Deadline: 15-Oct-21
The Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) has announced a Call for Applications on Social Justice Fellowship to conduct scientific research on global sustainability, particularly in the areas of climate change, energy transitions, governance for sustainable development, democratic transformations.
The IASS was created with the aim of harnessing all sources of knowledge and ingenuity to support the transition to more sustainable societies. Though primarily a research institute, the IASS recognises the need to bring together different kinds of knowledge practices to address the question of how societies can become more sustainable and still be socially fair.
Thematic Fields
The Fellowships address the nexus between justice and sustainability in the different work strands of the IASS, followed through the institute’s research areas and groups.
Applicants should have experience in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research. They should have deep knowledge of social justice and sustainability and should locate themselves in one of the following thematic fields:
- Environmental justice, covering topics such as unequal environmental, socio-cultural and health impacts from pollution (e. g. air quality) and other environmental risks, unequal access to mobility infrastructures, energy justice, just access to nature and green space, or just resource use.
- Just transitions, covering topics such as socially just transformation pathways, perceptions of justice in transformations and their scalar implications, marginalization and misrecognition of social groups in environmental decision-making, or economic and other distributive effects of different transformation paths (for example in low carbon energy transition).
- Climate justice, covering topics such as North-South inequalities in CO2 emissions, unbalanced climate adaptation opportunities, “export” of climate mitigation measures to the Global South, unbalanced access to global climate decision making, or the climate-ocean nexus.
- Justice and equity in governance, covering topics such as risk-risk trade-offs, diversity and inclusion in governance and policymaking, vulnerabilities and social impacts of environmental politics, ways to assess and communicate justice and equity issues, the sustainability-democracy nexus, equity concerns around access, benefit sharing and governance of resources (e. g. the commons, marine living and mineral resources).
- Responsible research practices and epistemic justice, including topics such as historical marginalization, colonial continuities in research, resistances against exploitative research practices, decolonial approaches to knowledge production, and context-specific understandings of research ethics.
Duration
- The IASS intends to provide up to five fellowships for durations of between six and twelve months.
- During the fellowship, the successful applicants are expected to:
- Ensure regular presence at the IASS in Potsdam
- Engage and collaborate with the research groups and areas to which the topic or focus of the fellowship is relevant, foster exchange between research groups
- Generate societal impact (e. g. workshops that engage the public or specific civil society groups)
- Participate in IASS events, particularly the bi-weekly fellow meetings
- Provide a workshop, presentation, or other contribution as part of the IASS Tuesday Talk series
- Provide advice on issues relevant to expertise or chosen topic
- Participate in the IASS social justice group colloquium and events
Eligibility Criteria
- Fellowships are open to individuals at all career stages and may be combined with sabbaticals.
- Applicants can come from a wide range of sectors such as science, public administration, the private sector, civil society, media and the arts.
- Applicants with a scientific research oriented proposal are expected to hold a Ph.D, Applicants with a practice oriented proposal, or from outside of academia are expected to have at least three years of relevant work and/or civil engagement experience.
- Fellows will receive financial compensation to cover their additional costs of living during their stay in Germany. The exact amount will depend on the particular situation of the successful applicant (e. g. whether they are on paid or unpaid leave) and will be decided on an individual basis
- On request, the IASS can also provide limited resources to cover travel expenses, publication fees, support for organising workshops, production costs for artistic work, etc.
Criteria
For your application, please provide the following documents:
- A letter of motivation and current CV
- A proposal outlining the activities you plan to engage in. The proposal should not be longer than five pages (excluding bibliography, illustrations, etc.) and should contain the following information:
- Description of your planned activities; including possible transformative outreach, exchange, and transdisciplinary collaboration activities (e. g. with publics, policymakers and civil society, arts, …)
- Details of how you would like to contribute to the work of the IASS and the internal knowledge exchange and collaboration. Please provide information on your discussions with IASS researchers prior to submitting the application and select two to three research groups with which you would like to interact closely. Please outline in detail how you are planning to collaborate with the 2-3 research groups you are interested in.
- Resource needs (e. g. travel plans, workshops, etc.) and estimated budget
- Timeline (i. e. intended start and end of fellowship, and overview of work programme or schedule of activities).