide the names and contact details of six referees should they be short-listed.
For further enquiries, please contact the Chair of the Search Committee, Professor Tim Bunnell: geotgb@nus.edu.sg
The deadline for applications is 16 April 2021. Shortlisted candidates will be notified soon thereafter, and plans will then be made for a campus visit and interview (because of the impacts of COVID-19 we will be conducting virtual campus visits until further notice).
Candidates to note:
Assistant Professor positions (tenure-track), please submit your application here
Tenured Associate/Full Professor (with tenure), please submit your application here
Posted: 22nd March 2021 by Coordinator
Job Opportunities: Three faculty positions in Social/Cultural Geographies (Singapore)
Department of Geography, National University of Singapore (NUS)
THREE faculty positions in Social/Cultural Geographies addressing contemporary crises of sustainability in Asia (two positions at Assistant Professor level on the tenure-track and one at Associate or Full Professor level with tenure)
The Department of Geography at the National University of Singapore (NUS) seeks to appoint three established or emerging research leaders in the field of Social/Cultural Geography whose work addresses contemporary crises of sustainability in Asia. This could include, but is not limited to, issues of environmental justice, sustainable practices and futures, or the socio-spatial dimensions of climate change. The successful candidates will be expected to play leading and innovative roles in the Department’s Social and Cultural Geographies (SCG) group and to build an ambitious programme of research.
The NUS Department of Geography has a long and rich tradition of social and cultural geography research, with well-established strengths in scholarship on cultural/heritage landscapes, migration and transnationalism, cities, gender, and geographies of tourism. In more recent years the SCG research group has developed other research strands including ageing and care, children and young people, pedagogy innovations and urban liveability. The group is currently organised around two inclusive and overlapping themes: mobilities and urban life. SCG members have strong collaborative relations with colleagues in the other two research groups in the Department (Politics, Economies and Space, PEAS, and Tropical Environmental Change, TEC) and scholars in cognate disciplines, particularly as part of the NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. NUS more widely is among the world’s most highly reputed universities and provides a generous and well-resourced environment in terms of funding and other research support. For more information on the NUS Department of Geography, please see: https://fass.nus.edu.sg/geog/
We particularly welcome applications from social and cultural geographers who make use of innovative and creative methods and methodologies, including digital. For candidates who do not have previous experience of researching in/on Asia, it is important to demonstrate evidence of an ability and willingness to develop research projects in/from the region. Candidates must have a PhD in geography or a closely allied field.
Interested candidates should submit an application comprising: a letter of interest with details of their research credentials and future plans; the level of post they are applying to (professor, associate professor or tenure track assistant professor); a full curriculum vitae; and evidence of teaching experience, including feedback if available. Those applying for an Assistant Professorship position should also include the names and contact details of three referees (one of whom must be the applicant’s PhD supervisor). Those applying for the tenured Associate/Full Professor position will be asked to provide the names and contact details of six referees should they be short-listed.
For further enquiries, please contact the Chair of the Search Committee, Professor Tim Bunnell: geotgb@nus.edu.sg
The deadline for applications is 16 April 2021. Shortlisted candidates will be notified soon thereafter, and plans will then be made for a campus visit and interview (because of the impacts of COVID-19 we will be conducting virtual campus visits until further notice).
Candidates to note:
Assistant Professor positions (tenure-track), please submit your application here
Tenured Associate/Full Professor (with tenure), please submit your application here
Last Updated: 22nd March 2021 by Coordinator
Call for Articles: Contested airport land in the Global South
Contested airport land in the Global South
Call for contributions to book edition “Contested airport land in the Global South” (working title), initial editors: Sneha Sharma & Irit Eguavoen, AG Geographische Entwicklungsforschung, Universität Bonn
Airport lands and those foreseen for future airport construction/ expansion are emerging as contested resources in cities, peri-urban and rural areas of the Global South and the Global North. Countries, such as Kenya, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Maldives, Jamaica, or Mexico are witnessing land struggles, displacement of local communities and ethnic clashes. Airport and airport city projects result in so-called ́aviation-related conflicts ́ and raise critical questions about sustainability, environmental justice, citizenship and human rights. In some of these cases, a strong civil disagreement and political mobilisation has resulted in powerful protest movements – some of which were successful in preventing or delaying projects or leading to there vision of implementation schemes. Many other cases have received little public attention despite severe negative social and environmental impact. Evidence from case studies presents a complex interplay of land use planning, infrastructural development, governance, local livelihoods, as well as national economic and climate policies. This interplay calls for a critical examination of land-related contestations around airports. Lobby organisations are actively collecting evidence, building international networks and discourse coalitions across the Global North and the Global South in order to strengthen their protest against avian infrastructure, injustice and displacement, as well as against pollution, destruction of habitats and non-ecofriendly mobility.
