As a postdoctoral researcher you will work as part of a team on the NWO-funded NWA project ‘Heritages of Hunger: Societal Reflections on Past European Famines in Education, Commemoration and Musealisation’. This project is conducted by researchers at Radboud University, Wageningen University of Research and the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust, and Genocide Studies in Amsterdam.

Heritages of Hunger investigates how educational practices (at schools, heritage sites, museums, or surrounding commemorative practices) can create awareness of famines as heritages of shared experiences and past solidarity among European communities. The case studies to be examined through a comparative approach concern episodes of war (Belgium and Germany during and after WWI; the Netherlands, Russia and Greece during WWII, Germany after WWII); neglect and ecological crisis (nineteenth-century Ireland, Finland) and oppression (interbellum Spain, Ukraine). Furthermore, the project addresses the significant impact on famine legacies in education and heritage practices of European immigrant communities across the globe.

Subproject 7: Spain's Años del Hambre: Formal and Informal Educational Practices. Your research project investigates legacies of Spain's famine during the Civil War and under Franco's regime, a historical episode still surrounded by trauma and recently emerging in public memory, and focuses on questions such as: How have past and present teaching practices in schools, but also educational programmes offered by museums and heritage institutes, given shape to this troubled history? How do they respond to old and new historiographies (oral and written)? In what respects do these educational practices embed themselves in larger European narratives of oppression, hunger and war?

You will conduct your research at Radboud University in Nijmegen and NIOD in Amsterdam, interacting with researchers at both institutes.

Your research is to result in at least 4 peer-reviewed international articles. Furthermore, you will actively assist the project team in developing educational resources (MOOC, repository, recommendations). You will also be expected to actively contribute to the project's programme of meetings in terms of content as well as organisationally (at least 4 expert meetings, 2 conferences, 4 public events).

• A completed (or soon to be completed) PhD degree in history, cultural studies or literary studies (at least an approved manuscript).
• Demonstrable expertise about Spanish famine histories, early twentieth-century Spanish history and culture, or Francoist Spain.
• Excellent active command of English and Spanish in both oral and written form.
• An excellent track record in research achievements and international publications.
• Demonstrable experience and affinity with knowledge utilisation, preferably in education or the heritage sector.
• The ability to work collaboratively in an international research team, as evidenced by previous work experiences.
• A demonstrated capacity to work to deadlines.

Fixed-term contract: You will be appointed for an initial period of 12 months, after which your performance will be evaluated. If the evaluation is positive, the contract will be extended by 3 years.

• Employment: 32 hours per week.
• A maximum gross monthly salary of € 4,978 based on a 38-hour working week (salary scale 11).
• The exact salary depends on the candidate's qualifications and amount of relevant professional experience.
• In addition to the salary: an 8% holiday allowance and an 8.3% end-of-year bonus.
• Duration of the contract: You will be appointed for an initial period of 12 months, after which your performance will be evaluated. If the evaluation is positive, the contract will be extended by 3 years.
• The intended start date is 1 February 2020.
• You will be able to make use of our Dual Career Service: our Dual Career Officer will assist with family-related support, such as child care, and help your partner prepare for the local labour market and with finding an occupation.
• Are you interested in our excellent employment conditions?

You will partially conduct your research at NIOD in Amsterdam, in collaboration with its researchers of war and genocide studies.

You can request a project description by mail: m.corporaal@let.ru.nl

We want to get the best out of science, others and ourselves. Why? Because this is what the world around us desperately needs. Leading research and education make an indispensable contribution to a healthy, free world with equal opportunities for all. This is what unites the more than 22,000 students and 5,000 employees at Radboud University. And this requires even more talent and collaboration. You have a part to play!

Faculteit der Letteren

The Faculty of Arts employs over 500 staff members who teach, conduct research, or support educational and research endeavors in the fields of history and art, languages and cultures, linguistics and information, and communications technology (ICT). Research is embedded in one of the two faculty research institutes: the Centre for Language Studies (CLS) or Historical, Literary and Cultural Studies (HLCS). The faculty provides education for circa 2,400 students, spread over three departments: the department of history, art history and classics, that of modern languages and cultures, and the department of language and communication. 

The NIOD is a scientifically independent and strongly socially oriented institution. Its original expertise lies with the dissemination of knowledge about the Second World War and the Holocaust in the Netherlands. Nowadays, this expertise is also used to study mass violence and genocides in the rest of the world. The NIOD manages 3 kilometres of in-house archives, a library with 65,000 titles, and a large photo collection. The NIOD has around 65 employees, and is one of the 15 institutes of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW).