项目介绍

2026年5月1日

Join Us!

The Department of Anthropology at the University of Amsterdam is currently seeking one PhD candidate for the project ‘Activist Techtopias: Crafting Alternate Infrastructures of Resistance in Asia’ (‘AlterTech’), led by Dr Yatun Sastramidjaja. This project is funded by a European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant. 

The Department of Anthropology is one of the departments at the University of Amsterdam (UvA), Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences (FMG). The PhD track is part of the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR), and these three positions are embedded in the programme group Moving Matters: People, Goods, Power and Ideas.

The project and what you will do

AlterTech is an ethnographic study of how rights and grassroots movements across Asia navigate deepening digital repression by experimenting with new practices and uses of technologies, both to dodge the repression and to disrupt the infrastructures that enable it. It examines how political and technological action intersect and how movement infrastructures are reconfigured in a context where state surveillance and surveillance capitalism coalesce. By decentring the digital in our concept of technology, and exploring how technologies are crafted and infrastructures are reassembled bottom-up, we aim to uncover how a novel type of technopolitics and utopian imaginaries evolve in practices of resistance and everyday struggle. 

Inspired by decolonial epistemology and using a multi-modal collaborative methodology, AlterTech seeks not only to analyse these processes but also to engage in them. We therefore seek to form a team of dedicated researchers who are committed to exploring the generative possibilities of engaged scholarship. The research team – consisting of three PhD candidates, one postdoctoral researcher, and the Principal Investigator (PI) – will conduct ethnographic research at different scales. While the PI will examine hemispheric entanglements among transnational NGOs, and the postdoctoral researcher will study dissident infrastructures among diaspora in Europe, the PhD candidates will develop ethnographic case studies in specific settings in Asia. 

The current PhD position is for an ethnographic case study on Myanmar activists-in-exile in Thailand (or in other relevant settings). The candidate is expected to have solid anthropological knowledge and ethnographic research skills, as well as long-term prior engagement with the research community at issue. A strong sense of ethical reflexivity and responsible conduct in research is also required. The project overall is a collective effort, emphasizing joint analysis and knowledge production, therefore close teamwork is an essential part of the job.

Your tasks

• Your main task as PhD candidate will be to develop your own PhD project within the framework of the overall project.
• You will follow mandatory and optional coursework as part of the PhD programme of the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR), and participate in pre- and post-fieldwork PhD groups at the Department of Anthropology.
• Next to working on and managing your own research, you will contribute to collaborative aspects of the project. This will include collecting data for jointly written publication(s) and lending respective expertise to team members.
• You are expected to conduct 12-months of ethnographic fieldwork in the country of your case study.
• You are expected to live in the Amsterdam area and take active part in team meetings and the research environment at the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR).
• Teaching (up to 10% of your time) and organisational support for the project leader will be part of your job responsibilities. These tasks will allow you to gain valuable professional experience next to working towards your PhD.

What do you have to offer

You have:

• a master’s degree or equivalent with a relevant specialization within the social sciences or humanities, preferably in social and cultural anthropology. The degree must have been obtained before the employment starting date;
• excellent oral and written communication skills in English;
• good oral and written communication skills in the country where you will conduct fieldwork;
• good command of ethnographic research methods and the ability and willingness to conduct challenging fieldwork on a sensitive topic;
• independent thinking and critical analytical skills;
• good collaboration skills and the ability to join interdisciplinary academic communities;
• the skills needed to finish the PhD thesis in four years; i.e., independent and pro-active work attitude, good planning and academic writing skills.

You preferably have:

• previous research experience with ethnography of activism;
• affinity with current debates in anthropology of infrastructure, technology and activism;
• affinity with decolonial and engaged anthropology and commitment to exploring multi-modal, visual, and co-creative methodological approaches.

This is what we offer you

The position concerns temporary employment of 38 hours per week for a maximum term of four years. Initial employment is for one year and will start on 1 August 2026. Following a positive assessment and barring altered circumstances, this term will be extended by a maximum of three years, which should result in the conferral of a doctorate. 

For this position the University Job Classification profile “Promovendus” applies

Your salary will be €3.059 gross per month in the first year and will increase to €3.881 in the final year, based on full-time employment of 38 hours per week 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%.

We will put together a curriculum which will also include the opportunity to attend training courses and both national and international events. The UvA offers excellent possibilities for further professional development and education.

What else do we offer

• A position in which initiative and input are highly valued;
• an enthusiastic and warm team that is open to new colleagues;
• an inspiring academic and international community in the heart of Amsterdam.