Emil A. Røyrvik

This PhD position is based at the Department of Sociology and Political Science at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim. The project sits at the intersection of sociology, ethnography, Science and Technology Studies, and digital infrastructure research, and it focuses on how digital identity technologies are reshaping security culture, trust, power, and everyday social life. The successful candidate will work as part of the interdisciplinary project Cryptology and social life: Sovereignty, security and society meet digital wallets . The position is connected to NTNU’s wider interdisciplinary work on resilience and democratic resilience, and the candidate will join the research groups Technology and social change and Ethnography , as well as the national research school on Digitalization, Culture and Society. The advertised research is centered on the deployment of the EU Digital Identity (EUDI) Wallet and its possible role as a critical socio-technical infrastructure in Norway. The project asks how digital identity wallets are perceived and used by citizens, user groups, employees, and institutions, and how such technologies shape ideas and practices related to autonomy, control, freedom, dominance, privacy, fairness, identity, and democratic accountability. The PhD project is explicitly designed for critical, interpretive, and ethnographic inquiry. The candidate will investigate digital identity infrastructures as cultural practices embedded in social life, using case studies, qualitative interviews, observations, and document analysis. The position offers a strong international research environment with opportunities for collaboration, publication, conference participation, and engagement with societal actors. The appointment is for four years and includes one year of teaching or other promotion work within the department. The candidate will conduct independent doctoral research while contributing to collaborative project activities, academic seminars, and the broader scholarly environment at ISS. Professor Emil A. Røyrvik is listed as the academic contact for the position.