A 100% position is available to pursue a PhD at the University of Agder, Faculty of Social Sciences as a PhD Research Fellow within the topic of humanitarian response and new actors, affiliated to the Department of Global Development and Planning (IGUS), for a period of three years or four years with 25% required duties. The position is located at Campus Kristiansand. The starting date is negotiable with the Faculty.

The PhD position will be part of an interdisciplinary research project across the social sciences (University of Agder, Norway) and modeling and simulation (Old Dominion University, USA). The topic concerns new aid actors in humanitarian response that ’pop up’ to meet emergent needs. Such actors are not new, but they are becoming increasingly influential. While some “pop-ups” are short-lived, others do develop into more permanent organisations and evolve into NGOs and INGOs. The UN has specifically acknowledged civic engagement, i.e. volunteer groups, as important stakeholders for achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the 17 SDGs. It is pertinent to understand their contribution when dealing with humanitarian emergencies.

The ongoing project methodologically unites social science and engineering research methodologies to advance a truly interdisciplinary approach that leverages qualitative and quantitative data through computer modeling.

IGUS is an interdisciplinary department with 14 full-time research positions, a post-doc position, and 10 PhDs enrolled in the faculty‘s PhD programme. Members of staff are dedicated teachers and researchers working on poverty issues, various dimensions of globalisation, political economy, emergency management, climate challenges and environmental problems, development communication, migration, gender, integration, humanitarian and development actors, participatory processes, urban and regional planning and digitalisation of higher education. The specific PhD position is tied to the research cluster on Mobility, Gender and Culture.