Postdoctoral fellow in the social history of material infrastructures - IISG - Amsterdam

For the International Institute for Social History we are looking for a postdoctoral fellow in the social history of material infrastructures (full time, 38 hr/w).

General description
The postdoc position is part of a project on the social history of material infrastructures. This project examines how large-scale infrastructures such as roads, city walls, and bridges contributed to regional and empire-wide integration, but equally why and how processes of integration regularly broke down, and how large-scale infrastructure projects contributed to countervailing trends including local tensions, local autonomy, and cross- border regional formations. Read the project abstract here: The Lives and Afterlives of Imperial Material Infrastructure in Southeastern China

The postdoctoral fellow will be mainly responsible for 1) authoring two articles (meso-scale article comparing one set of infrastructures across locations, and case study using textual and archaeological materials); 2) collaborating with other members of the research team on data collection, annotation, curation, and analysis of city walls, roads or bridges; 3) learning new theoretical literatures and research methods and contributing to the joint research of all team members; 4) assistance in the organization of workshops and outreach events; 5) coordinating research with other team members.

Appointment
The appointment concerns an employment contract of 1 fte for a period of 29 months. The start date is February 1, 2024, or as soon as possible thereafter.

Additional information
For more information please contact Professor Hilde De Weerdt: hilde.de.weerdt@iisg.nl

How to apply
Your application should include:

Your application should include:

A letter of interest explaining how your background matches the criteria and how you aim to contribute to the project;

1. a CV;
2. a writing sample (a thesis chapter, ideally in English);
3. a copy of your diploma and authorized grade transcript;
4. two letters of recommendation

For applying to this job you will need to make use of the application button on this page, you can separately upload your CV and the numbers 2 to 4 (as mentioned above) via the button "motivation letter" (please make one pdf of the writing sample, the diploma and the recommendations. You can also choose to upload them separately. After finishing your application you will be able to login to the system and choose to upload documents.

Please submit your application by January 7, 2024. Interviews will take place in the second half of January 2024.

Terms of employment
Depending on education and experience the minimum salary is € 4.332,- and the maximum salary is € 5.929,- gross per month for a full-time appointment (scale 11 cao Nederlandse Universiteiten/KNAW). This is exclusive of 8% vacation allowance, 8.3% year-end bonus, travel allowance, internet allowance, home working allowance and pension accrual with ABP. The KNAW offers its staff an excellent package of secondary benefits. A package that meets the different needs of employees depending on their stage of life, lifestyle or career ambitions. For example, by working an extra two hours a week, it is possible to increase the number of days off from 29 to 41 days a year (with full-time employment). For a complete overview of the terms of employment, please refer to the web page: werken bij de KNAW.

About the IISG
The International Institute of Social History (IISG-KNAW) is an Academy research institute. IISG is one of the most prestigious social history research institutes worldwide. It examines how work and labour relations have developed globally over time. To support its research, it collects archives and data from all over the world. The relationship between its research and its data and archive collections contributes substantially to the institute's unique nature.