The IN3 organises a research seminar by Channah Herschberg, PhD researcher in Radboud University (Netherlands) working in Gender and Academia, and IN3 Visiting Scholar. She is engaged in the European GARCIA project (FP7) and she is currently working on selection procedures and precarious employment in academia.
Venue
Room -1A, UOC Castelldefels building (Parc Mediterrani de la Tecnologia, B3 building)
Av. Carl Friedrich Gauss, 5
08860 Castelldefels (Barcelona)
Espanya
When
23/05/2017 15.00h
Organized by
Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, IN3
Program
The number of postdoctoral researchers (postdocs) has grown strongly over the past years, due to an increase in temporary research funding and the resulting project-based research. A crucial consequence of this neoliberal academic funding system is the rise of precarious employment by which early career researchers are most strongly affected. Within academia, precarious employment is manifested by the sharply increasing number of temporary contracts offered to postdocs, characterized by uncertainty, low income, and limited social benefits and statutory entitlements. This paper aims to uncover the consequences of the neoliberal university for the recruitment and selection of postdocs. We study how the recruitment for project-based postdoc positions is organised and if the notion of the ideal academic is compatible with precarious postdocs. Our findings are based on a comparative analysis of empirical material on recruitment and selection procedures and criteria collected in SSH and STEM departments of higher education institutions in four European countries. This study provides insights in the messy and informal recruitment of postdocs as well as the construction of the ‘ideal’ postdoc. Furthermore, our critical analysis aims to reveal various manifestations of precarity that the current academic system creates for postdocs.
The language of the seminar will be English.