项目介绍

2025年3月18日

The project is interested in how cross-cultural contact in frontier zones encouraged individuals and communities to rethink questions of identity, as unstable and shifting political, cultural and military contexts constantly forced them to (re-)conceptualize categories such as self and other, civilized or uncivilized, enemy or ally. Different communal identities, such as religion, ethnicity, and social status, had a varying relative importance in different social and political contexts. These shifting identities gave rise to legal and political (theoretical) reflection, but they also had practical repercussions that could make the difference between in or out, free or enslaved, heard or unheard. Taking in a broad range of frontier zones in Eurasia, Africa and the Americas across the premodern period, this project aims to outline how identity operated both in theory and practice in a world in motion.

The PhD position, commencing on 1 September 2025, is fully funded and lasts 4 (1,0 fte) to 5 years (0,8 fte), depending on the candidate’s preference. The position includes coursework and limited teaching duties (maximum 0,2 FTE teaching courses at BA-level in the 2nd and 3rd year of the appointment).

This is what you will be doing

We are seeking to hire an enthusiastic PhD candidate with an innovative and rigorous approach to source material, who wants to work on a project of their own design within the broad frame of the project. The PhD project should fall within the medieval and/or early modern periods, and the geographical focus should be on the Mediterranean or North-Africa, depending on the profile and expertise of the candidate. We invite interested candidates to prepare a short research proposal (details below), which could, for instance, examine:

• Interethnic community and identity building;
• Intercultural conflict and negotiation, including forms of diplomacy, treaty-making and alliances;
• (Cross-)confessional networks, conflict, and exchange;
• Histories of ideas in the frontier zone, including issues of translation, adaptation, in both theory and practice;
• Freedom and enslavement, resistance to enslavement, and litigation;
• Archival silences, and power relations in the frontier zone.

This is what we ask of you

Candidates are encouraged to think creatively about research design and the use of primary source material. Cross-cultural encounters and processes of identity formation typically have unbalanced source records, as many voices were suppressed in archives that aimed at consolidating narratives of progressing imperial expansion. One of the principal challenges for scholarship today is to address these issues of representation, and to widen our range of sources and methods while questioning familiar sources in new ways.

Tasks and responsibilities:

• submitting a PhD thesis within the period of appointment;
• participating in meetings of the project research group;
• publishing one single-authored, peer reviewed article;
• presenting intermediate research results at workshops and conferences;
• (co-)organising workshops and knowledge dissemination activities;
• (co-)teaching courses at BA-level in the second and third year of the appointment (maximum 0,2 fte per year);
• participating in the Research School and Faculty of Humanities PhD training programmes.

Your experience and profile:

You are able to balance the demands of several tasks (research, writing, teaching, organizational duties), while managing your own time effectively. You are highly motivated, flexible, and you possess the perseverance essential to completing the dissertation within the allotted time. You are able to work independently while also collaborating well with the team, and you are able to communicate effectively.

Candidates need to have the following qualifications:

• a completed Master’s degree in History (or a comparable discipline such as Area Studies, Religious Studies, or literary/linguistic studies of the region). You may apply if you have not yet completed your Master’s degree only if you provide a signed letter from your supervisor stating that you will graduate before 31 August 2025;
• excellent research skills demonstrated by an outstanding Master’s thesis and a demonstrable capacity to develop a track record of publishing in high-ranking journals and/or with leading presses;
• a strong cooperative attitude and willingness to engage in collaborative research;
• enthusiasm for communicating academic research to non-academic audiences;
• good command of English and the languages and reading skills relevant to the project is required.

Please note that if you already hold a doctorate/PhD or are working towards obtaining a similar degree elsewhere, you will not be admitted to a doctoral programme at the UvA.

This is what else we offer you

• PhD candidates receive a tuition fee waiver;
• PhD candidates have free access to courses offered by the Graduate School of Humanities and the Dutch National Research Schools;
• excellent possibilities for further professional development and education;
• an inspiring academic and international work environment in the heart of Amsterdam;
• an enthusiastic and professional academic team.