President's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program

The Department of American Studies postdoctoral fellow is open to scholars with diverse interests and sub-fields within American studies. The Department of American Studies at the University of Minnesota is one of the leading programs of its kind in the United States and globally, having a distinguished record of cutting-edge work leading and transforming American studies and other fields. 

Our department is ranked as the second-best American studies department at a public institution in the country and ranked fifth in the nation. We provide undergraduate and graduate students with knowledge and skills that address the vital and timely questions that local, global, regional, and transnational societies face today. We are home to eight core faculty, and over 50 affiliated faculty who specialize in fields ranging from history, American Indian studies, geography, and more. We value collaboration, collegiality, and highly interdisciplinary scholarship and practice.

Areas of particular interest for this position include race and empire; new media studies, including digital humanities; and intersectional approaches to the environment, nature, and technology, including environmental and medical humanities. The department seeks a scholar whose work is aligned with advancing American studies as a field through their interests and whose research encourages critical, comparative and relational analyses and substantively engages with race, gender, class, sexuality, and/or disability.

The responsibilities of this postdoctoral position are focused on research and publication/dissemination that allow the fellow to continue growing their work in ways that are productive to their research agenda and that are also aligned with the interests of the department. The postdoctoral fellow is expected to participate in department activities that include attending department meetings, contributing to positive faculty and student relationship development, and building connections across the University of Minnesota system wherever possible and in ways that can advance the fellow’s research while being mutually beneficial with other faculty members, researchers, students, and communities served by the University of Minnesota.

The Department of American Studies highly values supporting the research and professional growth of the postdoctoral fellow. Fellows are not required to teach, nor advise students.

The candidate should hold a background in the humanities, social sciences, or interdisciplinary studies, and the PhD/doctoral degree in American studies or a related field, is required by the start date of the appointment.

Mentorship/Selection for American Studies

The fellow will be matched with a faculty mentor from the Department of American Studies’ core or affiliate faculty list. Our department is committed to providing mentoring support to fellows that will allow them to thrive as scholars, teachers, and leaders. The fellow and mentor will meet throughout the year to discuss research trajectories; professional and teaching goals; professional development; grant writing; and work/life balance.

Please feel free to name potential faculty mentors in your research statement. However, in the online PPFP application portal, please enter “David Karjanen” (karjanen@umn.edu) as the acting faculty mentor and “department chair” for your application. In the preliminary application process, the acting faculty mentor will generate automated mentor letters of support for all applicants. After reviewing all applications, the search committee will contact the list of applicants who have been selected for the second phase of the search.

The Department of Anthropology invites applications from scholars in anthropological archaeology whose geographic focus is in Latin America, Mesoamerica, and/or the Caribbean region. We seek a scholar who is pushing the boundaries of research, teaching, and service involving Indigenous or African diaspora communities, issues of colonization, urbanization and migration, contemporary heritage concerns, community-engaged or -participatory approaches, and decolonial frameworks.  We encourage applicants to consider how their methodologies may complement the strengths at the University of Minnesota in geospatial, geophysical, and geochemical methods, multiscalar 3D scanning and modeling, DNA, and experimental studies. Applicants should have completed a PhD in anthropology prior to September 1, 2024. Fellows are not required to teach but may choose to teach one course in their second year if overload funding is available. At the end of the two-year postdoctoral fellowship period, the department will consider the fellow for a full-time, tenure-track assistant professor position.

The Department of Anthropology at the University of Minnesota is a four-field program, comprising 17 tenure-stream faculty members serving 40 graduate students and teaching approximately 2,000 undergraduate students every year. Archaeology is represented by faculty members who specialize in historical archaeology, archaeological ethics and repatriation, microarchaeology, migration and admixture, zooarchaeology, lithic technology, visual representation, taphonomy, and paleolithic archaeology. This work is supported by research laboratory space, archaeological research collections, and a full-time lab manager.

The postdoctoral fellow will be encouraged to develop interdisciplinary collaborations across the university, and can build upon current ties with programs in (premodern) history, earth & environmental sciences, African American and African studies, american indian studies, and Chicano & Latino studies. Our statement on diversity & inclusion and additional information is available through our website.

