Are you interested in researching political struggles over immigration? Do you want to work at the crossroads of migration studies and gender & sexuality studies? Is it your ambition to become an accomplished social scientist?   

The Department of Political Science is looking for two PhD candidates to work within the 'Strange(r) Families' project, funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) and led by Saskia Bonjour. The PhD track is part of the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR) programme group Challenges to Democratic Representation.

What will you be doing?

The 'Strange(r) Families' project explores political contestation over family migration rights for non-normative families in Europe. How do migration law and politics deal with different kinds of families asking permission to live together in Europe? The research will cover political contestation not only in parliaments and ministries but also in the media, civil society, and courts. The first PhD project will focus on contestation over family migration rights for 'queer' families, the second on contestation over family migration rights for 'culturally different' families. Both projects will cover two European countries (preferably the Netherlands and France). Further information about the research project may be found here.

You will:

• be affiliated with the AISSR’s organized PhD training. The academic work is to result in a doctoral thesis that will be defended at the Faculty of Social Sciences with a view to obtaining the degree of PhD;
• conduct archive and document research as well as interviews;
• take active part in the research environment at the AISSR;
• teach (circa 10% of the time) upon availability.

You have the following credentials.

Essential:

• A Master’s degree or equivalent with a relevant specialization within the social sciences e.g. political science, political sociology, or sociology of law. The degree must have been obtained by the start of your employment;
• excellent oral and written communication skills in English;
• familiarity with or keen interest in qualitative research methods, such as discourse analysis or framing analysis
• independent thinking and critical analytical skills;
• the ability to work relatively independently;
• the ability to collaborate in a team.

Desirable:

• Expertise in or affinity with migration studies, ethnic and racial studies, or postcolonial studies;
• expertise in or affinity with gender and sexuality studies;
• ability to collect and analyse data in both Dutch and French.

The position concerns a temporary appointment of 38 hours per week for a maximum term of four years. The initial appointment is for one year, preferably starting on 1 March 2020. Following a positive assessment and barring altered circumstances, this term will be extended by a maximum of 36 months, which should result in the conferral of a doctorate. We will put together a curriculum which will also include the opportunity to attend training courses and both national and international events. You will also be tasked with teaching Bachelor's students.

Your salary will be €2,325 gross per month in the first year and will increase to €2,972 in the fourth and final year, based on full-time employment and in keeping with the Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities. We additionally offer an extensive package of secondary benefits, including 8% holiday allowance and a year-end bonus of 8.3%.

What can we offer you?

A challenging work environment with a variety of duties and ample scope for individual initiative and development within an inspiring organisation. The social and behavioural sciences play a leading role in addressing the major societal challenges faced by the world, the Netherlands and Amsterdam, now and in the future.

To work at the University of Amsterdam is to work in a discerning, independent, creative, innovative and international climate characterised by an open atmosphere and a genuine engagement with the city of Amsterdam and society.

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 Social and Behavioural Sciences – Political Science

Political Science at the UvA is characterized by its broad study of politics at and between local, national, European and global levels of governance. The research and teaching that manifest that study draw on the full array of the discipline’s subfields, theories and methods of political inquiry.

Political Science at the UvA examines how ongoing social, economic, and political transformations affect local, national, European and global governance. The discipline studies interactions between the political system, the economy and civic society, with a critical view on democratic accountability, representative quality and legitimacy of contemporary governance, also with the aim of improving these matters.