Grad student call for Digitizing Carbon Capitalism

Eliot Tretter and I are looking for a graduate student at the MA or PhD level to join our team on the Digitizing Carbon Capitalism project. This project, funded by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Insight Grant, studies how digitalization is reconfiguring the oil and gas industry, particularly relocating the site of labor to urban metropolitan regions like the Edmonton-Calgary corridor. We seek to deepen understanding of the ways automation, sensors, algorithmic modelling, and artificial intelligence at the sites of extraction are co-producing urban labor market geographies, with implications for a “just transition” to post-carbon economies. Put simply, what’s the future for oil and gas when digital technologies are reducing the human labor required to operate, and how are those impacts felt differently by different people, groups, and spaces? The ideal candidate will play a strong role in this project’s efforts to advance debates in digital geographies, urban political economies, and resource extractivism.

The ideal candidate should demonstrate a record of strong, proactive, and independent intellectual growth and contributions to their local communities (broadly defined). They should demonstrate excellence in their endeavors to date, suggesting the ability to develop creative insights into the research goals. They would ideally have training in qualitative or mixed methods. They will be expected to provide a complementary tack to this research, for the successful completion of their master’s or doctoral program.

The successful candidate will begin their program September 2022. Formal applications to the master’s program are due January 5th, 2022. In their work for this project, they will be expected to conduct:
-Qualitative semi-structured interviews (with the PIs),
-Observational activities at industry events and O&G site tours (with the PIs),
-Independent textual/visual analysis of trade/industry publications.

By December 1, please send your CV, statement of interest, and transcripts (unofficial accepted) to Ryan.Burns1@ucalgary.ca and ETretter@ucalgary.ca. Successful applicants will be required to provide letters of reference. I’d be happy to answer any questions you have about the position or the research project.