Postdoc Position in Design, Body and Well-being in Play

We are inviting applicants interested in critical scholarly inquiry into body-centred design methods in the context of design for play, for a 2-year Postdoc Position starting 1 September 2022. The candidate will work at the Department of Design and Communication at the University of Southern Denmark, within a research group investigating design’s ongoing engagement with users’ bodily well-being.

Qualifications
Candidates are required to have a relevant PhD degree, with some educational and/or professional experience with design.

Preferred qualifications include a good publication record in English; knowledge of and/or experience with relevant theoretical frameworks; prior experience with research-through-design and/or participatory methods in design research; and/or working knowledge of Danish or one of the Scandinavian languages.

The project
Postdoc position is related to the 3-year research project “Design as Somatic Expertise: The User’s Body and Well-Being in Design Today,” funded by Carlsberg Foundation. The project is led by Harun Kaygan at the Department of Design and Communication in Kolding, under the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Southern Denmark. The research project “Design as Somatic Expertise” investigates designers’ interest in and engagements with users’ bodily well-being across design disciplines such as product design and interaction design, and in the design of diverse products as medical devices and playground equipment. We are interested in how designed products track users’ movements, habits and bodily processes, as well as how designers develop and use methods to capture users’ gestures, skills and affective states. More information on the research project can be found at the following link:

https://www.carlsbergfondet.dk/da/Bevillingshaver/Formidling/Bevillingsoversigt/CF21_0231_Harun-Kaygan

The Postdoc project will critically review and study a selection of body-centred design approaches in the context of a case study on design for play. The research will investigate how these approaches users’, designers’, and other stakeholders’ imaginaries of play, body and the well-being of children and their guardians. Within this general frame, it is expected for the Postdoc to design and conduct their own research in collaboration within the research team and in a way that contributes to the larger research agenda.

Further information is available from Associate Professor Harun Kaygan at [email protected]

Application, salary and conditions of employment etc.
Employment as Postdoc is temporary (max. 4 years). Employment stops automatically by the end of the period. An upgrade of pedagogical qualifications is not part of the position. Thus employment as Postdoc cannot stand alone as a qualification for later employment as associate professor/senior researcher.

The successful applicant will be employed in accordance with the agreement between the Ministry of Finance and AC (the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations), Cirkulære om overenskomst for Akademikere i staten 2019 (the document only exists in Danish).

To qualify for the position you must have completed a PhD-degree by the time of employment. 

An application must include:

• Application
• Curriculum Vitae
• Certificates/Diplomas
• Information on previous teaching experience, please attach as Teaching portfolio
• List of publications indicating the publications attached
• Up to 3 of the most relevant publications. Please attach one pdf-file for each publication. For any publication with a co-author, a co-author statement must be submitted as part of the pdf-file.

Application and all appendices must be in Danish, English or one of the Scandinavian languages. Only material in Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, and English will be assessed. Please always include a copy of original diploma/certificates.

Please always include a copy of original diploma/certificates.  We only accept files in pdf-format no more than 10 MB per file. In case you have more than one file per field you need to combine the pdf-files into a single file, as each field handles only one file. We do not accept zip-files, jpg or other image files. All pdf-files must be unlocked and allow binding and may not be password protected.

Applications will be assessed by an assessment committee and the applicant will receive the part of the evaluation that concerns him/her. The assessment report will subsequently be forwarded to the Head of Department who will assemble an appointments committee. An interview may form part of the overall assessment of the applicants’ qualifications.   The committee may request additional information, and if so, it is the responsibility of the applicant to provide the necessary material.

If the application does not meet the requirements mentioned above, the Faculty of Humanities may reject your application without further notice. Applications received after the deadline will neither be considered nor evaluated.

Shortlisting and tests may be used in the assessment process. Please note that only a shortlisted applicant will receive an assessment.

Applications should be sent electronically via the link “apply online” and the Faculty expects applicants to read the information “How to apply ” before applying. 

We recommend that as an international applicant you take the time to visit Working in Denmark where you will find information and facts about moving to, working and living in Denmark, as well as the International Staff Office at SDU .

The University wishes our staff to reflect the diversity of society and thus welcomes applications from all qualified candidates regardless of personal background.