Postdoctoral Researcher Ecological History at KITLV-KNAW - Leiden

at  Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen

Location: Leiden
Max hours per week: 38.00
Max salary: 5.090
Duration of agreement: 1 year
Apply until: 06/30/2024

This research project puts the role of grassroots institutions, local communities, and local actors central in climate governance. As local actors and institutions (re)shape their adaptation strategies, they also (re)configure existing power relations, and vice versa. Focusing on cases in Southeast Asia, the project aims to identify and better understand various forms and types of grassroots knowledge and institutions, including how these evolve over time. Placing rights-based approaches and inter-scalar dynamics at the center of climate adaptation, it emphasizes the questions of adaptation for whom, by whom, and for what. Combining archival research, oral history, and ethnographical research, it seeks to link past adaptation practices with present and future adaptation strategies. This research project is led by KITLV in collaboration with various partners in the Global South including national universities and civil society organizations in Indonesia and Thailand. The project will start in September 2024 and has a total duration of 3 years.
KITLV is looking to hire a Postdoctoral Researcher for this project. The appointment will initially be for 1 year, with the possibility of extension, depending on work performance and budget availability
The postdoc will carry out archival research pertaining to natural resource governance in Southeast Asia. The Postdoc will focus their research on identifying, tracing, and unpacking various knowledge systems and institutions that could serve as key building blocks in shaping local communities’ responses to climate change in the past and at present.