PhD position (fully-funded) in Arctic Landscape Archaeology
Groningen, Groningen
Tijdelijk
Voltijds
17 dagen geleden
Offer DescriptionWe are seeking self-motivated applicants for a four-year, fully-funded PhD position focusing on compiling, modeling and mapping archaeological data on subsistence harvesting among Inuit (from ca. AD 1250 to 1950) across the ecologically-rich land- sea- and icescapes of the Foxe Basin region of central Nunavut, Inuit Nunangat (the traditional Inuit territories of what is now Canada). There will be a significant focus on theorizing archaeological-data accessibility and visualization for both general and specific audiences; of particular interest is how such datasets can best be built, accessed and utilized by Inuit.The PhD research will comprise “Nirjutiqarviulauqtut (ᓂᕐᔪᑎᕐᑲᕐᕕᐅᓚᐅᖅᑐᑦ)” (North Baffin Inuktitut for 'Places where animals were found'), a sub-project of TRACES (Tracking Resilience in Arctic Sociocultural-Ecological Systems), a multidisciplinary research initiative, funded by the European Research Council, to document and contextualize long-term human-animal/human-environment relationships in northern Foxe Basin. With the ultimate goal of co-creating a cultural-historical atlas of past animal harvesting in the region, the successful candidate will
conduct archival research in cooperation with local cultural organizations and governmental data repositories
synthesize existing metadata on known archaeological sites in the Foxe Basin region, and model these data using GIS; and
carry out limited, supervised archaeological fieldwork (primarily non-invasive survey) alongside local experts in the Foxe Basin region in order to fill gaps in our current knowledge of premodern/historic site nature and distribution.
Additional research avenues could address (1) intervisibility of archaeological sites vis-à-vis changing environmental/climatic conditions; (2) analysis of viewsheds and the phenomenology of land-, sea- and icescapes; and/or (3) remote-sensing-based machine-learning applications for archaeological modeling and survey. Importantly, this work will be carried out in close cooperation with Amitturmiut/Iglulingmiut rights-holders in and around the hamlet of Iglulik (Igloolik), and the research foci may develop along different lines according to community priorities for knowledge-building about the past.The researcher will be based at the Arctic Centre (est. 1970), part of the Groningen Institute of Archaeology (GIA), and will be supervised by TRACES principal investigator Dr Sean Desjardins, an anthropological archaeologist, and Dr Frits Steenhuisen, an environmental scientist and specialist in GIS applications. The candidate will work alongside other TRACES researchers, as well as with graduate students and postgraduate researchers studying a wide array of topics at the Arctic Centre and the GIA.Knowledge of Dutch is not required.RequirementsResearch Field Other Education Level Master Degree or equivalentSkills/QualificationsMultiple educational backgrounds are possible; please see the job description webpage.Languages ENGLISH Level ExcellentAdditional InformationWebsite for additional job detailsWork Location(s)Number of offers available 1 Company/Institute Arctic Centre, University of Groningen Country Netherlands State/Province Groningen City Groningen Postal Code 9718CW Street Aweg 30 GeofieldWhere to apply WebsiteContact CityGroningen WebsiteStreetAweg 30 Postal Code9718CW E-Mails.p.a.desjardins@rug.nlSTATUS: EXPIRED