[Aqualist] $48, 000 p/a (3 years, tax free) Indigenous-only PhD scholarships

[Michael Fletcher]

Dear AQUA People - please pass this around your networks.
We're offering $48,000 p/a (3 years, tax free) Indigenous-only PhD scholarships available to work on our Cultural Burning ARC project at the University of Melbourne or the Australian National University.
The Opportunity
We are advertising for at least 2 Indigenous (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) PhD students to work on an Australian Research Council funded grant on southeast Australian bushfires. The successful candidates will work under the supervision of Wiradjuri Geographer A/Prof Michael-Shawn Fletcher (University of Melbourne) and Dr Simon Connor (Australian National University), along with our international collaborators, Dr Michela Mariani (University of Nottingham) and Dr Yoshi Maezumi (University of Amsterdam).
The project will require close consultation and collaboration with Traditional Owner groups across the southeast Australian forest estate to develop robust understandings about how vegetation and bushfire frequency and intensity have changed over the past >500 years - prior to and following the British Invasion.
The ARC Project
Indigenous cultural burning has been raised as a way of mitigating against climate-driven catastrophic bushfires in southeast Australian forests. It is argued that returning an Indigenous style fire regime will keep landscape fuel loads low, thus reducing the frequency and intensity of bushfires and mitigating against large catastrophic bushfires.
To explore this further and advocate for policy change, this project aims to bring together the enormous reservoirs of traditional fire knowledge in Indigenous communities with data-driven science by empirically testing how fuel loads, fuel type, fire frequency and fire intensity have changed in southeast Australian forests during the transition from Indigenous to British management over the past 500 years
Your Profile
The successful candidates will be Indigenous (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) and have experience in environmental research. The University of Melbourne recognises that some Indigenous people may have had education pathways outside the university system and assesses the potential for PhD candidates to undertake research on a case-by-case basis, not solely on graduate experience. We encourage any Indigenous candidate with knowledge that falls within the broad remit of "environmental science" (including Indigenous science and environmental education) to apply.
What we offer you
We offer a PhD stipend/scholarship of $48,000 p/a (tax free) for a period of 3 years to undertake the research. All PhD project costs will be supported by the Australian Research Council grant. The commencement date will be March 2021 but a flexible start date may be negotiated with the project coordinator.
How to Apply
Please contact Michael-Shawn Fletcher on michael.fletcher at unimelb.edu.au<mailto:michael.fletcher at unimelb.edu.au>
Cheers,
Michael.

Associate Professor Michael-Shawn Fletcher
Assistant Dean (Indigenous) | Faculty of Science
Director (Research Capability) | Indigenous Knowledge Institute
Associate Investigator | Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage (CABAH)

School of Geography | The University of Melbourne
Room 2.09, Level 2, 221 Bouverie Street, Parkville VIC 3010
p. +61 3 90353048 | e. michael.fletcher at unimelb.edu.au<mailto:michael.fletcher at unimelb.edu.au> | tw. @theotheroad @Melb_Palaeo

[flag]  Wiradjuri

http://michaelsresearch.wordpress.com/ | http://geography.unimelb.edu.au/ | https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/display/person6089 | https://epicaustralia.org.au/