Assistant Professor or Associate Professor in Geography Specialisation on Political Ecology

Tenure track position:

Assistant Professor or Associate Professor in Geography

Specialisation on Political Ecology

The University of Oulu is an international scientific community, with 16 000 students and approximately 3 000 employees. The strenghts of the University are wide multidisciplinary study/research interests and modern research and study environment and good cooperation with international educational and research institutes. More information http://www.oulu.fi/english/

Field and Location

The University of Oulu, Faculty of Science, announces a tenure-track opening for an Assistant or Associate Professor in Geography, specialisation on Political Ecology. The position is located at the Geography Research Unit, which has five professors in the fields of General and Regional Geography, Tourism Geographies, Physical Geography, Regional Change, Policy and Development and Geoinformatics. In addition, there are currently three post-doctoral positions as well as four doctoral student positions based on the Research Unit funding. The Geography Research Unit coordinates the Academy of Finland’s RELATE Centre of Excellence of the Universities of Oulu, Tampere and Helsinki. In addition, the Unit is part of the REXSAC Nordic Centre of Excellence in Arctic Research.

The tenure-track position supports the profile of human geographical research activities at the Research Unit. The research focus in the position is in political ecology, which is a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary field of studies. Hence, it is considered an advantage if the applicant’s research is multidisciplinary/interdisciplinary and related to the key research focus areas at the Research Unit (http://www.oulu.fi/geography/research/groups) and the RELATE (http://www.oulu.fi/relate/research). The person selected to the position is also expected to develop co-operation with research groups acting at the University of Oulu, in other Finnish Universities, and with international research units. To develop his/her research, the new Assistant or Associate Professor will receive an additional two-year starting grant from the Faculty of Science.

The successful applicant of this call will be placed at the level of Assistant Professor or Associate Professor in Geography in tenure track system (http://www.oulu.fi/university/node/38379), depending on the qualifications and research track (high quality publications) and teaching experience of the applicant, and is expected to qualify as full professor after 1 – 2 five-year periods.

Job Responsibilities, Required Qualifications and Language Proficiency

The tenure track position holder is responsible for developing internationally-oriented geographical research in the field of political ecology and is expected to participate in societal interaction and international collaboration in the field. The position holder will be required to follow the progress in the field, pursue and guide academic research and carry out and develop education in the field, hold examinations, guide practical exercises, mark written examinations and preliminary essays, and evaluate research papers and dissertations. In addition, administrative duties, participation in student admission and other tasks are included in the annual 1,624 working hours.

The required qualifications for the tenure track position in Geography, Political Ecology, include an applicable doctoral degree, scientific research merits, and teaching skills required for the position. The prerequisite for the position is the ability to collaborate in research, a capacity to lead a research group and to acquire external research funding. When selecting a person for the position, academic work abroad as well as merits in international co-operation, especially in the Arctic, are considered valuable.

The candidates to be considered for the position should have familiarity and specialist competence in the research field: Special emphasis will be given to research expertise within the field of political ecology, demonstrated by an outstanding international publication record. When assessing the applicant’s merits, issues taken into consideration include scientific publications and other research achievements, teaching experience and pedagogical training as well as the skill to create teaching material and other teaching merits. In addition to this, the merits that will be taken into consideration are the applicant’s activity in the scientific community, practical familiarity with the field concerned, and success in acquiring supplementary funding, scientific work abroad and other international activities.

The official teaching language at the University of Oulu is Finnish. However, teaching in English is possible, the Research Unit strongly supports international educational collaboration and has a Double Degree Programme (Tourism Geographies, MSc) with courses, and course works in English.

Salary

The salary will be based on the levels 5 – 6 (Assistant Professor) and 6 – 7 (Associate Professor) of the demand level chart for teaching and research personnel of the salary system of Finnish Universities. In addition to the basic salary of the appropriate tenure track level, supplementary salary bill be given for personal achievements and performance, the sum rising to a maximum of 46.3 % of the basic salary level for the position. Therefore, the full salary is approximately 3,500 – 4,500 euros per month for an Assistant Professor and 4,000 – 5,200 euros per month for an Associate Professor.

