Job advertisement
Vacancy ID: 202/2025
Closing date: 2025-09-24
The Friedrich Schiller University Jena is a dynamic and innovation-driven university centrally located in Germany. With a broad range of disciplines, it shapes the future through excellent research and teaching. Its scientific excellence is reflected in the profile areas Light – Life – Liberty, which provide pioneering insights and sustainable solutions for the society of tomorrow. Through close collaborations with leading research institutions, innovative companies, and renowned cultural organizations, it advances interdisciplinary developments. With around 17,000 students and approximately 10,000 employees, it defines Jena as a vibrant, internationally connected city of science and innovation.
The Cluster of Excellence “Imaginamics: Practices and Dynamics of Social Imagining” is offering a full-time (100%, 40 hours per week) position as an
Academic Coordinator of the Theory Hub
to commence on 01.01.2026 for a fixed term expiring on 31.12.2032.
The Cluster of Excellence “Imaginamics” is an interdisciplinary research project of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena that conducts research on the practices and dynamics of social imagining. Funded by the German Excellence Strategy, it brings together scholars from multiple departments. The Cluster’s work distinguishes itself from extant research on social imaginaries by focusing on processes, practices, and dynamics of social imagining.
“Imaginamics” is organized into three Research Areas. Each seeks to advance a specific field of inquiry through the analysis of case studies, while three Hubs explore intersections between the three Areas (for more information, see
https://www.uni-jena.de/imaginamics
).
The Theory Hub is dedicated to generating praxis-oriented theories of social imagining and refining the concept’s definition. Motivated by open questions in cultural and social theory, the Hub seeks to develop an overarching theoretical framework for grappling with the conditions, functions, and effects of social imagining. In doing so, the Hub exemplifies cutting-edge practices of theoretical work by exploring the relations between a wide range of concepts and theories.

• Facilitate and organize the work of the Theory Hub, which will include convening working groups and other modes of collaboration.
• Develop and organize academic events (colloquia, workshops and conferences).
• Guide the compilation and editing of the “Living Handbook of Social Imagining,” which will serve as the foundation for the articulation of a comprehensive theory of social imagining.
• Together with other scholars in the Cluster, conduct research on fundamental concepts and their historical genesis, engage with central concepts and theories from a diverse set of discursive and disciplinary perspectives, and bring them together in a fruitful way.
• Edit contributions to the handbook (planned as a digital Open Access publication) and serve as the point of contact during the production process.