The Department of Business & Management (DBM) at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU) invites applications for one or more 3-year Ph D scholarships within the Interreg project Facilitating collective climate future envisioning among the youth in the Danish-German border region: Shaping actionable strategies and common initiatives/FUSION under the supervision of Patricia Wolf and Bryan Yazell. The positions are located at SDU’s Campus in Odense and are vacant from 1st March 2025 or soon thereafter.


Job description
The thesis will be an integral part of the FUSION project. Climate change is a phenomenon that threatens the Danish – German Interreg region on both sides of the border, requiring well aligned actions across nation states as it can only be mitigated through collaborative collective efforts and behavioral changes of all citizens. At the same time, we observe that the majority of high school students in the Danish-German border region suffers from climate anxiety and a lack of positive outlook that makes them feel powerless. FUSION aims to break the paralysis in which these students are trapped, educate them in the collective imagination of positive climate futures, and empower them to develop and implement joint climate change initiatives across borders in the program region. It is a collaborative project involving two university and seven school partners from Denmark and Germany.


To reach these overarching objectives, FUSION will develop an innovative education format: A teaching module for English language education at secondary education institutions. This module includes creative future fiction writing, cross-border in-class analysis, and a cross-border camp with job profile fair. FUSION starts from the collection of English short stories which it then, through a process of match making amongst pupils with similar future perspectives across high schools and nation states, uses as a bridge to rekindle curiosity into the language of the other. The module will facilitate the establishment of cross-border networks amongst like-minded young people, the collective imagination of positive climate change futures, and the development of individual actionable strategies, job profiles and common climate change initiatives across borders. FUSION further develops a learning platform that ensures open access to all produced teaching material, (anonymized) stories, and automized story overview summaries. This platform will ensure the further implementability of the teaching module in high schools and the continuous actualization of the overview on pupils’ future climate visions and cross-border collaboration initiatives beyond the project’s end, thereby establishing an important resource of information for decision making oriented towards climate change mitigation in the region.


The Ph D will be involved in all parts and activities of FUSION. The workload will be geared towards

• eliciting youth-imagined far-future climate narratives,
• identifying common social imaginaries across borders,
• designing and conducting event formats that apply performative play and improvisation theatre to stimulate the creation of collective cross-border narratives and initiatives,
evaluating the effectiveness and impact of the created networks and initiatives.

FUSION is part of the project portfolio of the SDU Climate Elite Centre “Mobilizing Post-Anthropocentric Climate Action: A New Root Narrative” (PACA). PACA seeks to map post-anthropocentric social theories that challenge the nature-culture divide and investigate traces of these theories in the population. It assesses the extent to which such practices and beliefs can provide a positive narrative for a new organization of production and consumption practices and, finally, the role of universities as mediators of the emergent post-anthropocentrism.


As part of the Ph D program, an individual education program within the field of business and management must be completed. The successful candidates will be expected to complete a six-month stay at a research institution abroad and, over the period of the program, to acquire experience of teaching or other types of presentation. S/he will also be expected to participate in the various activities within the center and – apart from the stay abroad – to be present on a daily basis.


For further information, please contact professor Patricia Wolf pawo@sam.sdu.dk or associate professor Bryan Yazell yazell@sdu.dk .


How to apply for this position
The appointment takes place in accordance with the collective agreement between the Ministry of Finance and the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations for academics in the Danish state with the associated circular on the protocol on job structure for academic staff at universities and the provisions for the position of PHD fellow as described herein.


Employment as a paid Ph D fellow takes place in accordance with the circular of 20 December 2021 on the collective agreement for academics in the state – appendix 5, protocol on Ph D fellowships. The scholarship runs for three years.


For more information on the department guidelines for qualification and recruitment please visit our website.


An application must include:

• Detailed CV – if possible, including publications and teaching experiences. The education and work history must be month and year specific.
• A certified copy of your master’s degree certificate including all examination results.
• Application form (please see below).
• A translation of grades according to the European ECTS system obtained in BA and MSc programs
• A description of the proposed Ph D project (3 – 5 pages of 2400 characters each, including spaces, notes, appendices, bibliography, etc.) including the
  • main research question, theoretical background, and methodological approach,
  • applicant’s envisioned role and contribution to the FUSION project,
  an indication how to earlier work by the applicant relates to FUSION’s research goals and the motivation for applying for this Ph D position.
  
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When applying for a Ph D scholarship, please fill in the application form available on our web page . On the webpage of the Ph D –school, you can find the guidelines for preparing your project proposal within the Ph D program in Business Administration.
All non-Danish documents must be translated into English.
Documents should not contain a CPR number (civil registration number), if they do, the CPR number must be crossed out.


Applications will be assessed by an assessment committee. The committee may request additional information, and if so, it is the responsibility of the candidates to provide the necessary material.


When the assessment committee has submitted its report, the candidates will receive the part of the evaluation that concerns them. The assessment report will subsequently be forwarded to the Head of Department who will assemble an appointments committee. The appointments committee will manage and complete the job interviews, should such be conducted.


Shortlisting and tests may be used in the assessment process.


Applications that are incomplete with regard to the above requirements may be rejected without any substantive evaluation.


Deadline for applications is: January 3, 2025, 23.59 CET.


The University encourages all interested persons to apply, regardless of age, gender, religious affiliation or ethnic background.


As part of the overall assessment of the applicant’s qualifications, an interview may be applied.