The Amsterdam School of Historical Studies (ASH), one of the six research schools of the Faculty of Humanities, currently has a vacant postdoctoral position as part of the ERC project Healthscaping, led by prof. G. Geltner.

HealthScaping seeks to trace the development and impact of preventative healthcare policies, medical discourses and social and religious action in the continent’s two most urbanized and richly documented regions in the later Middle Ages, Italy and the Low Countries. The project taps numerous written, material and visual sources and archaeological data from several sites, and examines them also by critically engaging the insights of governmentality studies, cultural-spatial analysis and actor-network theory. A multidisciplinary team, working in a Geographical Information Systems environment and generating innovative urban health maps, will recover earlier societies’ struggles with domestic and industrial waste, travel and labor hazards, food quality, and social and religious behaviours considered harmful or dangerous.

Within this framework, an experienced historian of the Low Countries will tap pertinent documents of practice in several Low Countries archives: petitions, account books, city-council minutes, court records and ledgers of levied fines as well as records produced for, by and about social enforcers such as Ghent’s coninc der ribauden and Bruges’ meuderaars. S/he will trace continuity and change in the tasks of these and similar types of town officials, including the routine monitoring of the city’s social and physical hygiene, from cleaning and policing central spaces, to supervising social marginals, to operating as the city’s fire brigade, as they accrued and shed emphases in pursuit of a healthier city, as it was understood by contemporary governments and residents.

Applicants must have:

• a PhD in medieval urban, social or cultural history of the Low Countries;
• a research and publication record commensurate with their career stage;
• specialist knowledge of premodern public health (theory, policy and practice);
• significant research experience in Low Countries archives and manuscript libraries;
• a thorough command of Latin and Middle Dutch, excellent English and a working knowledge of languages pertinent to the field’s historiography;
• a strong background in urban theory, sociology of knowledge and material culture;
• a strong creative and cooperative attitude and willingness to engage in collaborative research in a multidisciplinary team and
• strong organizational skills.

The postdoctoral researcher will be appointed for 30,4 hours (0.8 FTE) hours per week) for a maximum period of four years at the Department of History, European Studies & Religious Studies of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Amsterdam. The research will be carried out under the aegis of ASH. The appointment is initially for a period of 12 months; contingent on satisfactory performance it will be extended by a maximum of 36 months. The intended starting date of the contract is 1 January 2018. The gross monthly salary (on full-time basis) will range from €3,475 to €3,839 in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities.

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.

Amsterdam School of Historical Studies

Research at the Faculty of Humanities is carried out by six research schools under the aegis of the Amsterdam Institute for Humanities Research (AIHR). The Amsterdam School of Historical Studies (ASH), one of the six research schools, represents and fosters the study of the human past from Antiquity to the present day. It brings together more than 200 academics from Amsterdam’s Faculty of Humanities, who participate in ca. 25 research groups. ASH does not limit itself to a particular period, discipline or method, but integrates a variety of (inter)disciplinary perspectives, including history, history of art, literature and religious studies. It encourages collaborations between scholars along thematic lines (e.g. Religion, the City, Conflict), geographical focus (e.g. Mediterranean History,  American Studies, Modern Germany) and in terms of period (e.g. Antiquity, the Middle Ages, Early Modern and Modern History).