Postdoc: Land Use Decisions in a Spatial and System Context (DSC), Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF), Germany

The working group (Land Use Decisions in a Spatial and System Context at the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research – ZALF) is seeking to fill a two-year position starting May 2027.

The mission of the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) as a nationally and internationally active research institute is to deliver solutions for an ecologically, economically and socially sustainable agriculture – together with society. ZALF is a member of the Leibniz Association and is located in Müncheberg (approx. 35 minutes by regional train from Berlin-Lichtenberg). The institute maintains further locations in Brandenburg (Dedelow, Paulinenaue) as well as in Hesse (Giessen, Witzenhausen, and Geisenheim).

At ZALF, PLANTH is based within the Working Group for Land Use Decisions in a Spatial and System Context (DSC), which studies landscape transformation as a co-evolutionary process between people and landscapes. We use the lens of food systems to connect agriculture, biodiversity, people and landscapes. Together with non-scientific practitioners, we co-develop visions for landscapes and agricultural and food systems, as well as strategies to move towards those visions. To date, we focus on strategies including biodiversity-friendly farming, agroecology, regional value-chains and alternative food networks, access to land and shifting diets. Drawing on methodologies from across disciplines, the working group develops novel method combinations to describe and redesign spatial relationships connecting human and non-human systems.

The project PLANTH proposes to fundamentally shift the human-centric paradigm of migration and mobility studies by foregrounding the role played by human–nonhuman relations in creating new livelihoods and ‘making place.’ The project focuses on plants as mobility companions, as temporal anchors to/in pre- and post-migration lives, and as both care charges and resources throughout migration. It traces human-plant co-mobilities and asks how these co-mobilities change and shape landscapes in several interconnected sites in Europe and Asia. PLANTH is conducted in a collaboration between the Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient and ZALF, and incorporates expertise from scholars based at Wageningen University (Netherlands), Ca’Foscari University of Venice (Italy) and Cardiff University (UK) to foster synergies between spatial, agricultural and ethnobotanical research and historical and anthropological studies of migration and translocality.

Within PLANTH, are offering a fulltime position for two years starting May 2027 at our location in Müncheberg as Postdoc (f/m/d) 41-2026

• Spatial analysis of landscape, land use and land cover change
• Engage in historical and archival research in countries including Italy, Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Turkey and potentially Syria to enhance mapping activities
• Integrate ethnobotanical findings into spatial analyses by creatively combining cartographic, ecological, visual, and ethnographic materials
• Learn about and use critical cartographic methods for communicating research findings
• Conduct participatory research to explore the meaning of landscape change for people, plants, and communities
• Contribute to a positive working and project group culture
• Develop your career and research profile within the framing of the PLANTH project
• PhD in geography, environmental sciences, sustainability sciences, and similar
• Ability to map and analyse land use and land cover change
• Able to travel to different field sites in Italy and Turkey and engage in participatory research, including planning and conducting workshops and/or exhibitions
• Fluent in English and basic speaking and/or reading skills in one or more of the following languages: Italian, Bangladeshi, Bulgarian, Turkish and/or Arabic
• Deeply curiosity-driven in your research, creative and independent in how you engage with the topic of human-plant relations in shaping landscape change
• Highly collaborative in group contexts

What we offer:

• An interdisciplinary working environment that encourages independence, creativity, and mutual support and inspiration
• An opportunity to work in an exciting international interdisciplinary research project including collaboration with research and community partners in at least two case study regions
• An opportunity to gain insights into innovative research methodologies in the broad field of landscape studies
• Classification according to the collective agreement of the federal states (TV-L) up to E13 (including special annual payment)
• A collegial and open-minded working atmosphere in a dynamic research institution

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