Postdoc in the history of global north-south public health cooperation

Utrecht University invites applications for a Postdoctoral Researcher in the ERC Consolidator Grant project “Fighting Pandemics from Below: Global North-South Public Health Cooperation in the Middle East and North Africa, 1792-1942 [COOPERATION]”.

Your job
As a postdoctoral researcher you will be working on a subproject within the Consolidator Grant project COOPERATION (2024-2029) funded by the European Research Council (ERC) and directed by Dr. Ozan Ozavci (Principal Investigator, PI) at the Department of History and Art History. COOPERATION project recapture the lost archives and historical knowledge of international public health cooperation between the ‘global north’ and the ‘global south’ by analysing its first and longest-lasting instances: the sanitary councils in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Established in Tangier, Alexandria, Tunis, Istanbul and Tehran, these unprecedented institutions strategised against waves of epidemics and pandemics between the 1790s and the 1940s. Their European, American and native co-founders invented new models for fighting pandemics from below and stopping the diseases in their tracks. They continually strove to overcome the familiar barriers to cooperation posed by inter-imperial competition in a multipolar world, economic inequities, protests against quarantine restrictions and racial and Orientalist biases, among others. COOPERATION project will write an entangled history of health cooperation, by shifting the focus from top-down to bottom-up processes. Consulting archival sources in Europe, MENA, and North America, it will determine the historical preconditions for effective international public health cooperation.

You will be responsible for sub-project 1: Morocco, which will look into the dynamics of public health cooperation in the city of Tangier.

You will:

• conduct research within the period of appointment in the Netherlands as well as at archives in Europe, North America, the Middle East and North Africa;
• publish a peer-reviewed journal article and a book chapter;
• help organise a workshop on sanitary internationalism in the Middle East and North Africa;
• participate in project meetings and closely collaborate with the other members of the research team;
• help set up project data;
• help with knowledge dissemination activities of the project;
• present research findings at national and international workshops and conferences.

• A position for 12 months, with the possibility of an extension of 12 months (24 months in total);
• a working week of 30.4 - 32 hours and a gross monthly salary of €4,728 in the case of full-time employment (salary scale 11 under the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities (CAO NU));
• 8% holiday pay and 8.3% year-end bonus;
• a pension scheme, partially paid parental leave and flexible terms of employment based on the CAO NU.

In addition to the terms of employment laid down in the CAO NU, Utrecht University also offers a range of its own schemes for employees. This includes arrangements for professional development, various types of leave, and options for sports and cultural activities. You can also tailor your employment conditions through our Terms of Employment Options Model. In this way, we encourage you to keep investing in your personal and professional development. For more information, please visit Working at Utrecht University.

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