The research fellow/assistant professorship is one of four six-year-positions advertised at the Universities of Amsterdam, Groningen, Leiden and Nijmegen between 2019-2021. It is part of the Anchoring Innovation programme.
In this project Anchoring Innovation, we investigate the thesis that new ideas and inventions are not accepted unless they are somehow embedded (‘anchored’) in the society for which they are intended. Innovation will always be connected somehow—both in the ways it is communicated and perceived, and in terms of content—to what people know, believe, want, value, and can understand. This is true even of radical, path-breaking, ‘revolutionary’ ideas and insights. This phenomenon of ‘anchoring’ is central to the new research agenda of the Dutch classicists.

If you are interested, we expect you to formulate and conduct a research project in the field of Greek and/or Roman culture in a broad sense (including literature and languages) that makes a contribution to the Anchoring Innovation programme. We welcome approaches that include literary studies and/or linguistics, ancient history, philosophy, or archaeology. If you are capable and willing to operate beyond narrow disciplinary boundaries within the field of Classics, we encourage you to apply. If you have a demonstrable interest in other disciplines such as cognitive studies, cultural studies, anthropology, psychology, linguistics, or sociology, we consider this an advantage.

Your tasks as a research fellow and assistant professor will include:

• execution of the proposed research project
• close collaboration with the other researchers of the Anchoring Innovation research community, including participation in and organisation of expert meetings
• presentation of (intermediate) research results at national and international workshops and conferences
• publication of a number of studies in international peer-reviewed journals and/or the Anchoring Innovation book series Euhormus (Brill)
• introduction of the achievements of the Anchoring Innovation project into the local (MA) curriculum
• teaching a select number of courses (max. 0.2 FTE)
• development of professional teaching skills
• active participation in the BA and MA programmes of Classics and willingness to be involved in the development of a new track with less or no role for the acquisition of the languages (sources to be read in translation)
• submission of an application for external funding of a major research project within 3 years after your appointment.

We will evaluate you yearly (R&D interview) and especially after the third year of your appointment (advancement review) and at the start of the 6th year (review of the requirements for receiving tenure). The evaluation at the end is carried out as a comprehensive assessment, in which we evaluate your performance on basis of three criteria: research, teaching and service (activity in scientific community, academic leadership and societal interaction).
If your achievements are satisfactory, you will be eligible for a permanent appointment as an assistant professor (with a new balance between research and teaching).

We encourage you to apply if you have:

• a PhD in Classics (or a closely related discipline with excellent command of the languages Latin and/or Greek)
• at least 3 years of experience as a postdoctoral researcher
• proven skills in interdisciplinary research and affinity with interdisciplinary teaching and research
• an excellent publication record which includes at least one monograph and a number of peer reviewed articles
• experience in teaching Greek and and/or Latin and demonstrable didactic abilities, and willingness to fulfil the requirements of the University Teaching Qualification
• enthusiasm for communicating academic research to non-academic audiences
• strong cooperative attitude and willingness to engage in collaborative research and teaching duties
• a capacity and willingness to undertake organisational duties
• fluency in English (C1 level of the CEFR) and Dutch (or willingness to learn the Dutch language within two years to at least C1 level of the CEFR – for reading and listening).

Special information
We will consider you as applicant only if you are ready to move to Groningen and live in the near environment of Groningen within a period of two years.

Fixed-term contract: 72 months.

We offer you, depending on your qualifications, in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities:

• a salary as a Research Fellow/Assistant Professor, dependent on qualifications and work experience, from € 3,746 (salary 11) up to a maximum of € 5,826 (salary scale 12) gross per month, for a full-time position
• a holiday allowance of 8% gross annual income and an 8.3% year-end bonus
• a pension scheme
• maternity and parental leave
• a broad range of opportunities for personal development
• dual career support for partners of new faculty members moving to Groningen.

Curious about our further conditions of employment? You can find them here: https://www.rug.nl/about-us/work-with-us/that-is-why/conditions-employment

Date of appointment: 1 January 2021 – 31 December 2026. After positive assessment which demonstrates that you fulfil the required criteria for assistant professor level 1 (UD1) you will be offered tenure. Otherwise your appointment will be ended after six years.

The first period of 6 years as research fellow is funded by the Gravitation Grant ‘Anchoring Innovation’ (https://www.ru.nl/oikos/anchoring-innovation/), supported by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (2017-2027); thereafter, on the condition of a positive evaluation, the position will become that of a tenured Assistant Professor.

Faculty of Arts

University of Groningen
Since its foundation in 1614, the University of Groningen has built up an international reputation as a dynamic and innovative institution, offering high-quality education and frontier research. We provide balanced study and career paths in a wide variety of fields to about 32,000 students and researchers to develop their own individual talents. We rank as one of the best research universities in Europe and have joined forces with prestigious partner universities and networks, making it a truly international place of knowledge.

Faculty of Arts, Classics
The Faculty of Arts is built on a long-standing tradition of four centuries. Our mission is to be a top-ranking faculty with both excellent education and world-quality research, with a strong international orientation, firmly rooted in the North of the Netherlands. We build and share knowledge that benefits to society. We work at a modern, broad and international institution, educating over 5,500 Dutch and international students to become forward-looking, eloquent and independent academics.

In our Classics programme, we place a strong emphasis on integration and interdisciplinarity. We study Greek and Latin literary and documentary texts in an increasingly interdisciplinary way and in collaboration with others. Our current research projects within the chairs of Greek and Latin include Flavian poetry, pragmatics and discourse phenomena, linguistic approaches to Greek religion, landscapes of war in Latin literature, and reception studies. Our Ancient Historians focus i.a. on the urban and religious history of the Greek world from the Hellenistic period to late Antiquity, including a project on Greek festivals. In our Archaeology research, the emphasis is on landscape and mortuary studies with excavation projects in Italy, Turkey and Greece. Moreover, we are an enthusiastic participant in the interdisciplinary (and interfaculty) research institute CRASIS , that organizes regular seminars and a successful international Masterclass and Annual meeting. On a national level, we collaborate within the context of the National Research School OIKOS , and we are one of the applicants of the national research project Anchoring Innovation (see n.1). We maintain active Erasmus links with universities in the UK, Germany, Greece, and Italy, we have a wide international research network.