I am currently offering a new 24-month Post-Doctoral Fellowship as part of a grant I was recently awarded to expand my ERC research project toward Central Eastern Europe (FARE – read more here).
The researcher will work at the DIST department at the Polytechnic of Turin, they will be mentored and followed by myself (profile here), and they will join the Beyond Inhabitation Lab. The salary is around €1.770 net per month, and relocation to Turin is mandatory and non-negotiable.
The context is open internationally, and the application closes on 7th December 2022, 3pm CET. You can submit your candidacy here: https://careers.polito.it/default.aspx?id=292/2022-AR (please selected ‘ENG’ at the top of the page to see the English version of the application)
Please note that the Italian system of evaluating applicants is a point-based system. You will be evaluated by a commission of three academics based at the Polytechnic of Turin as follows. First, the commission will judge the titles (degrees, experiences, publications) that you will upload on the online platform on the basis of the positions’ requirements. Then, you will undertake an oral interview (online) with the same commission, to check your level of English and to discuss your research trajectory. On the basis of both, a ranking of candidates will be generated, and the first one will be assigned the fellowship.
Below you can read an outline of the kind of candidate I am looking for. The context is open, so please refrain from contacting me, unless you have queries about the procedure (but even in that case, please do check for the information available online at the Polito website, before contacting me).
Precarious Housing in Eastern Europe: Histories, Geographies and Urban Political Economies
The research program is part of the MIUR-funded “EASTERNHousing” project, which is a geographic and conceptual extension of the ERC-funded “RadicalHOUSING” project. EASTERNHousing provides an in-depth comparative study of the rise in precarious housing conditions experienced in CEE since the fall of the Berlin wall. The research program investigates how capital flows are reshaping three major underexplored Eastern European cities. We include changes to real estate markets, including the transfer of state properties to the private sector, and the involvement of Western countries in the ‘redevelopment’ of CEE urban cores.
The research fellow (PDRA) will initially engage in collective and collaborative intellectual work in the Beyond Inhabitation research group, which hosts the ERC RadicalHOUSING project. An extensive literature review, discussed collectively, will lead to a mutual appreciation of research paths, traditions, and critical approaches.
After this initial period, the PDRA will structure desk research that will lead to catalog and map the major public housing privatization projects from 1989 until today in the selected CEE cities. In the second phase, the PDRA is expected to engage in the field and desk-bound research – to be defined with the PI. The final part of the project will be dedicated to collective analysis and writing. Support will be provided for fieldwork, as well as for participating in international conferences and preparing academic publications in high-level journals. The PI is committed to advancing the PDRA’s career, and individual plans will be made to this end.
To be considered for the job, the applicant will need, at a minimum, to have the following experience:
- Publications in some of the following: field of critical geography; critical and comparative urban studies; economic geography; housing political economy; international real estate market studies; housing privatization/commodification
- Evidence in quantitative methodologies
- Evidence on research pertaining to housing and platforms, and housing and financialization
- Demonstrable knowledge of housing financialization processes through publications
- Excellent fluency in written and oral English
