Assistant Professorship (tenure track) in Political Science

The Department of Political Science and Public Management, University of Southern Denmark, Odense invites applications for an Assistant Professorshipin Political Science as of August 1, 2024, or as agreed. 

The successful candidate is expected to support the department’s strategic objectives: excellence in research, high-quality teaching, and social impact. The Department of Political Science and Public Management values a diversity of competences and academic profiles, and applicants must present a clear academic profile. By academic profile we understand the combined quality of research, teaching, and societal engagement. For more information about the department and its strategy, please visit the website.

The successful applicant will be affiliated with the Danish Centre for Welfare Studies (DaWS). Established in 2005 as a cross-disciplinary research center, DaWS is an internationally recognized and dynamic research group. We emphasize scientific curiosity, high-quality research, and team spirit. Ongoing research at DaWS covers topics such as political economy, public policy, comparative politics, and administration, and outcomes and effects of welfare policies as well as the history and developments of the welfare state. The research group covers a broad range of themes and methods.

The main tasks related to the position includes:

• Research: Conduct and publish research at a high international level on key Political Science fields, with a special emphasis on public and social policy, political economy, public administration, and/or comparative welfare politics
• Teaching: Teach and supervise students within the department's entire portfolio of study programs, including the full-time Political Science program (including supervision of PhD students).
• Academic citizenship and outreach: Perform research-related tasks such as supporting the development of collective research projects within the group, seeking external funding, outreach activities, and other forms of knowledge exchange with the surrounding society. Applicants are expected to have good interpersonal skills and be dedicated to taking part in the everyday academic and social environment at the department and the research group.

For applicants to qualify for the position, the following criteria must be met (please also consult the Scholarly Qualification Matrix for more details): 

• A highly promising research profile: This includes an innovative research agenda and a strong research track record and research potential documented by high-quality publications and an ambitious research strategy. This also includes potential and plans for attracting third-party funding.
• Strong methodological skills: Skills in quantitative and qualitative methods and/or comparative methods are considered an advantage.
• Teaching experience and strong interest in innovative teaching: We expect applicants to document experience in university-level teaching as well as to demonstrate interest in developing a strong teaching profile.
• Keen interest in research cooperation and outreach: We expect applicants to document their ability to engage in professional networks and international research cooperations, and their interest in outreach activities beyond academia.

An Assistant Professorship is an early career position, and we’ll evaluate both documented track record and potential and planned research. We expect applications to include a 4-year research plan that describes research themes, publication strategy, potential cooperation, and plans for external funding. 

Within a three-year period, non-Danish-speaking applicants are expected to master the Danish language at a level which enables reading Danish exam papers and administrative documents. The department offers free language classes and a reduction in workload to support non-Danish speaking employees.

The department believes in fostering a stimulating and inspiring environment for both faculty members and students. The department's ambition is therefore to recruit, develop, and retain talented scholars committed to both academic excellence and departmental development. Furthermore, the department wishes our staff to reflect the diversity of society and, thus, welcomes applications from all qualified candidates regardless of personal background.

For further information, please contact Director of the Danish Centre for Welfare Studies, Professor Klaus Petersen: klaus.petersen@sdu.dk or Head of Department Signe Pihl-Thingvad, ssp@sam.sdu.dk.

The Danish tenure track employment

The Danish tenure-track employment is a focused Assistant Professorship with a guaranteed assessment for a position as an associate professor, not limited in time, within the tenure-track assistant professor's field of study.

The tenure-track assistant professor will be assigned a mentor upon employment, and annual performance, and development reviews will be held to ensure the progress of the assistant professor's development towards meeting the qualifications of an associate professorship. A formal midterm evaluation will be conducted by a committee, consisting of internal and external researchers with relevant qualifications, with the purpose of ensuring the focus of the assistant professor's activities, as well as to create the basis for the planning of the remaining period.

The transition from assistant professor to associate professor

Within the 6th year of employment, the tenure-track assistant professor is expected to transition into a position as an associate professor, based on a positive assessment conducted by a formally approved assessment committee, consisting of a chair, appointed by the University of Southern Denmark, as well as two external committee members approved by the dean and the academic council.

The assessment committee evaluates the tenure-track assistant professor based on the promotion guidelines of the department. The Faculty of Business and Social Sciences at SDU expects the successful tenure-track assistant professor to have performed, progressed, and achieved an acceptable record in accordance with requirements stated in the promotion guidelines.

The Recruitment Process

Appointment to the position requires a PhD or equivalent and will be in accordance with the salary agreement between the Ministry of Finance and the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations.

An application must include:

• Detailed CV
• A research plan (max 4 pages) for the next 4 years that includes:
  • Overall ambitions and potential to advance the field (both empirically and theoretically)
  • Major sub-projects
  • Publication strategy
  • Planned national and international collaborations
  • Potential for obtaining external funding
• Certificates/Diplomas (Master and PhD degree)
• Teaching portfolio (please see below)
• Complete list of publications, indicating which publications are most relevant for the position
• Up to 4 of the most relevant publications. Please upload a pdf for each publication. NOTE: If publications have been co-authored, co-author statements must be a part of this pdf and must include information like in this example.

Applicants applying for an Assistant Professorship are requested to submit a teaching portfolio with the application as documentation for teaching experience as well as supervision qualifications. Formal application instructions and guide for teaching portfolio may be found here.

All non-Danish documents must be translated into English.

Applications that are incomplete with regards to the above requirements may be rejected without any substantive evaluation.

Assessment of applications will be done under existing Appointment Order for Universities. Applications will be assessed by an academic assessment committee that determines whether applicants are qualified for an Assistant Professorship. The assessment committee will base its evaluation on the current qualification guidelines of the Department. The committee may request additional information, and if so, it is the responsibility of the applicant to provide the necessary material. The committee reserves the right to arrive at a decision solely based on the material submitted.

Shortlisting may be used in the assessment process.

When the assessment committee has submitted its report, the applicant will receive the part of the evaluation that concerns him/her. The assessment report will subsequently be forwarded to the head of department who will assemble an appointments committee. The appointments committee will manage and complete a series of job interviews and test-lectures with especially promising applicants. On the basis of the applications, the written assessments, the job interviews, and a deliberation within the appointments committee, the head of department determines which candidate will be offered the position.

Applications must be submitted electronically no later than March 1, 2024 using the link "Apply online". Uploaded files must be in Adobe PDF (unlocked) or Word format.
Read the guideline for the applicants

Each field can only contain a single file of max. 10 Mb.