PhD Fellow in Arctic Mobility, Landscape and Spatial Justice

At The School of Business and Economics at UiT The Arctic University of Norway, ROADS is seeking a highly motivated doctoral researcher interested in questions of mobility, infrastructure, northern landscapes, environmental change, and spatial justice in the Arctic.

The successful applicant will become part of an interdisciplinary research team combining geography, environmental humanities, Indigenous studies, critical infrastructure studies, heritage research, and spatial analysis. The PhD position is funded for three years, starting 1 March 2027 and ending 28 February 2030.

The Project

ROADS offers the first systematic study of residual road infrastructures in Northern Fennoscandia—roads and pathways that have fallen out of official purpose but continue to shape landscapes, memories, and mobility practices across the region. The project combines GIS-based spatial analysis, archival research, ethnography, repeat photography and artistic methods, and collaborative countermapping.

The PhD Project and Responsibilities

The successful candidate will undertake doctoral research mainly within Work Package 2: Mapping Conflict and Relational Mobility in the North. The PhD candidate will take a leading role in the WP and receive close supervision from the Principal Investigator while collaborating with the project's postdoctoral researcher and the project network.

The PhD project explores how contemporary road development in Northern Fennoscandia interacts with older roads, seasonal pathways, and Indigenous and local mobility systems.