PhD Studentship - Modelling Climate Adaptation Futures in the Arctic

Funding

We are offering 1 full-time PhD scholarship in the School of Geography for one UK candidate, including tuition fees and maintenance stipend at the UKRI rate (£19,237 in 2024/25) for four years, subject to satisfactory progress. 

Lead Supervisor’s full name & email address

Professor James Ford: J.Ford2@leeds.ac.uk

Co-supervisor name(s) & email address(s) (optional)

Professor Nick Malleson: N.S.Malleson@leeds.ac.uk

Project summary

The Arctic is undergoing transformative climate change, with profound implications for transportation systems. The lengthening of the shipping season in the Arctic Ocean is well-documented, with warming temperatures also compromising the operating period and safety of winter roads. Less studied are the more informal transportation networks involving use of unmaintained trails on frozen lakes, rivers, ocean, and the frozen ground, which are critically important for travel between communities, to cultural sites, and for practicing traditional hunting and fishing activities which have particular importance for Indigenous communities.

The PhD project will be on the cutting edge of developing innovative interdisciplinary approaches to connect science and Indigenous knowledge within a participatory modelling environment. Reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of the work, you will be supervised by a human geographer who works with Indigenous knowledge systems in the Arctic (Prof. Ford) and a computational geographer who specialises in developing models for simulating human systems (Prof. Malleson). You will be expected to spend considerable time doing fieldwork, co-developing the research with local partners, and conducting interviews, focus groups, and participatory modelling, and you must therefore be comfortable working in challenging cross-cultural contexts and climates.

For more information, please see the project page on the University of Leeds website.

Please state your entry requirements plus any necessary or desired background

You will have prior experience collaborating with communities (be it in the Arctic or elsewhere), and have worked with qualitative and quantitative data and models. You will have a good foundational knowledge of statistics and some experience in computer programming and modelling, or the enthusiasm to learn these quantitative skills during the PhD. Applicants to research degree programmes should normally have at least a first class or an upper second class British Bachelors Honours degree (or equivalent) in an appropriate discipline.

Subject area: Environmental geography

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