Applications are invited for two PhD scholarships at the Saxo Institute, associated with the Centre for Sustainable Futures. The position will be part of the Carlsberg Foundation funded Semper Ardens Accomplish project: Tolerating Urban Animals. Techno-moral perspectives on killing and caring for other species. The chosen candidates will be employed at the Saxo Institute and enrolled at the PhD School of the Faculty of Humanities.
The scholarship is for 3 years starting on 1 September 2026 or after agreement.
The Tolerating Urban Animals project explores the use of technologies for managing undomesticated and feral urban animals. Through ethnographic fieldwork and archival studies in Denmark, Sweden and Norway, we follow the technological development and legislation on animal rights in the EU since the 1970s, to explore technologies and everyday practices of deterring, killing, or caring for animals. The project asks: Why, where and by whom, are certain technologies seen as adequate and morally appropriate in human-animal relations? How and why do technologies and moral conditions for managing urban animals shift or persist?
The two PhD projects will explore:
1) Technologies for caring examines how municipalities, residents, and NGOs have deployed technologies to attract and sustain animal presence, and how these practices are embedded in local knowledges, moral justifications, and cultural categories. Cases could include (but are not limited to) bee highways, hedgehog habitats, and bat-friendly street lighting. To contribute to main questions, it asks: What technologies are used in everyday life to attract what animals, and how do care efforts intersect with or challenge legal frameworks and environmental policies?
2) Technologies for making killable explores extermination technologies for pests and “problem animals,” focusing on everyday entanglements between interventions, animal biology, and shifting perceptions of an “intolerable nuisance”. Cases could include (but are not limited to) rats, Iberian snails, foxes, rooks, etc. To contribute to main questions, it asks: What discursive and technological means are used to make animals “killable”, and how are changing environmental conditions affecting the strategies and technologies employed?
Working within either of these two frames, applicants are encouraged to propose a concrete project with up to 8 months ethnographic fieldwork, specifying which Scandinavian contexts, time period, central actors, field sites etc. they envision. Applicants may attach proposals for both projects, if relevant (each max 4800 characters). The ideal candidate has a background in ethnology, anthropology, recent history, science and technology studies, or has extensive knowledge of more-than-human studies. Fluency in a Scandinavian language and ethnographic fieldwork experience are prerequisites. Experiences with archival fieldwork and/or public dissemination (e.g. podcast) is an advantage.
Last day to apply: 8 april 2026