The Saxo Institute, Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen (UCPH), invites applications for two postdoctoral positions in Ethnology from 1 February 2027. The positions are fixed term positions for three years.
Introduction
The two postdoc positions will be based at the Saxo Institute and associated with the Centre for Sustainable Futures. The positions will be part of the project: Tolerating Urban Animals. Techno-moral perspectives on killing and caring for other species, funded by the Carlsberg Foundation’s Semper Ardens Accomplish programme.
The Tolerating Urban Animals project explores the use of technologies for managing undomesticated and feral urban animals. Through ethnographic fieldwork and archival studies in urban areas of Denmark, Sweden and Norway, it follows 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 certain technologies are 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 postdoc projects will explore:
Project 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 technologies for, but not limited to, insects, hedgehogs, and bats. To contribute to the main questions, it asks: What technologies have been used to attract what animals, and how do care efforts intersect with or challenge legal frameworks and environmental policies?
Project 2 Changing technologies: employs a historical perspective to examine both successful and unsuccessful “techno-fixes” and to trace moral shifts in technologies and legislation for managing urban animals. Examples could include, but are not limited to, changing technologies and policies for birds, insects, and foxes. It asks: What moral, technological, and legal factors explain the success or rejection of technologies, and how have professionals involved perceived these shifts?
Working within one of these two frames, applicants must propose a concrete project, building on 6-9 months ethnographic fieldwork or equally substantial archival research and specifying which Scandinavian contexts, time period, central actors, field sites etc. they envision. Projects with emphasis on or comparison with Sweden or Norway are prioritized. The project already includes case studies of technologies for rats and wolves, which are therefore not prioritized. Applicants are encouraged to attach proposals for both project 1 and 2, if relevant (each max 4800 characters).
Read more here: https://employment.ku.dk/faculty/?show=170111
Application deadline: 20 October 2026