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 advanced postdoctoral researcher will scrutinize textual, material and visual sources, both in and out of print, for discussions on and prescriptions for pursuing preventative health in medical theory, as they emerge from regimens of health, medical advice letters, courtesy books and images informing the public on behavioral routines and interventions benefitting health; sermons; urban statutes and court documents; manuals of architecture; and works on economic and social issues, including urban panegyric. The researchers will examine normative expressions as sites for the negotiation of bio-power, for instance among urban policy makers, ecclesiastical institutions, guilds and urban residents, and on the shifting boundaries between personal and public health.

Applicants must have:

• a PhD in medieval urban, social or cultural history;
• a research and publication record commensurate with their career stage;
• specialist knowledge of premodern medical history (theory, policy and practice);
• significant research experience in European manuscript libraries;
• a thorough command of Latin, excellent English and a very good working knowledge of Middle Dutch and Italian, as well as pertinent modern languages;
• a strong theoretical background in cultural studies, sociology of knowledge and visual/material culture;
• a strong creative and cooperative attitude and willingness to engage in collaborative research in a multidisciplinary environment; and
• strong organizational skills.

The postdoctoral researcher will be appointed for 26,6 hours (0.7 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 €4,453 to €4,815 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).