The Department of Art and Culture Studies of the Faculty of Humanities is seeking to appoint an Assistant Professor (UD) with a focus on ‘Modern and Contemporary Art History’ to build upon and extend existing strengths in the Chair Group’s research and teaching. 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.

The Faculty of Humanities is strengthening and stressing its connectedness with the city of Amsterdam. Within the capacity group of Art History the staff in Modern and Contemporary Art History has such strong links already present: with the Rietveld / Sandberg Academy, Rijksakademie, the ARIAS Platform, de Appel, the Stedelijk Museum etc. The chair group understands its activities as guided by the following statement:

'As an international team we engage in inspiring, relevant, purposeful research and teaching. With our diverse perspectives, we participate in international debates in and on modern and contemporary art history.'

With a new staff member, we can continue to forge such strong connections.

The post holder will have the research base in either AHM (Amsterdam School for Heritage, Memory and Material Culture), or ASCA (Amsterdam School of Cultural Analysis). In AHM, this is particularly the thematic group 'Global Cartographies of Thought and Memory: Art from the Global South', in ASCA, there are e.g. ones on 'Word and Image', 'New Materialism' and the overarching 'Modern and Contemporary Art History' one. 

The field of Modern and Contemporary art is particularly attractive to students. The post holder is envisaged to contribute to teaching at all levels in Modern and Contemporary Art History and potentially in relevant, neighbouring domains. This includes the MA's ‘Curating Art and Cultures’ and ‘Art and Performance Studies’ (especially with this Research MA’s Artistic Research specialization). Several of these programmes offer internships and thus collaborate with all large museums and many cultural organizations in the Netherlands.

The post holder will mainly be working on the BA programme Art History, which includes e.g. contributing Modern and Contemporary Art History thesis supervision, lecture, seminar and excursion teaching, contributions on techniques of recent art and historiographical / philosophical / theoretical teaching. You will also be expected to contribute to more general teaching in art history. The successful candidate’s teaching portfolio should complement and add to these existing courses, while also responding to growing student interest in the area of art from regions outside Europe and North America.

Tasks

• Conducting independent research in Contemporary Art History with specialism(s) mentioned above 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 or ASCA;
• teaching and developing teaching (in both Dutch and English) in the field of history, theory and possibly curatorial practice of Contemporary Art;
• supervising BA and MA theses and tutoring students; co-supervising PhD theses;
• serving as liaison between the UvA and art / curatorial practice institutions (Rietveld / ARIAS / HiC and other relevant initiatives);
• giving form to connections between art and exhibition practices on the one hand and research / teaching on the other;
• taking part in committees and working groups and carrying out departmental administrative tasks.

The ideal candidate should hold a PhD in Art History, with a research focus on Contemporary Art and specialism as far as possible in the area of art as practiced, theorized and received in regions outside Europe and North America, in addition to thorough knowledge of theories from postmodernism to feminism and to post-colonialism.

The colleague should have a strongly theoretically-based research and teaching ethos and should be able to connect with (funded) research projects in Art History and beyond. The candidate should be an active and ambitious researcher with a strong publication record. Demonstrated ability to apply for and obtain research funding will be considered a plus, as well as strong commitment to the Art History program as a whole.

Other requirements:

• PhD in Art History;
• an international research network in the research area(s) concerned;
• specialism(s) as far as possible in the areas of art as practiced, theorised and received in regions outside Europe and North America;
• research output commensurate with the level of the position;
• wide experience of different forms and levels of delivering university teaching, at BA and MA level;
• ability and willingness to teach courses in a broad range of degree programmes across the Faculty of Humanities
• broad teaching skills, relevant to multiple departments in the Faculty of Humanities;
• experience of digital and audiovisual teaching facilities; affinity with ICT in university teaching;
• a good team worker and versatile at all levels, capable of multidisciplinary co-operation;
• excellent organizational experience and skills;
• the Dutch Basic Teaching Qualification (UTQ/BKO), or willingness to acquire this within the first two years. Acquiring the BKO is a prerequisite for a permanent employment contract;
• teaching and admin duties require native or near-native fluency in Dutch and English; appointments are subject to the candidate’s proficiency in both, or their undertaking to acquire this proficiency as speedily as possible. Non-native Dutch speakers must achieve an active and passive command of Dutch within two years. Passing the state examination for Dutch as a Second Language (NT2), programme II, is a prerequisite for a permanent employment contract.

Our offer

The temporary employment contract is for a period of two years. Extension of the temporary contract to a maximum of three years or conversion to a permanent contract is not excluded, but is partly dependent on developments in student numbers. The contract will commence preferably between 1 September 2020 and 1 February 2021.

The UFO profile for this position is, dependent on relevant experience, Universitair docent 2 (scale 11) or Universitair docent 1 (scale 12).

The gross monthly salary will range from €3,637 (start scale 11) to €5,656 (end scale 12), based on a full-time contract (38 hours a week).  

The Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities is applicable.

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 Humanities– Department of Art and Culture Studies

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.