Specifications – (explanation)
Location : Amsterdam
Function types : Postdoc positions
Scientific fields : Language and Culture
Hours : 38.0 hours per week
Salary : € 3357 – € 3597
Education : Doctorate
Job number : 15-390
Translations : en
About employer : University of Amsterdam (UvA)
Short link : www.academictransfer.com/30438

Job description
The Amsterdam School for Culture ans History (ASCH) of the Faculty of Humanities currently has a vacant postdoctoral position as part of the NWO-funded Imagining a territory. Constructions and representations of late medieval Brabant, led by dr. Mario Damen.

This NWO funded project analyses how the interaction between prince, nobles and urban elites influenced the construction, perception, and representation of a territory. The test case will be the late medieval Duchy of Brabant, which still has historical and territorial significance for many people in present-day Belgium and the Netherlands. To underscore the fluidity and multiplicity of the concept of territory, this project sets out to disentangle the divergent, though sometimes overlapping, conceptions of what exactly Brabant was (or should be) in the eyes of different political actors, in this time before the availability of reliable scale maps. To answer the main research question the project takes a twofold approach. The postdoctoral researcher will explicate in a subproject entitled Representations of territory in late medieval Brabant, how the concept of territory was communicated to a wider audience. How did princes, nobles and urban elites use architecture, heraldry, historiography, and performances, to envisage and visualize territory? In four case studies these different media will be analyzed. In a second subproject entitled The multiplicity of territory in late medieval Brabant a PhD candidate will define ducal, noble, and urban conceptions of Brabant mainly through administrative sources, particularly those of the fourteenth century that reflect a turning point in the capturing of territory. The two subprojects will provide a completely new perspective on the concept of territory before cartography and state formation turned boundaries and territories into more fixed (but still changeable) geographical entities.

Tasks:

• Doing research in archival and library collections;
• submitting research results for three publications in international peer-reviewed academic journals;
• writing an article for a volume of conference papers;
• (co-)organization of an international conference (Amsterdam, January 2018);
• presentations of intermediate research results at workshops and conferences preparing HIS-GIS application for the project (2018);
• writing contributions to a project blog;
• actively participating in project discussions and working as a peer reviewer for the team.

Requirements

The successful applicant must have:

• MA and PhD degree in History or a closely related field such as Medieval Studies, Art History or Literary Studies,
• high level of active and passive command of Dutch and English and a passive command of French and Latin;
• demonstrable interest in the history of the late Middle Ages;
• demonstrable command of paleographical skills;
• experience in working with diverse primary (archival, iconographical, literary) sources;
• willingness to utilize theoretical and comparative frameworks;
• ability to work both independently and as part of a research team.

Conditions of employment
The candidate will be appointed at the Department of History, European Studies & Religious Studies of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Amsterdam. The research will be carried out under the aegis of ASCH. The appointment, 38 hours per week, is for a period of three years. The intended starting date of the contract is 1 February 2016. The gross monthly salary (on full-time basis) will be €3.357 during the first year to €3.597 during the third year, in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities.

Organisation

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.
Department

Faculty of Humanities
The Amsterdam School for Culture ans History (ASCH) of the Faculty of Humanities currently has a vacant postdoctoral position as part of the NWO-funded Imagining a territory. Constructions and representations of late medieval Brabant, led by dr. Mario Damen. ASCH is one of the six research schools of the Amsterdam Institute for Humanities Research (AIHR). Established in 2014, ASCH brings together more than 300 academics, who participate in ca. 35 research groups. Its members study the historical dimension of culture and the cultural dimension of history.
Additional information

For further information, please contact:

Dr. M.J.M. Damen
T: +31 (0)20 525 8896

Source : Academic Transfer