Mentorship/Selection for Anthropology

The fellow will be matched with a department mentor through the application process, but we will also work with the fellow to identify a mentoring committee such as we have for junior faculty. The mentor will establish regular meetings with the fellow; the committee will meet less often but will also serve as a team of colleagues to which the fellow can go for advice and support.

Both mentor and committee will work with the fellow to establish and advance an individual development plan, which will specify personal and professional goals and steps for achieving them. In conjunction or in addition, the mentoring team will advise on topics such as: (a) expanding a research project into a research trajectory; (b) publishing, grant writing, and professional presentations; (c) establishing and managing collaborations; (d) expectations for productivity and research ethics; (e) work habits and personal/professional time management; (f) interacting with coworkers and navigating university hierarchies; and (g) the job application process.

The fellow will be encouraged to join the University of Minnesota Postdoctoral Association and to take advantage of career development resources offered by the University. The fellow will also be encouraged to attend professional conferences, and we will commit $1,000 in both years of the fellowship for that purpose. We will also provide the fellow with a private office and, if appropriate, laboratory space.

Please feel free to name potential faculty mentors in your research statement. However, in the online PPFP application portal, please enter Kieran McNulty (kmcnulty@umn.edu) as the acting faculty mentor and “department chair” for your application. In the preliminary application process, the acting faculty mentor will generate automated mentor letters of support for all applicants. After reviewing all applications, the search committee will contact the list of applicants who have been selected for the second phase of the search.

The Department of Geography, Environment & Society invites applicants to the President’s Postdoctoral Fellows Program whose research, teaching, and service builds upon and/or extends our program’s expertise in quantitative data analysis and modeling of space-time processes in bio/physical environments. We are open to a wide range of thematic foci, and welcome applications from individuals working across all areas of the environmental sciences, including, but not limited to: environmental change, landscape and ecosystem dynamics, disaster risk, climate variations and change, and water resources.

The ideal candidate will have expertise that expands, diversifies, and complements existing departmental strengths in climatology, paleoclimatology, ecohydrology, and landscape ecology. Individuals whose research expertise and/or pedagogy align with perspectives and promote the interests of communities that have historically been marginalized are urged to apply.

Fellows are not required to teach but may do so by overload assignment in the second year.

At the end of the postdoctoral fellowship period, the fellow will be considered by the Department of Geography, Environment & Society for a full-time, tenure-track assistant professor position.

Required Qualifications

• A PhD or equivalent degree in geography, environmental science, or a closely related discipline, or ABD status in a PhD or equivalent degree program.
• A competitive academic record appropriate for the candidate’s career stage, including peer-reviewed publications in high-quality journals, a track record or trajectory of promise for obtaining research grants as appropriate to the research program, a growing scholarly reputation in the candidate’s discipline, and a demonstrated commitment to promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in research and learning communities.
   

Preferred Qualifications

• Evidence of successful teaching and effective mentoring of undergraduate and graduate students.
• A record of promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in research, teaching, and/or service.
   

The Department of Geography, Environment & Society is committed to the priorities of the University of Minnesota to recruit and retain a diverse faculty comprising the best field-shaping researchers and teachers and to reduce barriers to interdisciplinary partnerships. Applications are particularly welcome from women and from those with backgrounds and perspectives that have been and continue to be under-represented in academic positions.

We have a world-class reputation for cutting-edge research across the breadth of geographical inquiry, including human geography, biophysical geography, and spatial analysis / computational geography / geographic information science (GISc).

Our faculty focuses on exploring the complex relationships between society and nature, people and places, and the causes and impacts of environmental change through disciplinary and interdisciplinary research and community-engaged scholarship. We have a distinguished history of attracting the best graduate students from around the world and training them for myriad careers, ranging from academic positions at peer research institutions to positions in the private and public sectors. Additional information is available through the department website.

Mentorship/Selection for Geography, Environment & Society

Professors Dan Griffin, Kurt Kipfmueller, and Kathy Klink (tenured faculty) will take the lead on mentoring and supporting the postdoctoral fellow’s professional and academic development. Professors Emily Fairfax and Madelaine Cahuas (tenure-track faculty), who both have experience and a strong interest in advancing our unit's DEI goals, will provide peer mentorship in a subsidiary capacity. We will also guide and support the postdoctoral fellow's engagement with faculty in affine and affiliated units to broaden their intellectual and social networks across CLA and UMTC.

