The Oslo School of Architecture and Design calls for applications to the open, full-time position as PhD research fellow for a three year period (1 January 2011 – 31 December 2013). The research fellow will be part of a large research project called ‘YOUrban: Social Media and Performativity in Urban Environments’.
The PhD position is based at the Institute of Design and requires attendance there through the three years, including participation in the research education programme. Close supervision will also be a part of the wider study process. This position is within a wider research project that has practice-based research as its mode of inquiry. It requires participation and contribution to shared inquiry in the related research project as well doctoral level individual research. An article-based doctoral thesis format is preferred. The advertised position is one of two that are connected to the research project YOUrban. Close research collaboration will be supported.
The YOUrban project, funded by the Research Council of Norway, has the design and perfomativity of social media in urban environments as its core concerns. Social media offer tools for city inhabitants to question, debate and shape the spaces and places in which they live. With a humanities focus, performativity is a central concept, referring to our active engagement in mediated communication as well as to how social media affects and transforms city life. YOUrban therefore investigates tools and means to creating engagement and a sense of ownership and responsibility towards one’s physical, social and cultural world. Design and social media as communication are outputs. The project takes the city of Oslo as its context.
Three intertwined projects are included. STROLL investigates innovations in community-driven urban social media on the situated meaning of the every day through the design and use of mobile urban probes and narratives. OVERLAY examines, via social media, the discourses of urban change by multiple stakeholders in a major urban development area. PLAYUR engages in interaction in urban spaces, experimenting with emerging social networking, locational services and narratives of city life.
This PhD position will be linked specifically to the project strand called STROLL and preference will be given toapplicant that draws intersections between design domains. Practice-based research, including design experimentation, is central to the position. This includes, probing, prototyping and the application of computational skills for designing via tools such as ActionScript, Processing, and Arduino. Knowledge of mobile media, interaction- product- and service-design is essential, as is graphic and web design.
Requirements: Applicants must hold a master’s degree in design, urbanism, or digital media. Preference is given to qualification and experience in design and urbanism, with emphasis on social media and the city.
The application must include:
- An application letter
- A fully completed application form
- A tentative project description (5 single-spaced pages required in Times 12 point), including a description of research interests, possible research questions, approaches and design experiments, related literature, and theory (all within the thematic framework of the STROLL project). A Bibliography should also be included in the 5 pages.
- CV (contact details, summary of education, positions and academic work, academic publications, design work, competencies in software etc.)
- Copies of educational certificates, transcript of records and letters of recommendation
- List of publications and academic work that the applicant wishes to be considered by the evaluation committee; a design and project portfolio
- Names and contact details of 2-3 references (name, relation to candidate, e-mail and telephone number)
- Applicants who do not have English or a Scandinavian language as their mother tongue: documentation of knowledge of English
- Foreign applicants must attach an explanation of their university’s grading system. Please remember that all documents should be in English or a Scandinavian language.
Download application form
More information about the project
Position & salary: PhD Research Fellow (SKO 1017), pay grade: 48-56 (NOK 383 700 – 440 500 per year, depending on seniority/qualifications)
Application deadline: 10. December 2010
Submission of application: The application (with all enclosures) must be submitted in electronic form and should be sent to: AnneMarie.Overaas@adm.aho.no
For further information, please contact:
Prof. Andrew Morrison (YOUrban project leader, Institite of Design, AHO): andrew.morrison@aho.no, or
Anne Marie Øveraas (research administration AHO): AnneMarie.Overaas@adm.aho.no
The Oslo School of Architecture and Design (AHO) is a specialist university providing education within architecture and design and awards the degrees of PhD, Master of Architecture, Master of Industrial Design and Master of Landscape Architecture. AHO offers experience based master’s degrees within urbanism, architectural heritage and IT-related subjects. The school has a wide-ranging research environment in four institutes; AHO has approximately 600 students and 100 employees.