Full Professorship and Chair in Modern European Culture Since 1800

In the Department of History, European Studies and Religious Studies there is a vacancy for a Full Professorship and Chair in Modern European Culture since 1800.

The capacity group of European Studies  is part of the Department of History, European Studies and Religious Studies (GER) that also comprises CEDLA (the Centre for Latin American Research and Documentation). The European Studies capacity group is organized around four chair groups: Modern European History (that the appointed professor should lead), European Governance, Modern European Literature, and East European Studies.

European Studies at the UvA brings together a range of disciplinary perspectives (including History, Literature and Culture, Law, Economics, Anthropology, Geography and Critical Area Studies) to investigate the dynamics of European transnational relations, contemporary as well as historical. Our teaching programmes highlight the ideas and structures that bind together Europe and Europeans (including a variety of transnational connections and cultural exchange, but also institutionalized forms of European integration) as well as the forces that continue to divide Europe (including nationalisms, old and new). While European Studies students become well familiar with the functioning and the institutions of the European Union, the role and place of the EU is also situated within Europe’s longer histories and wider geographies. The programme has, indeed, a strong focus on Europe’s neighbourhoods to the East, South-East and South, with specialisms in the Mediterranean and Middle East as well as Eastern Europe and the post-Soviet states. We aim to train students who are broadly educated Europeanists, able to place contemporary political and cultural debates within a wider historical context, and to approach ‘European questions’ in an interdisciplinary and trans-regional fashion. There are currently more than 800 students enrolled in European Studies programmes.

What are you going to do

The positioning of UvA European Studies within a Faculty of Humanities is quite unique as most European Studies programmes are predominantly located within Faculties of Social and Political Sciences. Our European Studies programme is one of a kind in bringing together political-institutional perspectives on European governance with cultural-historical approaches to understanding European identities.

This interdisciplinary perspective allows European Studies scholars to collaborate closely with other Departments in the Faculty of Humanities (including History and Languages and Cultures), but also with colleagues in other UvA Faculties, including the Social and Behavioural Sciences, Economics, and Law. This collaboration is also encouraged through the cross-Faculty Amsterdam Centre for European Studies  (ACES) in which many European Studies staff and postgraduates are involved. Most scholars in European Studies are affiliated with the Amsterdam School for Regional, Transnational and European Studies  (ARTES), where this Chair is also located.

Teaching:
We are looking for candidates who are excellent teachers, able to motivate students and pro-vide innovative teaching at both the BA as well as MA levels. We expect the Chair to take a leading role in the Department’s MA teaching programme, also working to develop it into new directions and international collaborations. The Chair should have a proven record of PhD supervision and the ability to attract PhD students and funding.

The Chair will lead a team that is responsible for specific parts of the European Studies teaching programme, including BA core modules, the major in European Culture, as well as the associated MA track (in Identity and Integration). The Chair’s teaching should take a prominent role in these programmes, while also possibly engaging in collaborative teaching with other Departments, in particular MVTC and Algemene Cultuurwetenschappen.

Research:

We expect the Chair to have a proven record of attracting national and/or European research funding (individual or consortium based). Once in post, the Chair should play a leading role in developing and leading grant applications (individually and together with the team), while also providing mentorship in the application process to more junior colleagues.

The Chair’s research should directly speak to the priority areas of ARTES that brings together humanities and social science approaches to the study of Europe and other world regions. We expect the Chair to take a guiding role in shaping and leading ARTES’ research, stimulating new re-search directions and extending the School’s existing strengths.

We also expect the Chair to take an active role in the inter-faculty research priority area ACES. The Chair’s research should, ideally, add new historical perspectives to the research being conducted within ACES’s guiding research themes, in particular ‘Europe in the World’, ‘Diverse Europe’ and ‘Politics and Publics’.

Leadership and administrative tasks:

The Chair should have proven ability in leading interdisciplinary teaching and research teams, and proven experience in administrative functions. We are looking for a candidate who is able to both support and motivate colleagues, creating a nurturing environment that allows other researchers to thrive. S/he should support the group’s HRM (career development, professionalization, coordination) and offer mentorship.

The Chair should not only have the proven administrative and managerial capacity to guide her/his Chair group but should also be willing and able to take on administrative responsibili-ties at Departmental and/or Faculty level (including leadership of the capacity group, wider GER Department or the directorship of ARTES).