Through this book edition, we would like to initiate a wider thematic debate on political discourses and economic drivers, local conditions and responses, as well as establish an arena to discuss and compare a diversity of case studies and views on the issue. We invite you to contact us if you would like to participate in the book project as author or join us as an editor. In our understanding, the journey towards the book/ journal edition is as important as the final product because it generates shared spaces for networking and exchange, allowing us to learn from each other about the conditions and contestations around airports.
For more information, please contact: eguavoen[at]uni-bonn.de or visit the website here.
Posted: 22nd March 2021 by Coordinator
Opportunity: PhD in Geography
Deadline for application is 30th April 2021.
Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI) and the Department of Geography at the University of Bergen (UiB) are seeking a PhD candidate to conduct research related to the project “Prioritizing the Displacement-Environment Nexus: Refugee and IDP Settlements as Social- Ecological Systems”. The project is funded by the Research Council of Norway.
The successful candidate will be based out of CMI and apply to be enrolled in the PhD program at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Bergen, and shall be affiliated with the Department of Geography at UiB. The candidate will also be part of the Climate Change and Natural Resources research group at CMI.
Start date is set to the 1st of August 2021.
The project aims to understand the relationship between displaced people and the environment
This project pilots a novel approach, it conceptualises settlement areas as social-ecological systems.
Furthermore, the project responds to an important gap in the fields of humanitarian and refugee studies. While environment is often identified as a driver of involuntary displacement, there is little existing research considering how refugees or internally displaced persons (IDPs) interact with the environment in newly settled areas. Also, existing research falls largely within the social sciences, with little integration of natural science approaches. This gap is filled by coupling remote sensing-based assessments of landscape change with historical, ethnographic and participatory approaches.
Research in Afghanistan and India:
The analysis will identify patterns in livelihoods, landscape change, and health over these multi-decade time-frames, building an interdisciplinary historical analysis.
To interpret these data, the project relies on the Theory of Adaptive Change which, informed by community concerns, will underpin scenario-building and assessment of future socio-ecological trajectories.
The key questions the project seeks to answer are:
Your role as a PhD candidate:
More information and how to apply, click here.
Last Updated: 22nd March 2021 by Coordinator
Opportunity: Climate Change and Resilience in Food Systems Course
Climate Change and Resilience in Food Systems Course
University of Leeds, GCRF Africap
Learn new research-led strategies designed to mitigate the effects of climate change on agriculture and food systems.
Even small climate changes can have large-scale consequences in agriculture and food systems with devastating effects for the people and their economies. On this course, you will learn strategies designed to mitigate the impact of climate change, develop resilient food systems and create sustainable development in local communities.
Course available from 29 March onwards. Visit the website here.
Posted: 22nd March 2021 by Coordinator
Blog post: What role do local governance frameworks play in strengthening women’s voices in land governance?
Across East and West Africa, IIED and partners have been developing and testing approaches to strengthen women’s voices in local land governance. Philippine Sutz reflects on the role and impact of local governance frameworks as these approaches are implemented in different contexts.
Read the full blog here.
Last Updated: 22nd March 2021 by Coordinator
Research report: How collective action can influence the direction of a land reform: lessons learned from civil society mobilisation in Senegal
How collective action can influence the direction of a land reform: lessons learned from civil society mobilisation in Senegal
Download the report here.
