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 Museums and Heritage studies 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 of the
Amsterdam Institute for Humanities Research. AHM, as a thematic research school, is the research base for a broad spread of disciplines from Heritage, Memory and Museum Studies, to Archaeology, Conservation and Restoration, media studies and Art History. Museums and heritage sites are privileged sites of preserving, valuing, contesting and reinterpreting memory, often by means of material culture.
What are you going to do?The multidisciplinary approaches of Heritage and Museum studies, firmly based in archaeology, art history and cultural history, have continuously been expanded with particular knowledge of contemporary discourses such as gender, memory and trauma, material culture and technical research. Recently this has been expanded with the issue of restitution, which relates to a broad spectrum of practices and ethics, relating to historical and archival research, presentation and narrating of collections, conservation and restoration, politics of acquisition, and transitional justice. Museum and heritage collections and issues of representation, ownership and restitution have become large in public and political debates on looted archaeological artefacts in (post) imperial contexts, colonial art and artefacts in colonial situations, and art under Nazi terror in WWII. The complexity of these social debates needs ongoing academic reflection at the crossroads of disciplines. Which concepts and practices are needed for such reflection and for a rigorous interdisciplinary debate on the ethical questions? How can these reflections and debates optimally support museum and heritage collections of arts and culture and help us move towards a more inclusive and sustainable vision on ownership and representation, conservation and preservation of such collections in the future?
Within the department of Arts & Cultures, a position is available for an assistant professor in Museum, Heritage and Restitution Studies. This new position aims to bring together the museum, heritage and conservation approach and the ethical and global aspects of restitution processes, particularly the tensions between the ethics of restitution, the original, historical and contentious ownership of cultural artifacts, decolonization, museum collections, institutional policy, critique and agency towards global social change and practice.
We are looking for a candidate with a strong background in museum and heritage studies and well acquainted with the fields of conservation, preservation and restoration, material culture and anthropology, who is able to connect through a global perspective the diverse strands of World War II claims, colonial restitution and illicit trade in archaeological artefacts and material culture. The assistant professor has a focus on museum and heritage collections and practices as well as the ethical considerations on the discourses of restitution and their possible implications for the material handling and treatment of object(s), both in conservation and in presentation. The candidate is able to reflect on museum and heritage practices and also contributes to the academic development of the field. You will provide education in a dynamic context with ample opportunities for the development of innovative teaching methods. Your research will be part of the
Amsterdam School for Heritage, Memory and Material Culture (AHM).
Tasks and responsibilities:
- Designing and conducting independent research that provides a museum and heritage and conservation and restoration studies view on the ethical and global aspects of restitution and repatriation processes, resulting in academic publications in peer-reviewed international journals and/or books;
- 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 AHM ;
- developing, coordinating and teaching courses in both Dutch and English, in the Bachelor and Master programmes of cultural studies, Museum Studies, Heritage Studies and Conservation and Restoration Studies;
- supervising Bachelor and Master theses and tutoring students; co-supervising PhD theses;
- actively contributing to the development and improvement of the broader teaching programmes in the department;
- taking part in committees and working groups, and carrying out departmental administrative tasks as directed.