Background

We are offering a PhD position to be co-supervised by Professor Kimberley Peters, together with Dr Paula Satizábal in the Marine Governance group at HIFMB and Dr Jennifer Turner lead of the Crime and Carcerality Group in the Institute of Social Sciences. The Marine Governance Group of the HIFMB uniquely understands ‘governance’ as an inherently geographical process. The Group investigates how the geographies of what we seek to govern, is shaped by the location, character and qualities of place and relations with surrounding spaces. The Crime and Carcerality Group in the Institute of Social Sciences consider the ways in which bordering practices are integral to the functioning of society. The Group considers how boundary-making processes can relate to the containment of people at sea (on the prison ship) as well the bordering practices that characterise modern marine governance (in the shape of boundary making spatial management tools such as Marine Protected Areas).

There are currently calls for 30% of the seas and oceans to be zoned for protection. Percentage based targets for the conservation and restoration of seas and oceans, within and beyond areas of national jurisdiction, have been central to global governance efforts. Such targets rely on the establishment of designated areas of space to manage ocean health, marine biodiversity and to balance competing economic uses and environmental pressures. But are such approaches always the best ones for managing a mobile, fluid, three-dimensional realm such as the sea, where targets for management (from fish to ships) move (Peters, 2020)? Do they overwrite traditional territories of oceanic use and lock out users from historic ocean spaces (Satizábal and Batterbury 2018)? Is ocean governance too reliant on borders as modes of management, creating ever more enclosed, or even ‘carceral’ seas? Are there alternatives to zoning and percentages to globally govern oceanic spaces? This PhD position will explore the 30×30 campaign, its conservation goals and its carceral logics, to unpick the drivers behind it and the insistence of fixing in place strategies of containment for marine governance of environmental change. It will expand calls for theories of carcerality to ‘go to sea’ and in turn consider the sea through concepts of spatiality, detriment and intent (Moran, Turner and Schliehe, 2016). The project will employ qualitative methods such as archival and textual analysis and in-depth interviews.

Tasks

  • To work within the Marine Governance Group contributing to the mission of the Institute and the Helmholtz program in closing knowledge gaps critical for the development of effective and sustainable conservation and management strategies.
  • To work within the Crime and Carcerality Group in the Institute of Social Science, contributing to the research area ‘Carceral Seas’, which considers the workings of oceanic practices of bordering, enclosure and containment.
  • Develop careful and feasible research questions.
  • Conduct literature reviews and contextual research on issues related to the research.
  • Design and carry out effective qualitative research to attend to the research questions set.
  • Analyse and synthesise a range of qualitative data for producing a thesis, but also potentially academic publications, policy interventions and outputs for the wider public.
  • Use ideas from geography, such as ‘borders’, ‘territory’, ‘carcerality’, to spatialise understandings of how bounded modes of governance for biodiversity operate.
  • Use such investigations to also progress spatial theories and their application for marine biodiversity outcomes.

Requirements

  • An academic university degree (Masters or equivalent) in as Human Geography, Marine (Social) Science, Planning, Political Ecology, International Relations or Criminology.
  • A track-record of designing, conducting, and coordinating research projects in the social sciences.
  • Experience of using qualitative methodologies such as archival and textual analysis and in-depth interviewing.
  • Fluent English language skills.

Additional skills and knowledge

  • An openness, willingness and enthusiasm to work in an interdisciplinary environment and to collaborate with the sciences.
  • Ability to work independently and closely in partnership with other members of the Marine Governance Group and Crime and Carcerality Groups where necessary for joint goals, as well as with aligned groups, for example in Marine Political Ecology.
  • An awareness of key debates in the Marine Social Sciences is advantageous.
  • Experience working with key conceptual ideas such as borders, boundaries and carcerality, as well as space, power and territory. This is desired but not essential.

Further Information

Please contact Dr. Paula Satizábal (paula.satizabal@hifmb.de) or Dr. Jennifer Turner (jennifer.turner@uni-oldenburg.de) for further information.

This position limited to 3 years. The salary will be paid in accordance with the Collective Agreement for the Public Service of the Federation (Tarifvertrag des öffentlichen Dienstes, TVöD Bund), up to salary level 13 (66%). The place of employment will be Oldenburg.

All doctoral candidates will be members of AWI’s postgraduate program POLMAR or another graduate school and thus benefit from a comprehensive training program and extensive support measures.

The AWI is characterised by

  • our scientific success – excellent research
  • collaboration and cooperation – intra-institute, national and international, interdisciplinary
  • opportunities to develop – on the job, aiming at other positions and beyond AWI
  • a culture of reconciling work and family – an audited and well-supported aspect of our operation
  • our outstanding research infrastructure – ships, stations, aircraft, laboratories and more
  • an international environment – everyday contacts with people from all over the world
  • having an influence – fundamental research with social and political relevance
  • flat hierarchies – facilitating freedom and responsibility
  • exciting science topics, with opportunities also in technology, administration and infrastructure

Equal opportunities are an integral part of our personnel policy. The AWI aims to increase the number of women, and therefore strongly encourages qualified women to apply.

Disabled applicants will be given preference when equal qualifications are present.

The AWI fosters the compatibility of work and family in various ways and has received a number of awards as a result of this engagement.

We look forward to your application!
Applicants should respond to the following questions. Please write no more than 2 pages for all of your answers – Font Arial 11, single-spacing, margins 2.5cm.

  • In what ways has your previous experience (formal studies but also wider interests and engagements) linked to the sea?
  • What do you think are the most pressing issues facing the oceans today? Why?
  • How do you understand ‘marine governance’? What is it, and what does it do?
  • Why would you like to study for a PhD in the field of Marine Governance, and at HIFMB with us?

Applicants should also send a full CV and the documentation of university degrees to date.

Please submit your application by September 22nd 2022, exclusively online.
Reference number 22/109/G/Bio-b