[ecrea] Postdoctoral Fellowship at Stockholm University

Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Media Studies,
Stockholm University


Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Media Studies. Reference number 
SU FV-0230-15. Deadline for applications: February 28, 2015.

The Department of Media Studies (IMS) is an internationally oriented 
research environment encompassing the Section of Journalism, Media and 
Communication (JMK), the Section of Film Studies and the Centre for 
Fashion Studies. Both JMK and Cinema Studies have been defined as 
nationally outstanding and internationally prominent by Stockholm 
University and external examiners. The section of JMK hosts a range of 
large, externally funded research programmes that span broad fields of 
media research.

The Department now announces a post doctoral fellowship within the 
research programme Existential Terrains: Memory and Meaning in Cultures 
of Connectivity (http://et.ims.su.se/), headed by Associate Professor 
Amanda Lagerkvist (Wallenberg Academy Fellow), financed by the Knut and 
Alice Wallenberg Foundation, the Marcus and Amalia Wallenberg Foundation 
and Stockholm University.


Within the research programme we are exploring one of the major issues 
of our time: what it means to be human in the digital age. Our rapidly 
changing communication culture offers new spaces for exploring what is 
important in life, but our digitalised lives also pose new challenges 
that heighten the vulnerabilities of being human. Digitalisation affects 
our existence in a number of ways, and the overarching research question 
concerns how people navigate the transformations involved in the 
digitalisation of our lifeworld. One pertinent area for such emergent 
existential issues is the desequestering of death in the digital age: in 
the Global North death has returned to everyday life in digital memory 
practices; on digital memorials, in communities of grief and 
remembrance, on suicide sites and in cancer blogs.

We live in a world where our memories and identities emerge through 
socio-technological ensembles, but these rely upon storage in rapidly 
ageing and dying machines. Questions about the quantified and wired 
self, and its archiving in our era of hyperconnectivity, have been 
accompanied by debates about the ‘right to be forgotten’ in a world 
where algorithms trace and shape our movements online. The very nature 
of memory is simultaneously transitioning in our era of temporal 
instantaneity. And hyper connectivity is also supplemented by different 
forms of disconnection.

Setting out from theoretical debates within the fields of media, 
religion and culture, digital memory studies and existence philosophy, 
and by employing a multi-method research design (combining online 
ethnography, interviews and analysis of digital form and content) the 
project aims to develop an existential approach within media studies. 
The purpose of the programme is to produce new knowledge about the 
possibilities for meaning-making in relation to the profundity of our 
lives, existential and spiritual issues, while acknowledging the 
fundamental affective ambivalence, potential loss of meaning and 
predicaments for existential public health in the digital age.

The successful applicant for this position will be an important 
contributor to the research group, and will participate in the broader 
research community within the Department. The position also enables 
international conference participation and the project generously covers 
such expenses.

Job assignments
The primary job assignments within this position include research within 
the programme, and participation in and administration of activities 
within the research network. The fellow may also be assigned 
departmental administrative duties and/or teaching

General eligibility requirements
A postdoctoral fellow is someone who is primarily hired to conduct 
research and who has a PhD degree, or the equivalent.

Selection criteria
Degrees should have been received within three years of the deadline for 
applications. If there are particular reasons the degree may have been 
received earlier. These my involve leave of absence du to illness, 
parental leave, clinical service, positions of trust and simliar etc.

In appointing the postdoctoral fellow particular emphasis will be placed 
on scientific qualifications. The applicant should have documented 
research experience of studying the internet and/or digital cultures. An 
applicant who has done previous research on media and memory, and on 
digital memory cultures in particular, or who has been engaged in 
research about disconnection, media phenomenology or who has done 
research on digital media within the field of media, religion and 
culture will be considered highly qualified for the post. So is someone 
with a particular track record of  having developed qualitative methods 
in studying digital cultures.

Conditions of employment
The post implies a full time employment for two years, with a possible 
extension if there are particular reasons. The starting date is 
September 1, 2015 or as agreed.

Stockholm University strives to be a working place free of 
discrimination, affording equal opportunities for all.

Information
For more information about this position, contact Amanda Lagerkvist, tfn 
08-164431, e-mail: (amanda.lagerkvist /at/ ims.su.se)

Union representatives
Anqi Lindblom-Ahlm (Saco-S) and Lisbeth Häggberg (Fackförbundet ST), 
phone: 08-16 2000 (vx), and Gunnar Stenberg (SEKO), phone:  070-316 43 41.

Application
The application should be written in Swedish or English and should contain:

    * a cover letter;
    * a resumé;
    * a copy of your PhD Degree Diploma;
    * a research plan (2 pages), where the purpose, materials and 
methods of the proposed study are specified. The assignment is here to 
describe how the study  will contribute to the programme Existential 
Terrains: Memory and Meaning in Cultures of Connectivity, and to the new 
emergent field of research surrounding digital media and existential issues;
    * a list of publications;
    * references.


Welcome with your application marked with ref.nr SU FV-0230-15, and 
submit it no later than February 28, 2015 by e-mail to: (registrator /at/ su.se).

Files submitted electronically should be in Word or pdf-format. NOTE: 
refer to the number SU FV-0230-15 in the subject area of your e-mail 
message.

Amanda Lagerkvist
PhD Associate Professor
Wallenberg Academy Fellow

Dept. of Media Studies (IMS/JMK)
Stockholm University
PO. Box 27861
115 93 Stockholm

email: (amanda.lagerkvist /at/ ims.su.se)
phone: +46 (0)8 164431
mobile: +46 (0)73 6600574
http://www.su.se/
http://www.wallenbergacademyfellows.se
http://et.ims.su.se



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