The Danish School of Education (DPU) at the Faculty of Arts, Aarhus University, invites applications for a postdoctoral position within the research project Diversifying Embodiment in Education: Overcoming Inequity in Embodied Learning in Danish Vocational Education and Beyond, funded by Independent Research Fund Denmark.

This is a full-time (37 hours per week), fixed-term (24 months) postdoctoral position, starting on 1 January 2027 and ending on 31 December 2028. The position is based within the Department of Education Studies at DPU’s campus in Emdrup, although the successful applicant should expect some travel activity between the department’s sites in Aarhus and Copenhagen.

The Danish School of Education is committed to diversity and encourages all qualified applicants to apply, regardless of their personal background. Given the project’s empirical focus on educational settings in Denmark, applicants must be sufficiently proficient in the Danish language to conduct fieldwork and actively participate in these settings.

Research Context

The postdoctoral research will form part of the broader research project Diversifying Embodiment in Education: Overcoming Inequity in Embodied Learning in Danish Vocational Education and Beyond. The project addresses a key issue in contemporary education: how educational practices cultivate, recognise, and value certain bodies and sensory experiences in learning contexts while marginalising others, and how these processes contribute to educational inequities.

Combining perspectives from educational studies, anthropology, embodiment studies, and critical disability studies, the project examines how different bodies and sensoria (i.e., culturally shaped ways of sensing and engaging with the world) are formed and valued through the corporeal, social, and material interactions that shape embodied learning. Danish vocational education and training (VET) serves as the empirical case. Within VET, students move between classrooms, workshops, and workplaces as apprentices, developing skills through interactions with teachers, peers, colleagues, technologies, tools, and materials. The project’s methodology draws on ethnographic and sensory approaches to examine the corporeal, social, and material dynamics that shape embodied learning across four vocational programmes (to be selected in collaboration with the postdoctoral researcher).

The project comprises three subprojects. The postdoctoral researcher will collaborate with the Principal Investigator on one of these subprojects, examining interactions among students, teachers, and nonhuman actors within the four selected vocational programmes. In addition, the postdoctoral researcher will lead a second subproject focused on interactions among apprentices, workplace instructors, and nonhuman actors in workplace settings. Based on approximately three months of ethnographic fieldwork in workplaces associated with the four selected vocational programmes, this subproject will explore how instructors introduce new apprentices to embodied practices and perceptions of their future profession, and how they evaluate apprentices’ attempts to engage with these practices and perceptions. Particular attention will be paid to the role of nonhuman actors, such as materials, tools, assistive devices, and instructions, and to how apprentices and instructors interact with and through them.

The position offers a unique opportunity to contribute to emerging international debates on embodiment, diversity, and educational inequality, and to advancing innovative theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of embodied learning.

Further information

Applicants are encouraged to contact project manager Maia Ebsen (Maie@edu.au.dk) for further information about the project.

Postdoctoral position

The selected applicant will work in close collaboration with the project manager, Maia Ebsen, throughout the period of employment. This will include planning and conducting fieldwork, processing and analysing empirical material, and organising seminars with the project’s advisory board. In addition to conducting and completing two subprojects, one in collaboration with the PI and one independently, the postdoctoral researcher is expected to:

Actively engage in collaboration as a key part of the research project
Publish one single-author peer-reviewed article) and one peer-reviewed article co-authored with the PI in relevant international journals
Initiate, co-organise and participate in dissemination and knowledge exchange activities with the PI (e.g. conferences, seminars and other relevant academic events)
Undertake a research visit of minimum two months at a relevant research institution outside Denmark
Help disseminate research findings to wider audiences
Contribute more broadly to the academic environment at the Department of Education Studies, establishing and maintaining good working relationships with both colleagues and students

Teaching and supervision

As a postdoctoral researcher, your position is primarily research-based but will also involve a limited amount of teaching and supervision. To that end, the selected applicant will be expected to participate in teaching and supervision activities and teach and supervise at BA and MA levels at the Department of Education Studies. Any teaching activities will be agreed with the head of department and/or the project PI.

Qualifications

Applicants should be able to document:

solid experience in planning, conducting, analysing and disseminating ethnographic fieldwork
an internationally oriented research profile, as documented by a PhD dissertation and/or research publications
experience in independently managing research projects
relevant teaching experience at university level commensurate with the length of the applicant’s academic career
good communication and interpersonal skills for engaging productively with external organisations and institutions

Furthermore, applicants who can document the following will have an advantage:

a basic understanding of the Danish VET system
a track record of research publications of a high international standard commensurate with the length of the applicant’s academic career

experience of participating in national and international research networks
time spent working at internationally recognised research institutions outside Denmark

Applicants must also speak and write English at an advanced academic level.

The application must be submitted in English. It must include a cover letter, a CV (including a list of publications), publications if relevant to the position (maximum two), and a teaching statement (or equivalent documentation of teaching experience and qualifications). Moreover, applicants are asked to include a research statement (approximately two pages). This should include a description of how their previous research experience and qualifications are relevant to the position, and a proposal for research to be undertaken within the framework for the research project outlined above, outlining a methodological and conceptual approach for the subproject led by the postdoc. A timetable should be included for completing this subproject within the period of employment. Lastly, the application must include a copy of the applicant’s PhD degree certificate or other documentation confirming the expected date of degree completion. Please note that applications lacking such documentation will not be considered.

Although the Aarhus University application system includes an option to upload letters of recommendation, applicants should not include letters of recommendation or references with the application. Applicants who are invited to an interview may be asked to provide references.

For further information about the position, please contact Miriam Madsen, head of the Department of Education Studies, email: mirm@edu.au.dk, tel.: +4520842672

Read about the Department of Education Studies here .

About the Danish School of Education 

The Danish School of Education at Aarhus University is Denmark’s largest centre for research and teaching in the fields of education, didactics and learning, with approximately 240 full-time researchers, including 80 PhD students, and 4,500 Bachelor’s and Master’s degree students. The school’s activities are characterised by a high degree of interdisciplinarity and close interaction with society, including businesses, organisations, government agencies and institutions, both in Denmark and abroad. 

International applicants 

International applicants are encouraged to read about family and work-life balance  as well as the attractive working conditions  and other benefits of working at Aarhus University and in Denmark, including healthcare, paid holidays and, if relevant, maternity/paternity leave, childcare and schooling. Aarhus University offers a broad variety of services for international researchers and accompanying families, including a relocation service  and career counselling for expat partners. For information about taxation, see the taxation aspects of international researchers’ employment by AU . Please find more information about entering and working in Denmark here: http://international.au.dk/research/

Aarhus University also offers a junior researcher development programme targeted at career development for postdocs at AU. You can read more about it here: https://talent.au.dk/junior-researcher-development-programme/

🕑 Fuldtid | København NV | 13-10-2026

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