The position
A PhD position is available within the Anthropology Section at the Department of Social Sciences, Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences and Education within the ERC-funded project: Zoonosis: Zoonotic Anthropology and Multispecies Infrastructures along China’s Belt and Road, led by Dr. Richard Fraser (Principal Investigator).
The position is for a period of three years. The objective of the position is to complete research training to the level of a doctoral degree. Admission to the PhD programme is a prerequisite for employment, and the programme period starts on commencement of the position.
The workplace is at UiT in Tromsø. You must be able to start in the position within a reasonable time after receiving the offer.
The position’s field of research
The PhD candidate will study bushmeat markets, infrastructure, and zoonotic risk in African regions affected by China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The research will explore how infrastructural development—particularly roads, mining, and urbanisation—shapes hunting, trade, and consumption of bushmeat, and how these changes affect human-animal interactions and zoonotic spillover. The project emphasises the multispecies and socio-ecological dimensions of bushmeat markets, including cultural beliefs, trade networks, and local responses to zoonotic risks.
Suggested field sites include Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), but applicants are welcome to propose alternative, well-justified locations where BRI-related infrastructure intersects with bushmeat hunting, infrastructure, and trade networks.
Main tasks:
- Conduct long-term ethnographic fieldwork on bushmeat hunting, trade, and consumption in relation to BRI infrastructure.
- Document multispecies relations, trade practices, and local perceptions of zoonotic risk.
- Analyse how roads, mining, urbanisation, and migration influence bushmeat markets and disease risk.
- Produce a doctoral dissertation aligned with the ERC project’s comparative and interdisciplinary goals.
- Contribute to multimodal outputs (e.g., photography, short films, sound ethnography).