Postdoctoral Scholar

Posting Details

Title: Postdoctoral Scholar

Appointment Status: Non-Tenure Track

Department: IU Indianapolis Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research

Location: Indianapolis

The IU Indianapolis Arts and Humanities Institute supports research, creative activity, and public scholarship across the arts and humanities. The Institute advances interdisciplinary collaboration among faculty, students, community partners, and external organizations. Its programs support faculty research, student‑engaged scholarship, public humanities initiatives, and cross‑sector partnerships. This position will be housed in the Institute as part of the NSF‑funded INSECt project, focusing on insect‑human relations across the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and applied environmental research.

The scholar will work at 100% effort for 12 calendar months beginning in fall 2026, before November 1. The scholar will synthesize literature across fields ranging from insect bioeconomy research to the environmental humanities. The purpose of this work is to trace transdisciplinary, convergent, and interdisciplinary potentials of existing scholarship and to develop research outputs to support broader INSECt goals.

The successful candidate will play a central role in shaping a major interdisciplinary research agenda intended for publication in high‑impact venues, including scientific journals with broad interdisciplinary readership. The position requires an individual capable of synthesis across disciplinary boundaries and engaging complex scientific, historical, ecological, environmental, and social scientific literature.

• Work with the INSECt team to develop research papers synthesizing interdisciplinary literature on insect‑human relations.
• Lead integrative interdisciplinary literature reviews focused on insects, environmental change, bioeconomy research, environmental humanities, and the Anthropocene.
• Trace transdisciplinary, convergent, and interdisciplinary potentials across the literature on insect‑human relations.
• Conduct extensive research across multiple scholarly domains, including entomology, ecology, environmental science, environmental history, geography, anthropology, sociology, political ecology, science and technology studies, bioeconomy research, and related fields.
• Assist in developing conceptual and analytical frameworks that bridge scientific, humanistic, and social scientific approaches to environmental research.
• Participate in regular meetings with the INSECt team.
• Contribute to the preparation of journal articles, reports, conference presentations, grant materials, workshop materials, and related scholarly outputs.
• Present research findings through written, verbal, and collaborative formats to interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary audiences.
• Assist in identifying emerging areas of interdisciplinary research related to insects, biodiversity, climate change, urbanization, agriculture, infrastructure, bioeconomy systems, governance, and human‑environment systems.
• Organize online and hybrid workshops throughout the year.

• Ph.D. in a relevant field completed by the start date.
• Demonstrated ability to conduct advanced interdisciplinary research.
• Evidence of strong analytical and synthetic writing skills.
• Ability to read and engage scholarship across multiple disciplines, including STEM, social science, and humanities fields.
• Excellent organizational, communication, and collaborative skills.
• Demonstrated capacity to manage large and complex bodies of scholarly literature.
• Ability to work with interdisciplinary teams and contribute to collaborative research outputs.

• Research experience related to insects, environmental change, ecology, biodiversity, climate change, agriculture, infrastructure, urban systems, bioeconomy research, environmental humanities, or Anthropocene studies.
• Familiarity with scientific, social scientific and/or humanistic literature and methods related to ecology, entomology, environmental science, STS, environmental humanities, or related disciplines.
• Experience working in interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary research teams.
• Record of publication or collaborative scholarly production.
• Experience synthesizing scholarship across disciplinary traditions and methodological approaches.
• Experience translating complex interdisciplinary research for multiple audiences.

Jason Kelly, Department Contact. Email: jaskelly