The 2023 Planet Reimagined postdoctoral fellowships explore new research about outreach at large-scale cultural and entertainment events to bring potential activists into social movements.

The Climate Active Postdoctoral Fellowships offer a rare opportunity for early-career scholar-advocates to participate in research on building social movements, and translate the findings into effective climate action.

Sustained pressure from a critical mass is essential to change policy and shift power to confront the climate emergency and promote climate justice. While many people care about the issue, not enough are campaigning, organizing, protesting, or maintaining sustained pressure for the concrete changes we need.

Applications open until February 12

Apply here: https://forms.gle/1uPtFi28r5XPHPnA7

Visit our website: https://www.planetreimagined.com/climate-active-fellowship-2023

The Climate Active Fellows will work on a project that aims to answer two questions:

(1) What are meaningful and effective avenues, or “on-ramps” – to mobilize people? and, (2) How do we channel enthusiasm and interest into sustained and effective actions over time?

Live music, sports, and other spectacle and entertainment events offer the potential to inspire large numbers of people to be part of a movement. This Planet Reimagined research and advocacy project considers how people might take the first steps and continue to engage over time. The research team will collect data on how such events can create successful on-ramps, encouraging audiences to transition from fans to activists with a commitment over time.

Two Climate Active Fellows will work with Planet Reimagined and key partners on research and advocacy to:

(1) identify ways to engage people in climate activism at live entertainment events, and

(2) disseminate and popularize research findings as they come in so as to increase the number of people participating in concrete climate-related efforts.

During the fellowship, participants will support existing research efforts, undertake new supervised research, and create an advocacy strategy to make the research results widely known. Fellows will advance advocacy strategies through physical, digital, multimedia, data visualization and other campaigning content, so that campaigners, organizations, and concerned communities can put the findings to use.

One part of this fellowship project focuses on social scientific evidence from live music concerts, supporting research with a music industry partner to examine specifically how concerts can create on-ramps to social mobilization, as described in this article by Planet Reimagined’s Executive Director, Adam Met.

Other areas of the fellowship project consider additional types of mass entertainment events and the in-person influence of messengers, from athletes to comedians, to build on-ramps to climate activism.

The two fellows will work closely together and will report to the Fellowship Coordinator at Planet Reimagined. On the creative side, their work will include collaborations with multimedia, video and audio editors and graphic designers. Fellows will also have the opportunity throughout the year for professional development through visiting speakers, webinars, and customized training in specialized skills.

For aspects of the on-ramps research and advocacy project that focuses specifically on music tours, fellows will participate in a creative collaboration between Planet Reimagined and REVERB, a nonprofit that’s been leading the green music movement since 2004 with a focus on engaging and empowering artists, fans, and others in the music community to take action on pressing environmental issues while reducing the footprint of the industry.

The Climate Active fellowship program is generously supported by the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation.

Fellows can come from any academic discipline but must demonstrate a solid grounding in climate and environmental policy, as well as expertise in communications and advocacy for social change.

The twelve-month fellowship will be remote with a small number of field visits and in-person meetings within the U.S. The fellowship stipend is $50,000 plus travel expenses.

Fellows will be expected to commit a minimum of 30 hours per week and to be consistently available for work during Eastern time zone hours. The fellowship period is March 2023-March 2024. Fellows must be a U.S. citizen or resident of the U.S.

Requirements:

● U.S. citizen or resident of the U.S.

● Completed or submitted PhD at the time of the appointment

● Academically or professionally active for no longer than four (4) years post-PhD

● Demonstrated commitment to tackling the problems of climate change, preferably with an understanding of climate justice and climate activism

● Experience studying and/or engaging in social change movements, civic and political engagement and advocacy

● Outstanding storytelling skills and persuasive writing skills, with demonstrated ability to convey research results, scientific findings, and policy issues to a general audience

● Fluency in English

● A high degree of independence, reliability, and a collaborative approach in a remote work setting

Preferred Skills and Experience:

● Expertise and experience in quantitative and qualitative research methods

● Experience in the planning and production of advocacy campaigns and materials related to climate action, environmental justice, human rights, or sustainable development

● Familiarity with social messaging and creating digital campaigns. Data visualization, graphic design, video production and other multimedia skills are highly desirable, though some can be learned on the job if necessary.

Due to the wide range of skills needed to complete this project, we will look to balance the full complement of preferred skills and experience between the two successful candidates.