Selection Procedure

Applications, together with all relevant enclosures, should be submitted using electronic application form by 13.3.2017.

1) Brief curriculum vitae written in English, compiled in accordance with the instructions (see below);

2) List of publications classified as follows:

A. Peer-reviewed scientific articles

Original journal articles, review articles, literature reviews, systematic reviews, sections and chapters in scientific books and conference proceedings etc.

B. Non-refereed scientific articles

Non-refereed journal articles, book sections and non-refereed conference proceedings etc.

C. Publications intended for professional communities

Articles in trade journals, articles in professional manuals or guides, textbook materials, professional conference proceedings, published development or research reports etc.

D. Patents and invention disclosures

3) Teaching merits of relevance to the post concerned are requested to be presented in the form of a teaching portfolio, or a comparable document. The portfolio or other document should follow the table of contents presented on.

4) Brief research and teaching action plan in English with a special emphasis on how the plan benefits the above-mentioned focus areas

5) A separate list of fifteen (15) publications: Applicants are kindly asked to prepare for the situation in which, after the closing of the application period, the Faculty might request them to submit 15 publications of their choice to be sent to the reviewers for assessment and to be taken into consideration upon evaluation of the eligibility and scientific merits. When requested the publications should be submitted as PDF files.

Reviewer Assessment

The Dean of the Faculty of Science will nominate a recruitment committee to be responsible of the evaluation process. As proposed by the recruitment committee, the Research Council of the University will appoint a minimum two reviewers to be consulted regarding the selection process.

Interview and proposal by the recruitment committee

The recruitment committee analyses the reviewers´ evaluations, interviews the top candidates and makes the proposal for appointment.

Official Employment

Based on the proposal by the recruitment committee, the Dean will make a proposal to the Vice-Rector for Research, who in turn will make the nomination to the post.

Contact information

For further information regarding the filling of this post:

Professor Jarkko Saarinen, Geography Research Unit, University of Oulu, P.O.Box 3000,FI-90014 University of Oulu; Tel. +358-40-48 40 777; e-mail. jarkko.saarinen(at)oulu.fi

Head of Administration Tiina Pääkkönen; email: tiina.paakkonen(at)oulu.fi

Basic regulations

University Law (558/2009) and Statute (770/2009); University of Oulu administration rules and regulations (23.11.2015)

Contents and the order of presenting merits

To ensure equal and fair evaluation of the researcher’s merits, the following order of presentation is recommended in the CV:

1. Full name and date

• surname (also earlier surnames), given names
• gender
• date of writing the CV

2. Date and place of birth, nationality, current residence

• date and place of birth
• citizenship
• current residence (contact details, if necessary)

3. Education and degrees awarded

• degree title (most recent first), educational institution, major subject, graduation date, contact details to facilitate verification of the highest degree earned
• title of docent: field, university and date when conferred

4. Other education and training, qualifications and skills

• other studies aiming at a degree, qualifications or supplementary education and training: name of educational or training programme, extent of education and training, organiser, start and completion (estimated) date of education or training
• other skills

5. Linguistic skills

• mother tongue
• other languages: achieved proficiency and certificate date or self-assessment of proficiency. As an option for a self-assessment of one’s language skills, the instructions for the Europass Language Passport can be found at https://europass.cedefop.europa.eu/documents/european-skills-passport/language-passport/templates-instructions

6. Current position

• current position, employer and place of work, start and end date of employment relation (possible part-time nature of work must be stated, brief job description if necessary)
• research career phase if not directly evident from the foregoing: 1) First Stage Researcher or doctoral student; 2) Recognized Researcher or post-doctoral researcher; 3) Established or independent researcher; 4) Leading Researcher or professor/research)
• grant researcher: source of funding, purpose of grant and funding period
• full-time student: institution and major subject
• secondary occupation, additional work experience, other commitments and potential conflicts of interest relevant to the application (e.g. commitments in a company)