Please feel free to name other potential faculty mentors in your research statement. However, in the online PPFP application portal, please enter ‘Professor Katherine Klink’ (klink@umn.edu) as the acting faculty mentor and “department chair” for your application. In the preliminary application process, the acting faculty mentor will generate automated mentor letters of support for all applicants. After reviewing all applications, the search committee will contact the list of applicants who have been selected for the second phase of the search.

The Department of German, Nordic, Slavic & Dutch (GNSD) has been a leader for decades in fostering interdisciplinary scholarship that places research on race, migration, and minority cultures at the center of our fields. We are seeking a postdoctoral fellow whose work will build on these strengths. The Department of German, Nordic, Slavic & Dutch is seeking innovative scholars with research and teaching interests in German literature, culture, or media from a broad perspective (e.g., intellectual, aesthetic, and cultural history; the transnational and comparative study of literature, culture, or media; multicultural Europe) from the premodern to the contemporary period.

Applicants should demonstrate a facility with a range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches; talent for programmatic innovation; and the intellectual curiosity to participate in scholarly conversations and practices across the liberal arts. Preferred research areas include: colonialism, race and migration; disability studies; environmental studies; film and media studies; premodern literature and cultural history. We are especially interested in candidates whose research and teaching in German studies also engages Nordic or Slavic studies and challenges the national divisions of these fields.

The Department of German, Nordic, Slavic & Dutch at the University of Minnesota is committed to fostering interdisciplinary thinking and intellectual community. Our faculty is renowned for its innovative approaches to the study of literature, culture, and media. Our program has consistently ranked among the leading departments in the United States and is known for the pioneering transnational scholarly and creative research of its faculty and graduate students. Additional information is available through the department website.

Mentorship/Selection for the Department of German, Nordic, Slavic & Dutch (GNSD)

Please feel free to name other potential faculty mentors in your research statement. However, in the online PPFP application portal, please enter Professor Matthias Rothe (mrothe@umn.edu) as the acting faculty mentor and “department chair” for your application. In the preliminary application process, the acting faculty mentor will generate automated mentor letters of support for all applicants. After reviewing all applications, the search committee will contact the list of applicants who have been selected for the second phase of the search.

For inquiries related to the PPFP, please contact Department Chair and Professor Leslie Morris at morri074@umn.edu.

• Salary: $65,000, plus health benefits
• $4,000 research funds, $500 for travel to system campuses, $1,000 for travel for the fellow and mentor for PPFP events (per year)
• Office space and computer
• School mentoring and workshops
• Expectation of a tenure-track position at the end of the fellowship, subject to satisfactory performance, departmental review and vote, and college approval.
• Relocation expenses

For full consideration, please be sure to include the following materials in your application:

• Thesis abstract – one page
• Research Proposal – 700-1,000 words (not including references and citations)  describing the project you would like to work on over the term of your postdoctoral fellowship period. In your research proposal, please list faculty mentors you would like to work with. Note that each participating unit has designated an acting faculty mentor to endorse your application when it is submitted via the UC Portal System. Through the selection process, participating units will work closely with applicants to identify an appropriate mentor or mentoring committee to work with during their postdoctoral appointment.
• Education and Background Statement – 500-700 words describing your personal background, contributions to diversity and equal opportunity through your academic career, relevant professional/non-traditional academic experience, and rationale for your postdoc commitment.
• Curriculum vitae
• Sample of work – sample publication or unpublished paper for PhDs, please limit to 35 pages (not including references and citations)
• Name, institutional affiliation, and email addresses of two references 

Please note the University of Minnesota’s PPFP deadline is November 30, 2023.

• Application instructions can be found on the University of California website
• Apply online via the PPFP website
• Questions? Contact ppfp@umn.edu

Closing Date: November 30, 2023, 11:59 PM. Review of applications will begin immediately. Units may ask you to submit additional materials as they engage in their selection processes.