Two Postdoctoral positions in the research project 'Mobilities, Imaginaries & Articulations (MIA): Revisioning the African City from the Periphery'

The Department of Anthropology, School of Culture and Society, Faculty of Arts, Aarhus University invites applications for two 18-month Postdoctoral positions in the research project 'Mobilities, Imaginaries & Articulations (MIA): Revisioning the African City from the Periphery', financed by the Independent Research Fund Denmark 2024-2028. The project is a comparative examination of the everyday life of youth in urban peripheries in Nouakchott, Cape Town, and Nairobi, three rapidly growing African cities.

The appointments begin on September 1, 2025, or as soon as possible thereafter. The positions are based in Aarhus, Denmark, and candidates are expected to relocate for the duration of the employment.

The university is keen for its staff to reflect the diversity of society and thus welcomes applications from all qualified applicants regardless of their personal background.

Research context

We are looking for two innovative scholars with a background in social anthropology, history, cultural heritage studies, artistic research, architecture, urban studies, or related disciplines, preferably with a specialisation in multimodal/audiovisual approaches, participatory research methodologies, urban Africa, archival research, and collaboration. Experience with sound recording equipment, sound editing as well as experience with video-filming and editing, and photography is an advantage but not a prerequisite for applying. Fluency in written and spoken English is mandatory. Knowledge of local languages and areas is an advantage. 

About the research project

Positing the urban periphery as a site of invention and potentiality, in which mobilities, imaginaries, and articulations constitute pivotal components, the MIA project comparatively analyses how these converge in the everyday lives of youth. Working with the same focus group through a shared methodological and analytical approach in three geographically and historically diverse African cities (Nouakchott, Cape Town, and Nairobi), we develop a new urgently needed general theoretical framework. We call this framework ‘peripheral synergy’. Drawing near to and comparing young Africans’ experiential histories on the urban periphery through fieldwork and collaboration, MIA fills a crucial knowledge-gap, inquiring into the following problem statement and related research questions:

How do youth in urban peripheries in Africa move in, imagine, and articulate the city, and how may multimodal anthropology contribute to a new general theory on ‘peripheral synergy’?

• How does Mobility, and stuckness, configure young livelihoods on the urban periphery, and how may we draw nearer to this through collaborative, multimodal mapping?
• In what ways do audio-visual, digital media e.g. film, radio, social media, and other online fora, inform the Imaginaries of a better life for urban African youth?
• How do youth Articulate themselves through film, photography, and sound, and how can these be integrated in accountable knowledge-production and dissemination? 

The contribution of this project is twofold: Firstly, it provides comparative knowledge on how young residents on the periphery in three rapidly growing cities in Africa imagine, articulate, and navigate urban life, consolidated in a theoretical framework entitled peripheral synergy. Secondly, through collaborative methodology and a multimodal research design integrating film, photography, and sound through workshops, local exhibition-making, and online dissemination, we develop new ‘citizen-science’ protocols for accountable knowledge-production with research participants and partners. 

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