Reference: Delville, P., Diagne, D., Richebourg, C. (2021). Influencer collectivement les orientations d’une réforme foncière : enseignements de la mobilisation des organisations de la société civile au Sénégal. IIED, London.
https://pubs.iied.org/12610FIIED
Last Updated: 22nd March 2021 by Coordinator
Arab Land Initiative: Women and Land
Women’s housing, land and property rights are catalyst to ensure the social and economic development of communities and increase food security. They contribute to the realisation and enjoyment of a broad range of human rights such as the right to adequate standard of living, adequate housing, health, work and education. Housing, land and property rights increase women’s empowerment and participation in decision making within the household and in the public life. They help protecting women from gender-based violence and other health hazards, and they enable women to play an active role in the stabilization of societies affected by crisis and conflict.
The challenges women face in relation to the access and enjoyment of their housing, land and property rights is part of the broader gender inequalities that reflect many aspects of the Arab society. The Women and Land Campaign promoted by UN-Habitat, the Global Land Tool Network and the Arab Land Initiative aims at raising awareness on how to overcome such challenges and at empowering women to improve their housing, land and property rights while drawing the public’s attention to this important theme.
The Campaign is promoted by UN-Habitat, as part of its mandate to achieve a better urban future for all, and by the partners of the Stand for Her Land Campaign, including the World Bank, the International Land Coalition, Landesa, and Habitat for Humanity.
Visit the website of this campaign here!
Last Updated: 28th May 2021 by Coordinator
LANDac Discussion Starter UN FSS: “Centering Women’s Land Rights for Equitable Food Systems Transformation”
Centering Women’s Land Rights for Equitable Food Systems Transformation: A discussion starter on UN FSS Action Track 1: Safe and nutritious food for all
As part of the Decade of Action, the United Nations Food Systems Summit 2021 (UN FSS) focuses on ‘bold new actions, solutions and strategies’ to transform food production and consumption and progress on all 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This is because the success of each SDG relies, to varying degrees, on healthy diets and sustainable and equitable food systems. The COVID-19 crisis shows that transformative change and nutritional resilience are more urgent than ever, especially for the most marginalized. With slow and unequal progress on malnutrition, and with hunger and obesity on the rise, food systems must become nutritious and efficient, but also equitable and inclusive so that no one is left behind.
This discussion starter, written by Michelle McLinden Nuijen, poses that the governance of tenure—or the ways society manages access to, control over, and use of land and natural resources —is a fundamental pillar of any food system. Women’s land rights especially are fundamental to the long-term sustainability of the food system as a whole as well as to reaching progress on all SDGs.
Download the full discussion starter for the UN FSS here.
Posted: 19th March 2021 by Coordinator
OPINION: Why are tribal women in India still robbed of their land rights?
Shipra Deo is Landesa’s director of women’s land rights in India, explores in this opinion piece in Thomson Reuters why tribal women in India are robbed of their land rights.
When it comes to land ownership, India’s culture and practices have always been discriminatory to women, but women in tribal society are doubly disadvantaged, first as women and second as tribal women. Widowhood only compounds these problems. Inheritance rules for tribal communities are governed by customary laws, not by statutory rules that apply in non-tribal areas.
Why is this so? The lawful ‘owners in waiting’ who are men by default, see a single woman – whether a widow, sister or mother – as a barrier to the full control over and enjoyment of their rights. They perpetrate all kinds of violence – physical, verbal, emotional, sexual – to evict women from the land or the property that they are waiting to own.
Read the full opinion piece by Shipra Deo here.
Last Updated: 19th March 2021 by Coordinator
Studentship opportunity: PhD scholarship on The Housing ‘Trilemma’: Geographies of Precarity in Rural Scotland
Deadline for applications: 31st March 2021
This PhD studentship seeks to understand how precarity is produced, experienced and resisted in relation to housing in rural Scotland, in order to develop a novel ‘housing trilemma’ approach. Discussions of precarity might include, for instance, ideas surrounding housing security, affordability, quality and access, but also broader relations with income (in)security, work, migration and social dimensions such as family connections.
The new ‘housing trilemma’ will explore the relative importance of different dimensions of precarity, contributing to contemporary debates in Geography and Housing Studies. It will also be used to identify tensions and trade-offs informing future government policy concerning rural and island housing in Scotland. There will therefore be conceptual and policy outcomes gained from the studentship, which although focused on Scotland, will have relevance for many countries where housing in rural areas is under pressure.
Information on the project, eligibility and how to apply on GradHub is available on the Scottish Graduate School of Social Science webpage.
For more information, visit the website here.