Professor of Urban Studies (Tenure Track Associate Professor)

Tallinn University has announced a public competition for the position of Professor of Urban Studies. The elected candidate commences work on the first career level of the position (associate professor) with the aim of supporting their development into a leader of the relevant study and research field in Tallinn University, and moves to the second career level of the position (professor) by way of evaluation.

Position: Associate Professor of Urban Studies (career level I of Tenure Track Professorship)

Academic unit: School of Humanities

Study area: Cultural Theory

The position will be filled from 01.09.2021

Academic Orientation: Description of academic activities: studies of urban cultures in their spatial, digital and other forms; historical and contemporary urbanised societies from humanities perspective.

Strategic importance of the position

Relevance of the field to the development priorities of TLU, Estonia and Europe : More than half of the world's population live in cities, in the European Union more than three quarters. This demonstrates the increasing urbanisation and importance of the urban lifestyle. Relatedly, the UN makes sustainable urban and community development one of its seventeen sustainable development goals. Similarly, Estonia is becoming an increasingly urbanised society in which cities and urban communities play an important role in shaping economic and social development. Additionally, the vision of Tallinn University is to lead a smart lifestyle, which requires developing mobility systems, environmental and economic relationships in smart and innovative ways and the creation of an inclusive community. Much can be gained by incorporating digital methods and analysis of smart cities for the analysis of historical and contemporary urban societies. Moreover, as urbanisation is a global challenge, the development of urban research also implies a comparative global analysis.

The strategic importance of the professorship at the School and its relationship with other planned new career model positions, including tenure system positions : The strategic importance of the professorship is to develop the emerging field of research and to integrate the various fields of the institute (urban history, society, culture and health sciences). Compared to several other tenured professorships at the School of Humanities, the field is strong in empirical research, including applied research, providing a solid basis for the involvement of external funding (including HERA, H2020, Interreg). The professor of Urban Studies is linked to other professions in the HHI, providing analytical attention to urban life and culture as an important societal dimension. The position has specific links with the professorship of Human Geography, Cultural History, Chinese studies, as well as many other positions as well as fields in the institute and beyond, including the field of Anthropology in terms of approach and phenomena, but with its empirical focus it provides support to all professorships at TLU School of Humanities (including, e.g., historians, linguists and language researchers).

Requirements for the candidate (incl. professional experience)

Candidates for the tenure system position shall meet at least the requirements of career level I of tenure system professor (associate professor), which are stipulated in Annex 2 and respectively in Annex 9 and 10  to the Employment Relations Rules, incl.:

• The candidate must have a doctoral degree or equivalent qualification;
• If the candidate has worked as a professor for at least five years immediately prior to applying for the position of a professor at the University (except when applying for the position of a professor in the field of arts), at least one doctoral thesis must have been defended under their (co)supervision during the last five years. 

Job responsibilities

In accordance with Annexes 1, 2 and 10  to the Employment Relations Rules.

The first level of the tenure system position: associate professor

In addition to the above, the task is to carry out research in field planning, staffing the research team and applying for research projects.

Language skills

• English on the level necessary for conducting teaching and research work;
• Proficiency in other languages is beneficial;
• An employee who does not speak Estonian is expected to start acquiring proficiency in Estonian upon starting work and achieve language proficiency level B1 within three years and a level comparable to level B2 within five years in order to be able to perform tasks related to institutional development and administrative work in Estonian.

Working load: 1,0 (40 hours a week).

Remuneration: In accordance with TLU Remuneration Regulation  and by negotiations with the director of the School where the position shall be. 

In addition to remuneration, a limited allowance is foreseen to the tenure professor, which can be used to cover the costs of research and development expenditure, members of the research team etc related to the position.

Location: Professor is expected to live in Tallinn and work at the premises of Tallinn University.

Required application documents  shall be submitted by 20th January 2021 (incl) to Personnel Office of Tallinn University.

Additional information: Please address your administrative questions to konkurss@tlu.ee , and questions on the content to the administrative head of School of Humanities Terje Kalamees, terje.kalamees@tlu.ee .