Postdoctoral Scholar
Postdoctoral Scholar
Appointment Status: Non-Tenure Track
Department: IU Indianapolis Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research
Location: Indianapolis
Position Summary
Department Information
The IU Indianapolis Arts and Humanities Institute supports research, creative activity, and public scholarship across the arts and humanities. The Institute advances interdisciplinary collaboration among faculty, students, community partners, and external organizations. Its programs support faculty research, student-engaged scholarship, public humanities initiatives, and cross-sector partnerships. The Institute plays a central role in connecting arts and humanities research to campus priorities, civic life, and broader public concerns. This position will be housed in the Institute as part of the NSF-funded INSECt project, with a focus on insect-human relations across the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and applied environmental research.
Preferred Qualifications
- Research experience related to insects, environmental change, ecology, biodiversity, climate change, agriculture, infrastructure, urban systems, bioeconomy research, environmental humanities, or Anthropocene studies.
- Familiarity with scientific, social scientific and/or humanistic literature and methods related to ecology, entomology, environmental science, STS, environmental humanities, or related disciplines.
- Experience working in interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary research teams.
- Record of publication or collaborative scholarly production.
- Experience synthesizing scholarship across disciplinary traditions and methodological approaches.
- Experience translating complex interdisciplinary research for multiple audiences.
Department-Specific Responsibilities
- Work with the INSECt team to develop research papers synthesizing the interdisciplinary literature on insect-human relations.
- Lead integrative interdisciplinary literature reviews focused on insects, environmental change, bioeconomy research, environmental humanities, and the Anthropocene.
- Trace transdisciplinary, convergent, and interdisciplinary potentials across the literature on insect-human relations.
- Conduct extensive research across multiple scholarly domains, including but not limited to entomology, ecology, environmental science, environmental history, geography, anthropology, sociology, political ecology, science and technology studies, bioeconomy research, and related fields.
- Assist in developing conceptual and analytical frameworks that bridge scientific, humanistic, and social scientific approaches to environmental research.
- Participate in regular meetings with the INSECt team.
- Contribute to the preparation of journal articles, reports, conference presentations, grant materials, workshop materials, and related scholarly outputs.
- Present research findings through written, verbal, and collaborative formats to interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary audiences.
- Assist in identifying emerging areas of interdisciplinary research related to insects, biodiversity, climate change, urbanization, agriculture, infrastructure, bioeconomy systems, governance, and human-environment systems.
Job Summary
The IU Indianapolis Arts and Humanities Institute invites applications for an IAHI Scholar-in-Residence in Insect-Human Relations. This 12-month position will support the INSECt initiative (https://science.indianapolis.iu.edu/biology/research/insect/index.html) and will focus on the development of integrative literature reviews analyzing insect-human relations across the disciplines.
The scholar will work at 100% effort for 12 calendar months beginning in fall 2026, before November 1. Working with Jason M. Kelly, the scholar will synthesize literature across fields ranging from insect bioeconomy research to the environmental humanities. The purpose of this work is to trace the transdisciplinary, convergent, and interdisciplinary potentials of existing scholarship and to develop research outputs that can support broader INSECt goals.
The successful candidate will play a central role in shaping a major interdisciplinary research agenda intended for publication in high-impact venues, including scientific journals with broad interdisciplinary readerships. The position requires an individual who is comfortable working across disciplinary boundaries and capable of engaging complex scientific, historical, ecological, environmental, and social scientific literature at a high level.
This is not a disciplinary specialist position narrowly rooted in a single field. Rather, the project seeks a scholar capable of synthesis: someone who can identify connections across bodies of literature, evaluate competing methodologies and frameworks, and contribute to the construction of a coherent interdisciplinary analysis of insects, human systems, environmental change, and the Anthropocene.
The scholar will also participate in regular meetings with the INSECt team and will help organize online and hybrid workshops throughout the year.
Basic Qualifications
Required Qualifications
- Ph.D. in a relevant field completed by the start date.
- Demonstrated ability to conduct advanced interdisciplinary research.
- Evidence of strong analytical and synthetic writing skills.
- Ability to read and engage scholarship across multiple disciplines, including STEM, social science, and humanities fields.
- Excellent organizational, communication, and collaborative skills.
- Demonstrated capacity to manage large and complex bodies of scholarly literature.
- Ability to work with interdisciplinary teams and contribute to collaborative research outputs.
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