The Department of Art and Culture Studies in the Faculty of Humanities is looking for an Assistant professor ‘Memory and Museums’, to build upon and extend existing research strengths on this topic within AHM and the University of Amsterdam Research Priority Area, the Amsterdam Centre Cultural Heritage and Identity (ACHI).

More information about the Department of Art and Culture Studies and research programmes can be found here. You will be located in the Chair Group Modern and Contemporary Art History.

The post holder is envisaged to contribute to teaching at all levels in relevant domains. Among the relevant BA programmes for which the post holder will likely be asked to contribute e.g. by providing interdisciplinary core or elective module(s) are Art History, especially Modern and Contemporary Art History, and also Literary and Cultural Analysis and Cultural Studies. Exhibition histories and curatorial discourses around questions of memory will be relevant.

On the MA level the programmes ‘Museum Studies’, ‘Heritage and Memory Studies’, ‘Curating Art and Cultures’, ‘Arts, Culture and Politics’ and Research MA ‘Art Studies’ (with its Artistic Research specialisation) are relevant for this job. Several of these programmes offer internships and thus collaborate with all large museums and many cultural and heritage sites in the Netherlands.

The UD’s expertise should also complement and strengthen the Faculty of Humanities’ research strengths in the scholarship on heritage and memory studies, museum studies, cultural studies and contemporary and modern art.

In ACHI, ‘Memory and Museums’ is a key topic within the ‘Conflict Research Domain’ of the Centre’s priority research.

The UvA is committed to research-lead teaching.

Tasks:

• Developing, coordinating and delivering teaching in English (and possibly Dutch), in the MA and BA programmes, in the area of ‘Memory and Museums’ and in other courses taught within the Department of Arts and Culture;
• supervising BA and MA theses and tutoring students;
• actively contributing to the development and improvement of the broader teaching programmes in the Department and possibly (where relevant) outside it;
• taking part in committees and working groups and carrying out departmental administrative tasks as directed;
• conducting independent research in the broad area of Memory and Museums, resulting in academic publications in peer-reviewed international journals;
• actively pursuing external funding for research, notably funding from research councils, national as well as European;
• actively contributing to and developing national and international research networks and other forms of cooperation;
• actively contributing to the research activities of the Amsterdam School for Heritage, Memory and Material Culture (AHM) and the Amsterdam Centre for Cultural Heritage and Identity (ACHI).

The successful candidate’s teaching portfolio should complement and add to the existing courses, while also responding to growing student interest in the area of Memory and Museums, whether concerning questions of identity, migration, conflict, collections, memorials and material culture.

The ideal candidate should hold a PhD in the humanities, with a research focus on Museum Studies, Heritage and Memory studies, and Art History. The candidate should be an active and ambitious researcher with a strong publication record. Demonstrated ability to apply for and obtain research funding will be considered a plus.

The candidate’s research should be directly connected with the existing research themes of AHM in the broader area of ‘Memory and Museums’.

The candidate should have/be:

• PhD in a relevant discipline;
• an international research network in the research area concerned;
• research output commensurate with the level of the position;
• demonstrable ability and ambition to obtain external research grants;
• wide experience of different forms and levels of delivering university teaching, at BA and MA level;
• the Dutch University Teaching Qualification (UTQ/BKO), or willingness to acquire this within the first two years;
• experience with digital and audiovisual teaching facilities; affinity with ICT in university teaching;
• a good team worker and versatile at all levels, capable of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary co-operation;
• broad teaching skills, relevant to multiple departments in the Faculty of Humanities;
• excellent organizational experience and skills;
• teaching and admin duties require native or near-native fluency in Dutch and English; appointments are subject to the candidate’s proficiency in both, or their undertaking to acquire thorough knowledge of Dutch and English as speedily as possible; non-native Dutch speakers must achieve an active and passive command of Dutch within two years. Passing the state examination for Dutch as a Second Language (NT2), programme II, is a prerequisite for a permanent employment contract.

The contract is initially temporary for a period of two years. Subject to a positive assessment, it will be converted to a permanent contract. The start of the contract is scheduled for 1 August 2020.
The scope of the employment contract is 38 hours per week (1.0 FTE). The UFO profile of assistant professor applies to this position (salary scale 11/12, depending on relevant work experience). The Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities applies.

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.

Faculty of Humanities – Department of Art and Culture Studies

The Faculty of Humanities provides education and conducts research with a strong international profile in a large number of disciplines in the field of language and culture. Located in the heart of Amsterdam, the Faculty maintains close ties with many cultural institutes in the capital city. Research and teaching staff focus on interdisciplinary collaboration and are active in several teaching programmes.

The Faculty of Humanities offers assistant professors the opportunity to collaborate with leading researchers at research institutes that - partly as a result of their interdisciplinary approach - are world-renowned. Moreover, you will be teaching in a dynamic context in which new teaching methods are being developed.

Art and Culture Studies at UvA is a large and highly successful academic department that connects research and teaching in Art History, Heritage and Memory Studies, Museum Studies, Cultural Studies, Theater and Music Studies.

Research on Memory and Museums is one of the central themes of the scholarship in the Amsterdam School for Heritage, Memory and Material Culture (AHM). AHM is one of the five research schools in the Amsterdam Institute for Humanities Research. AHM, as a thematic research school, is the research base for a broad spread of disciplines from Heritage and Memory Studies, to Archaeology and Conservation and Restoration to Museum Studies and Art History. Museums and heritage sites are privileged sites of preserving, valuing, contesting and reinterpreting memory, often by means of material culture. The roles of museums in society are changing, particularly with regard to questions of identity, migration, conflict and postcolonialism, problematizing the traditional roles and uses of collections, memorials and material culture.