Postdoctoral Fellow - Centre for Sustainability

at  University of Otago

YOUR SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE/KĀ PŪKEKA ME KĀ WHEAKO

• Completed the requirements for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), or its equivalent.
• Strong interdisciplinary background in disaster, risk or resilience-related research with disciplinary expertise in the social sciences, risk and earth science, or geography.
• An outstanding ability to work without direct supervision, set priorities and deliver to timeframes.
• Strong written and oral presentation skills, with an ability to communicate with people with diverse knowledge systems.
• Interest and capability in engaging with related research areas, such as community resilience, multi-hazard risk, business resilience, disaster risk reduction.
• Creative thinker.
• Have a sense of humour and work well in a team.

This Postdoctoral Fellowship will be based at the University of Otago, and work within a national research programme (Ngā Ngaru Wakapuke – Building Resilience to future earthquake sequences), hosted by Te Herenga Weka - Victoria University of Wellington.
In this role, you will work with Research Associate Professor Caroline Orchiston on applied research related to natural hazard risks in the central Aotearoa New Zealand Transition Zone. The Transition Zone spans the lower North and upper South Island and is home to our largest sources of earthquake risk, including the Alpine Fault and Hikurangi Subduction Zone.

Some key tasks include:

• Working collegially with the research team to support the co-design of scenario narratives.
• Becoming familiar with relevant literature, particularly relevant government legislation and policies.
• Using mixed methods to collect data, transcribing interviews and conducting thematic analysis, in consultation with the relevant research team members.
• Exploring creative ways to communicate risk models and scenarios for community, iwi and policy-makers.
• Presenting results at various hui, wānanga, conferences or with stakeholders.