PostDoc at Umeå University

Postdoctoral position in participatory digital media
 
 
  
The Faculty of Humanities at Umeå University is seeking a Postdoctoral Researcher to be placed at the Department of Culture and Media Studies. The researcher will conduct studies relating to the continuities between participatory culture and civic engagement. As such, qualified candidates should be aware of current research trends in digital culture, new media, online activism, web and citizen journalism, and fan studies, and should be ready to apply that knowledge to case study research.
  
 The media landscape of today is characterized by active audiences that increasingly take control over the flows of communication. Through social media, new spaces for engagement and for the creation of user-created content are formed. Audiences now act back more and more upon the content that is presented to them from traditional institutions in politics, journalism and culture. Hybrid media places become the springboard for new forms of social movements as well as more or less individualized expressions that challenge the previously established boundaries and cultural contracts of the public sphere.
  
The postdoctoral researcher will have earned an advanced degree and should have conducted previous qualitative research in one or more of the above listed areas. Successful candidates must be able to work independently and apply knowledge of domestic and international participatory cultures and civic action to the development of innovative analyses and models of civic learning and identity.
  
The position will also be affiliated with the Media Places research program at HUMlab (Umeå University) and particularly to the research theme Media Places as Hybrid Practice and Representation. Within this theme, analyses are carried out of how physical, digital and symbolic properties of our lived experience come together in rich media places, and how hybrid practices and representations develop. The research carried out by this post doc, in the field of participatory media and activism, will function as part of this wider framework, and the post doc will also be able to gain from collaboration and exchange with other researchers within the program.
  
 
  
Applicants must have taken their doctorate within the last three years and not have already held a postdoctoral position.
  
For further information about the position, please contact Professor Simon Lindgren, simon.lindgren@soc.umu.se, phone number +46 90 786 95 19.
  
Union information is available from SACO, +46-(0)90-786 53 65, SEKO, +46-(0)90-786 52 96 and ST, +46-(0)90-786 54 31.
  
Documents sent electronically should be in MS Word or PDF format. Your complete application, marked with reference number 315-150-11, should be sent to jobb@umu.se(state the reference number as subject) or to the Registrar, Umeå University, SE-901 87 Umeå, Sweden to arrive March 21, 2011 at the latest.