Postdoctoral Researcher, in Living with Drought: Human-Environment Relationships in Drying European Landscapes (ERC project) – with focus on Germany

Postdoctoral Researcher, in Living with Drought: Human-Environment Relationships in Drying European Landscapes (ERC project) – with focus on Germany

Location: School of Geography South Parks Road, Oxford

Join an innovative ERC-funded research project exploring how diverse people and communities learn to live with drought across Europe. Living with Drought: Human-Environment Relationships in Drying European Landscapes (DROUGHT) brings together perspectives from anthropology, geosciences, and the environmental humanities to understand drought as a complex socio-cultural and geophysical process.

Working with Dr Sara Asu Schroer, you will be responsible for carrying out a multi-sited ethnographic case study with a focus on Germany, contributing to a comparative programme spanning Spain, Norway, the UK, and beyond. This role involves regular travel and extended periods of fieldwork. You will engage with farmers, conservationists, policymakers, scientists, and local communities, to explore how drought is experienced, understood, and responded to in practice.

This role offers the opportunity to combine independent research with close collaboration in a research team. We are seeking a researcher who holds, or is close to completion of, a PhD/DPhil, with strong experience in qualitative and ethnographic research. You will be comfortable with working collaboratively, and communicating research to a range of audiences. An ability to conduct research in German is essential, and an interest in cross-disciplinary perspectives and experimental multimodal research approaches is highly valued.

This role offers the chance to contribute to an ambitious international project while developing innovative ethnographic approaches to one of Europe’s most pressing environmental challenges.

Please see job description for further information.

Non-technical questions about this role should be addressed to the PI, Dr Sara Asu Schroer: sara.schroer@ouce.ox.ac.uk

This post is fixed term for 30 months and offered on a full time basis (1 FTE / 37.5 hours).

What We Offer

As an employer, we genuinely care about our employees’ well-being, and this is reflected in the range of benefits that we offer including:

• An excellent contributory pension scheme
• 38 days annual leave
• A comprehensive range of childcare services
• Family leave schemes
• Cycle loan scheme
• Discounted bus travel and Season Ticket travel loans.

Application Process

You will be required to upload a covering letter with a supporting statement, CV and the details of two referees as part of your online application. In your supporting statement, please explain how you meet each of the selection criteria found in the job description, and why you would like to do this role. See guidance at https://www.jobs.ox.ac.uk/cv-and-supporting-statement.

Any technical questions related to this vacancy can be sent to: recruit@ouce.ox.ac.uk

The closing date for applications is 12.00 noon on 25 May 2026. Only applications submitted by this time will be considered.

The University of Oxford and The School of Geography and the Environment are Silver Athena SWAN holders. Applications are particularly welcome and encouraged from women, black, and minority ethnic candidates, who are under-represented in posts in The School of Geography and the Environment. The School of Geography and the Environment are committed to equality and values diversity.