1 Postdoctoral position in An Anthropological Study of the Dynamics of Public Resource Flows and Usages in Nepal's school education in Denmark | Aarhus University

The School of Education, University of Aarhus invites applications for a 2-year post-doctoral fellowship funded by Danida, the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The post is located in the broader, interdisciplinary research project “Locating Public Finance Dynamics in Education in Nepal” (2015-2019) and conducted in collaboration with Martin Chautari (leading institution) and Kathmandu University, both in Nepal.

Objective: The overall objective of this collaborative project is to enhance understandings of ways in which public finance management in the education sector in Nepal have been comprehended and appropriated in practice by differently situated social actors in a time of prolonged political transition.The post-doctoral fellow’s own contribution to the larger project will be an anthropological study, which can open up for a critical examination of conflicting and normative notions of ‘use’ of public funding in education in Nepal. The fellow’s research project can focus on any aspect of this topic, from the perspective of different actors in the education sector including local policy-makers, school managers, teachers, parents and pupils, and as it is embedded within overlapping status hierarchies. The study must be based on ethnographic field research in Nepal.

Research proposal: The application must include a 5-page proposal for a post-doctoral research project that will meet the above objective and which grounds it in the relevant research literature. The proposal must include a tentative plan for the fieldwork.

Project-wide responsibilities: Beside the above research project, the post-doctoral fellow is expected to engage in research capacity building activities, including a teaching module for Ph.D. students and research assistants employed by the Nepalese partner institutions. This will take place in Nepal and entail close communication with the project coordinators of all three institutions. The applicant must include a 1-page outline of suggested activities and expected contributions. Out of the 2 years the applicant is expected to spend, in total, 7-8 months in Nepal.

Expertise: Applicants must hold a PhD in anthropology or have a strong anthropological profile. The appointee will be expected to demonstrate an ability to be self-organized and to work with doctoral fellows and in teams. Proficiency in oral Nepali and oral/written English is a requirement.

Research Environment: The post-doc fellow will be located in the School of Education, Campus Copenhagen, and within that, in the research programme EPOKE (Education, Policy and Organisation in the Knowledge Economy). The School of Education at Aarhus University is the largest centre for research and teaching in the fields of education, didactics and learning in Denmark, with approximately 250 full-time researchers, including 80 PhD students, and approximately 5000 Bachelor's and Master's degree students.

The department's activities are characterised by a high degree of interdisciplinarity and close interaction with society, including businesses, organisations, government agencies and institutions, both in Denmark and abroad.