The International Institute of Social History seeks to appoint a post-doc researcher for the multidisciplinary projects “Diamonds in Borneo: Commodities as Concepts in Context” and “Linked Open Data Gazetteers of the Americas,” funded by two CLARIAH Research Pilot grants awarded to Prof. Dr. Karin Hofmeester and Dr. Rombert Stapel. The post-doc will be part of a team of researchers from different Dutch institutions and work on both highly related projects. The aim of both projects is to contribute to the research infrastructure developed within the Common Lab Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities project (CLARIAH; https://www.clariah.nl). Both projects are also explicitly intended to increase our knowledge of the history and dynamics of globalization and are part of the general research program of the IISH.

The project “Diamonds in Borneo” aims to create a vocabulary of the various attestations of one particular global commodity, in this case diamonds, which will then be used to facilitate intelligent queries for this commodity in largescale text corpora such as Delpher (www.delpher.nl/).

The project “Gazetteers of the Americas” aims to contribute to a worldwide open database of historical place names. Modern gazetteers, such as GeoNames or Google Maps, are of limited value when using historical place names. By contributing to a Worldwide Historical Gazetteer, it will become possible to query and enrich historical text corpora with geographical information, even when the names of localities are outdated or when spelling variations are a complicating factor.

The post-doc will be responsible for coordinating the effort to extract structured data from the selected primary sources of the two projects; working together with the different specialists in the teams. He or she will make sure the objectives set out in the project proposals are met within the proposed deadlines. He or she will explore how and to what extent this process can be automated using the tools and expertise available in CLARIAH. The candidate will also be (co-)writing two scientific articles in cooperation with the other members of the research team.

• a PhD in History, (History of) Linguistics, Digital Humanities, Computational or Computer Sciences or any another relevant discipline; or a PhD dissertation in one of these fields already accepted by the PhD Examination Committee;

• an affinity with data-driven digital methods and techniques and both quantitative and qualitative research approaches. Previous work in the field of digital humanities is strongly preferred;

• demonstrable affinity with the scope of the project;

• the ability to work both as a creative and independent researcher in an interdisciplinary team, and willing to take responsibility for deliverables and deadlines in your work package;

• an excellent track record and research skills; and strong academic writing and presentation skills;

• excellent command of English, both written and orally; the ability to read Dutch printed material has a strong preference.

The appointment with the IISG is for the duration of one year. The remuneration, depending on relevant work experiences and qualifications, amounts to a minimum of € 3475,- and a maximum of € 4757,-  gross per month (salary scale 11 Collective Labour Agreement Dutch Universities) in a full-time appointment. The IISG offers appealing secondary employment conditions, including but not limited to 8.3% year-end bonus, 8% holiday allowance, a good pension plan and 6 weeks worth of vacation days every year.

IISH - KNAW

The KNAW Humanities Cluster is a collaboration of three KNAW institutes where humanities research (history, ethnology, literature, linguistics) is conducted through advanced methods, and computer sciences play an important role.

The KNAW Humanities Cluster includes the International Institute of Social History, the Huygens Institute of Netherlands History and the Meertens Institute. They share one operational office, which organizes and supports the operational management of the Humanities Cluster as a whole and of the three institutes separately. 

The International Institute of Social History (IISG) conducts advanced research on the global history of work, workers, and labour relations, and gathers data to this end; which is made available to other researchers as well.