The Amsterdam School of Historical Studies (ASH) currently has a vacant postdoctoral position as part of the European Commission Horizon 2020 project European Colonial Heritage Modalities in Entangled Cities (ECHOES). The overall project’s Principal Investigator is Professor John Oldfield (University of Hull, UK). Professor Elizabeth Buettner at the University of Amsterdam (ASH) is co-leader of two component subprojects, one of which is ‘Europeanizing Colonial Heritage’.

This position falls within work package 2 ‘Europeanizing Colonial Heritage’, overseen by Dr Jan Ifversen and Dr Christoffer Kølvraa of Aarhus University together with Prof. Elizabeth Buettner from UvA. You will collaborate with the international research team to explore the role of the colonial past in public and official discourses within the European Union, focusing on how the colonial past is dealt with in policy formulations of the EU’s role as a global actor. The results of your work will be included in knowledge exchange and science diplomacy with central stakeholders in the EU who are responsible for heritage and cultural policies as well as external relations.

Tasks
You will conduct a discourse analysis of archival and other textual material from the 1990s onwards, ranging from important declarative speeches, documents, and interventions to statements that attempt to publicize, justify, or explain EU engagements in what are clearly post-colonial contexts (such as the EuroMed Partnership, the Africa–EU strategic partnership, and the European Neighbourhood Policy). Your obligations will include:

• writing at least one high-quality academic article for an international refereed journal on EU discourses related to colonial heritage, to be submitted before the end of the appointment;
• travelling to and presenting papers at conferences abroad;
• building and maintaining excellent relations among academic researchers and others involved in the project. This will include circulating between Amsterdam, Aarhus, and Brussels as and when necessary for research and project team activities (for which reasonable travel costs will be covered). Skype conversations liaising with international researchers will also periodically take place;
• playing a role in co-organizing project events;
• contributing to writing project reports as and when needed.

If you are the postdoctoral researcher we are looking for, you have:

• a PhD (already examined) in History, European Studies, or a related discipline;

• (maximum of 4 years of experience post PhD);

• a demonstrable interest in European colonial history and the history and heritage policies of the European Union, as well as discourse analysis;

• a research and publication record commensurate with their career stage;

• fluent English;

• good analytical and communication skills;

• strong organizational skills;

• a cooperative, collegial attitude and willingness to work as part of a collaborative international team.

You will be appointed for 38 hours per week (1.0 FTE) for a maximum period of one year at the Department of History, European Studies & Religious Studies of the Faculty of Humanities. The research will be carried out under the aegis of ASH. The intended starting date of the contract is 1 September 2018. The gross monthly salary (on full-time basis) will range from €3,238 to €3,722 depending on experience and qualifications. TheCollective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities is applicable.

University of Amsterdam

With over 5,000 employees, 30,000 students and a budget of more than 600 million euros, the University of Amsterdam (UvA) is an intellectual hub within the Netherlands. Teaching and research at the UvA are conducted within seven faculties: Humanities, Social and Behavioural Sciences, Economics and Business, Law, Science, Medicine and Dentistry. Housed on four city campuses in or near the heart of Amsterdam, where disciplines come together and interact, the faculties have close links with thousands of researchers and hundreds of institutions at home and abroad.  

The UvA’s students and employees are independent thinkers, competent rebels who dare to question dogmas and aren’t satisfied with easy answers and standard solutions. To work at the UvA is to work in an independent, creative, innovative and international climate characterised by an open atmosphere and a genuine engagement with the city of Amsterdam and society.

http://www.uva.nl/en/home

Department of Media Studies

The Amsterdam School of Historical Studies (ASH) is one of six research schools in the Amsterdam Institute for Humanities Research at the University of Amsterdam (UvA).

ECHOES is supported by the European Commission’s H2020-SC6-ENG-GLOBALLY-2016-2017: Engaging Together Globally scheme. Running for three years starting in February 2018, it will be carried out by researchers based at the Universities of Hull, Aarhus, Amsterdam, Rennes II, Warsaw, and the Center for Social Studies at the University of Coimbra.

https://mediastudies.nl/