진학프로석·박사 채용 접수 플랫폼

Two postdoctoral positions available:

Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI) is hiring two postdoctoral researchers with an interest in the politics of digital technology and the experience of war.

The successful candidates will work in an interdisciplinary research project, and we therefore invite applicants trained in one or several fields of social sciences and humanities. These include African studies, East Asian studies, international studies, media and communications science, peace and conflict studies, war studies, political science, science and technology studies, social anthropology, and sociology.

The ideal candidate combines experience in qualitative digital methods and ethnographic fieldwork, and the positions require proficiency in either Arabic or Burmese.

The advertised positions involve full-time work for three years as part of the European Research Council (ERC) funded project Hashtag-wars.

Both positions are based at CMI in Bergen, Norway.

The two postdoctoral positions

• • Postdoctoral position 1: Remote participation in the war in Myanmar
• • Postdoctoral position 2: Remote participation in the war in Sudan

Start date of both positions: 1st of October 2026.

Information regarding the Hashtag-wars project:

‘Hashtag-wars: the politics of war participation in the digital age’ is a European Research Council (ERC) funded project led by Dr. Eva Johais.

The project focuses on remote war participation – the involvement of ordinary people in distant armed conflicts by digital means. Its objective is to gain a better understanding of the socio-political dynamics beyond the physical warzone through a comparison of remote participation in three cases: the war in Myanmar, the Russian-Ukrainian war, and the war in Sudan. Specifically, the project will investigate the interplay between world society, war ecology, and war agency along three lines of inquiry: context, process and effects.

We will first map the socio-technical war ecologies of the cases, before focusing in on the modalities of war agency of specific examples. Based on the case studies, we will then diagnose the political effects of transnational conflict socialisation. Within this framework, applicants are invited to design and conduct their own case studies, collaborate in synthesising the findings, and contribute to theorising hashtag-wars and war agency in the digital age.

Information regarding the two postdoctoral positions:

Postdoctoral position 1: Remote participation in the war in Myanmar

The successful candidate will be responsible for conducting the case study on remote participation in the war in Myanmar since the 2021 military coup d’état. This responsibility includes a mapping of the conflict’s digital war ecology and focusing in on a specific example of remote participation. For the mapping, the researcher is expected to gain an overview of the digital infrastructure and regulations, the most relevant platforms and (social) media usage through desk research and country expert interviews. This exploratory mapping will allow for the tailoring of the approach for an issue-mapping that examines the war ecology in more detail. To design the approach adequately, the research team will get assistance from a digital methods expert. The issue-mapping is supposed to yield three results: 1. a visual map of the war ecology; 2. a collection of digital objects (e.g. memes), 3. an identification of prominent nodes in the issue network.

During the subsequent in-depth study of participatory modalities, the researcher will, on the one hand, qualitatively analyse selected digital objects with a multi-modal narrative approach. On the other hand, the candidate will choose nodes in the war ecology that qualify as examples for the ethnographic study of actions and experiences. It is expected that the researcher is prepared to organise and conduct ethnographic fieldwork both online and offline. The researcher will determine the fieldwork sites only after the mapping stage, but possible sites to reach remote participants in the Myanmar war include Thailand and the United Kingdom.

Finally, the successful candidate is expected to collaborate with the other team members and compare the findings on war ecologies and modalities of war agency. The aim of this collaborative effort is to diagnose the socio-political effects of digital war participation beyond the physical warzone. Apart from mapping, in-depth study and diagnosing, it will be an ongoing task to advance the project’s theoretical objective and contribute to theorising hashtag-wars and war agency in the digital age.

Postdoctoral position 2: Remote participation in the war in Sudan

The successful candidate will be responsible for conducting the case study on remote participation in the war in Sudan since the onset of all-out fighting in 2023. This responsibility includes a mapping of the conflict’s digital war ecology and the focusing in on a specific example of remote participation. For the mapping, the researcher is expected to gain an overview of the digital infrastructure and regulations, the most relevant platforms and (social) media usage through desk research and country expert interviews. This exploratory mapping will allow for the tailoring of the approach for an issue-mapping that examines the war ecology in more detail. To design the approach adequately, the research team will get assistance from a digital methods expert. The issue-mapping is supposed to yield three results: 1. a visual map of the war ecology; 2. a collection of digital objects (e.g. memes), 3. an identification of prominent nodes in the issue network.

