Interesting new PhD fellowships open at the University of Oslo: two have been advertised for people doing practice-based research on new forms of texts that will be used in knowledge work, learning and so on. My understanding is they’re looking for projects that use creative, experimental development work and theoretical reflection, and that explore what kinds of documents we’ll use in the future, taking (for instance) hypertextuality, mobility, location and multimodality into account. If you have questions, Gunnar Liest¯l is the project leader and the man to contact. His email address is in the advertisement (which is in Norwegian). Usually foreign applications are welcome, but Gunnar would be the one to ask about that.
And yes, these are the comparatively very well-paid (same salary as a nurse or policeman) kind of three year PhD fellowships we have in Norway, where you’re officially employed and earning pension rights and part of a welfare state and have rights to paid parental leave (10 months, shared between parents) and two hours off work a day if you’re breastfeeding and so on. Why everyone doesn’t try to move here, I’ll never know. (OK, don’t tell anyone about the rain. I think it rains less in Oslo, anyway.) Oh, also, in the Norwegian system, you need a really good project description when you apply for the position – you don’t get a few years to figure out what you’re doing. So applying does take some time.
