Expressions of interest are sought for a fully funded three year PhD scholarship at the Asia Research Centre, Murdoch University, in association with the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada’s 2.5 million Partnership Grant ‘Appraising risk, past and present: Interrogating historical data to enhance understanding of environmental crises in the Indian Ocean World’, anchored at the Indian Ocean World Centre, McGill University under the directorship of Professor Gwyn Campbell.

The successful applicant will join a team of scholars led by Emeritus Professor James Warren and focusing on the Southeast Asian and Indo-Pacific regions. Investigations centre upon periods of acute environmental crisis, variously characterized by natural disasters, epidemic disease, socio-economic instability, and migration, bondage, and mass mortality. Within this framework, researchers will investigate current and traditional perceptions of environmental risk and risk management, explore past-to-present patterns to the human and environmental dimensions of crisis, and apply the results of historical research to enhance environmental risk and governance protocols. This groundbreaking initiative is not limited to the discipline of history, involving geography, anthropology, and the environmental sciences.

The successful candidate will be based at the Asia Research Centre in the College of Arts, Business, Law and Social Sciences, Murdoch University, in Perth, Western Australia. The Asia Research Centre has a strong track record of innovative research in the social and environmental history of Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean World, and offers a supportive and collegial environment to postgraduate students.