7. Previous work experience

• earlier employment relations and grant periods (the most recent one first) incl. longer-term visits abroad: job description, employer and place of work or funding organisation, start and end date of the employment relation (possible part-time nature of work must be stated, brief job description if necessary)
• earlier secondary occupations, additional work experience, other commitments and potential conflicts of interest relevant to the application (e.g. commitments in a company)
• career breaks: family leaves, military or non-military service terms, other leaves of absence (with start and end dates), other reasons

NB The inclusion of the above data is optional, but it may have a positive impact on the evaluation of applications and the eligibility of the researcher, for instance, when the application presumes a specific career stage.

8. Research funding as well as leadership and supervision

• major research funding (grants and appropriations): source of funding, funding period and amount of funding
• role in the preparation of funding applications for a research group (name of principal investigator)
• leadership in research work
• supervision of post-doc researchers (number of supervised researchers or their names and graduation dates), supervisory role (main/primary/responsible or secondary supervisor)
• experience as officially appointed supervisor to undergraduate and post-graduate students/doctoral students (cf. above)

9. Merits in teaching and pedagogical competence (if required, complement by submitting a teaching portfolio)

• pedagogical training and competence
• involvement in curriculum planning and the implementation of courses: subject, including subject, study hours, course level and duration
• development of teaching methods
• supervision of theses
• merits in the training of responsible conduct of research and innovation practices (subject, study hours, course level and duration)
• teaching awards

10. Awards, prizes and honours

• awards, prizes and honours granted for scientific, artistic or research merits or on the basis of the recipient’s academic career

11. Other academic merits

• service as a pre-examiner or as an opponent of a doctoral dissertation, as a member in dissertation committees (abroad)
• evaluation of academic/scientific or artistic competence (e.g. title of docent)
• member of international peer evaluation committees of funding applications (e.g. European Research Council)
• memberships and positions of trust in scientific and scholarly societies
• membership in national or international expert groups , evaluation or steering committees, as well as other expert duties
• positions as editor-in-chief, editor, or member of editorial boards of scientific and scholarly journals and publication series
• referee for scientific and scholarly journals
• administrative responsibilities at higher education institutions or at research organisations, responsibilities in the higher education community
• invited keynote lectures abroad

12. Scientific and societal impact of research

• total number of publications and, e.g., 10 most important and/or most cited publications according to a relevant database (a list of publications according to the Publication Type Classification used by the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture as a separate attachment)
• artistic works and processes
• merits related to the production and distribution of research results and research data
• merits related to the application of research results
• invention disclosures, patents and other commercialisation-related merits (e.g. spin-off companies and trademarks)
• merits in science communication and expert assignments in the media

13. Positions of trust in society and other societal merits

• significant positions of trust, expert duties and assignments (also research-based policy-advice tasks)
• other social merits, honours, medals, decorations and Finnish military rank (optional)

14. Other merits

Teaching portfolio, table of contents

Teaching skills will be evaluated according to the outline below:

1. Teaching philosophy, teaching strategies and methods

• Teacher’s self-reflection on his/her teaching style, a personal background idea of teaching; how are these reflected in teaching work?
• a description of oneself as a teacher and an implementer of educational work

1. Practical experience in teaching and efforts to improve teaching
2. Description of educational material (curricula, handouts, assignments, workbooks)
3. Professional development as a teacher
4. Evaluation from teaching (student evaluations, peer evaluations, awards and assessed test lectures)
5. Future teaching goals and plans

• teacher’s plans for future directions in his/her teaching development, for example in relation to the teaching curriculum of the research

For more information and an apply button, please see https://rekry.saima.fi/certiahome/open_job_view.html?did=5600&jc=1&id=00003315&lang=en