During the subsequent in-depth study of participatory modalities, the researcher will, on the one hand, qualitatively analyse selected digital objects with a multi-modal narrative approach. On the other hand, the candidate will choose nodes in the war ecology that qualify as examples for the ethnographic study of actions and experiences. It is expected that the researcher is prepared to organise and conduct ethnographic fieldwork both online and offline. The researcher will determine the fieldwork sites only after the mapping stage, but possible sites to reach remote participants in the Sudan war reside include neighbouring and nearby countries, such as Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, Saudia Arabia and Uganda as well as distant countries that host social media influencers in favour of conflict parties like Canada.

Finally, the successful candidate is expected to collaborate with the other team members and compare the findings on war ecologies and modalities of war agency. The aim of this collaborative effort is to diagnose the socio-political effects of digital war participation beyond the physical warzone. Apart from mapping, in-depth study and diagnosing, it will be an ongoing task to advance the project’s theoretical objective and contribute to theorising hashtag-wars and war agency in the digital age.

Essential work tasks and expectations:

• • Design and carry out a case study of remote participation in the war in Myanmar / Sudan.
• • Design and perform an issue-mapping of the case’s war ecology with the assistance of a digital methods expert.
• • Analyse digital objects with a multi-modal narrative approach
• • Conduct ethnographic fieldwork both online and offline using various tools and techniques
• • Collaborate with team members to synthesise cross-case findings and advance the project’s theoretical objective
• • Take responsibility of own data management to ensure data protection
• • Take responsibility for the ethical issues of ethnographic research on a sensitive topic and for the mental and physical safety of research participants and yourself.
• • Take responsibility for the administrative aspects of the project, including project reporting, obtaining national and ethical approvals, regularly updating the project website, and maintaining up-to-date information on research outputs and dissemination in the online system.
• • Keep up to date with research literature relevant to the project.
• • Work independently and collaborate with members of the research team, the project board, colleagues at CMI and internationally
• • Prepare findings for publication, e.g. by producing visualisations, maps and figures
• • Disseminate research findings by giving talks in research seminars, conferences, and writing publications.
• • (Co-) organise seminars, workshops, and conferences
• • Participate in project outreach activities to communicate science to the public.
• • Produce content for the multimedia repository on the project website
• • Produce research outputs, including drafting 3 single and co-authored peer-reviewed journal articles, 1 chapter for a planned edited volume, and 1 policy brief
• • Participate in CMI institutional life and outreach activities

The postdoctoral researcher positions will be fully dedicated to the ERC funded Hashtag-wars project.

Location and home office

This position is located in Bergen, Norway. CMI is not in a position to offer remote working arrangements for new staff members. We offer home office agreements, allowing all staff to work up to two days a week from home office in Norway.

Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI) - Research for a just and equal world

CMI's vision is to generate research for a just and equal world. Our mission is to address global challenges by providing research-based knowledge that inspires and shapes policy and practice. For more information regarding CMI's values and vision, see the CMI Strategy (2023-2028). As a researcher at CMI, you must identify with CMI’s visions and strategies.

At CMI we have organized our research in different research themes; and our research groups are organized around our themes. These groups are multi-disciplinary, where the main disciplines are economics, political science, and social anthropology. We have an international staff and a vibrant working environment.

CMI is an independent research institute based in Bergen, Norway, with around 100 staff members. We are funded through research grants and by successfully winning research projects. In cooperation with partners from all over the world, we address key development challenges in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America.

You can read CMI's strategy, vision, mission and values in full here: Who we are (cmi.no).

Questions:

1. 1. Eva Johais, Senior Researcher (PI for Hashtag-wars): eva.johais@cmi.no
2. 2. Hanna Fløysvik, HR Director (questions related to the JobbNorge recruitment platform or process): hanna.floysvik@cmi.no