Post-doc Identity, Heritage and the Citizens’ Perspective (0.8-1.0fte) at Studio Europa Maastricht, Maastricht University

The successful candidate is a talented early-career researcher with proven interest in European affairs. They will be part of the core research team of Studio Europa Maastricht (SEM) of Maastricht University (UM) for a two-year appointment. They will work closely with the broader SEM team and researchers in the different faculties of the UM. The post-doc is expected to devote 60% of the position to academic research and 40% to outreach activities, emphasizing societal impact of the post-doc’s research. This includes the following output: 

• The post-doc carries out internationally competitive research and produces high-quality publications in the field of Identity, Heritage and/or the Citizens’ Perspective (SEM research theme 2), with a clear link to European issues. Research and publications are of a multi- or interdisciplinary nature, which reflects the UM wide research priority ‘Europe in a globalising world’;   
• The post-doc writes and submits at least one individual grant proposal (such as within NWO, ERC, or within any other leading national or international funding scheme for academic research);  
• The post-doc engages in outreach activities, including the dissemination of personal research in forms that make it accessible beyond academia or even for the general public; 
• The post-doc is an active and visible ambassador of SEM’s research agenda in- and outside the UM; 
• The post-doc contributes to the general promotion and communication regarding SEM activities and events calendar.  

Research theme 2: Identity, Heritage and the Citizens’ Perspective 
Having initiated the integration process through the establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in 1951, the governments of ‘the Six’ inevitably faced the ensuing battles of ideas over the notion of European unification and the future of European integration. The issue of integration penetrated domestic politics and caused deep rifts within cabinets and parliaments, cutting across conventional political camps and stirring up heated national debates between federalists, confederates, Eurosceptics and others. 

European negotiations encompassed state and non-state actors from the outset. The lack of national control over this process prompted the formation of unorthodox coalitions across national borders and transnational bureaucracies, lobbies and networks. Influencing the integration process thus presupposed a certain transnationalisation of European policies right from its earliest days. There is an empirical reason why existing historiography has not paid sufficient attention to all this: the governments’ convincing claims to be in control of the integration process. Research on the history of European integration aims to reinterpret and reanalyse this history from an interdisciplinary, transnational perspective. This includes due attention to non-state actors. The research will include various sources (e.g., archives, arts, heritage).  

Read more about this theme in SEM’s research agenda: https://studioeuropamaastricht.nl/research/