We are looking for a postdoctoral researcher to support the Principal Investigator of the European Research Council project FOODCIRCUITS: Hidden Connections Between Migrants and Societies based at the UB. This postdoctoral researcher will conduct field research, community collaboration, academic writing and presentation activities associated with the project throughout 3 years and 8 months (matching the academic year calendar). With collaboration from the PI and support from advisors, this postdoctoral research will lead the California Strawberries Circuit of the project (see below).  In addition, this postdoctoral researcher will assist the PI in team leadership, including aspects of preparation, mentorship, collaboration and coordination.   

FOODCIRCUITS seeks to understand the invisibilization of connections between migrants and the societies of which they form part.  The project focuses on bodies and embodiment from a social theoretical perspective when considering invisibilization and connection.  The project will be based in in-depth participant observation (and perhaps observant participation) ethnography with migrant farmworkers, transportation and supply chain workers, and consumers of fruits and vegetables within what the project conceptualizes as “food circuits”.  Based on this in-depth ethnographic fieldwork in food circuits and interacting with social theory, the project will theorize ethno-nationalism and nationalism, mobility and circulation, racialization and racial capitalism, embodiment and health, infrastructure and supply chains, connection and invisibilization in relation to agriculture, food and eating. 

Job description: The postdoctoral researcher will assist the PI in collaboration and leading of the FOODCIRCUITS project and team. Specifically, the postdoctoral researcher will – with collaboration from the PI and support from advisors – lead and enact the California Strawberries Circuit of the project.  The postdoctoral researcher will take part in collaborative co-leading of presentation and publication ventures, including conference panels and journal special issues.  The postdoctoral researcher will also help foster visual ethnography, which will be led by a different member of the FOODCIRCUITS team.  The researcher will lead the California Strawberries Circuit research and writing, explore collaborative research and dissemination ventures. We seek highly motivated candidates to:

• work as part of a team in an international, innovative and multi-circuited project,
• conduct in-depth ethnographic field research, with some degree of interest in incorporating embodied and reflexive aspects – particularly leading the California Strawberries Circuit of the project with collaboration from the PI and support from advisors,
• help build on, critique, and develop social theory from the context of in-depth fieldwork,
• explore and seek to innovate collaborative research and dissemination activities – including potentially artistic, dramatic, sonic and visual, and
• write and publish social science articles and chapters from the research – some of which will be co-authored - while taking turns leading special issues of top journals internationally.

Key responsibilities

• Lead California Strawberries Circuit of research project
• Conduct in-depth fieldwork with Mexican migrant farmworkers (and other migrant/refugee as appropriate), transportation and supply chain worker in the USAs, and consumers in the USA – with collaboration from PI and support from advisors
• Work with PI and circuit advisors to explore and seek respectful ways to engage with Latin American, including Indigenous, migrant workers in fieldwork
• Support PI in preparation of project
• Help mentor other team members and help support PI in leadership of project team overall
• Travel to and help lead meetings, conferences and presentations.
• Read literature and conduct research to prepare for California Strawberries Circuit at the intersection of migration, labour, food systems, embodiment and health, USA and Mexico, social inequity and racialization.
• Interact and communicate well as the member of an interdisciplinary and multi-circuited project team.
• Seek ways to explore collaborative research and collaborative dissemination – some of the latter of which could be multi-modal / sensory.
• Analyse ethnographic data and interact actively with other team members through the process of analysis.
• Write and publish articles and chapters – some co-authored - in top journals in English – and consider other local and regional languages.
• Help in leading the development and publication of special issues to disseminate findings in top journals in English – and consider other local and regional languages.
• Show dedication to writing, publishing, dissemination, and presentation especially during the years of the project as well as, to some degree, after the years of the project. 
• Help support and foster the work of the visual ethnographic member of the team.
• Explore ways for the project to have positive impact on social change beyond the academy. 
• Show dedication and flexibility to the project and its goals of social science research and positive social change through in-depth field research and active dissemination of findings and collaboration, all while on an interdisciplinary team. 
• Participate actively in the activities of the UB research group, including being present at the UB and in Barcelona during crucial times of preparation, analysis, writing, discussion, conferences, workshops and meeting.  Interact actively virtually during times when the team is not present together at the UB and in Barcelona.

Gross salary per year: 41.616,00 €