PhD Candidate: Each One Teach One

The Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS) invites applications for a PhD candidate (1,0 FTE), starting date February 1 2023:
PhD Candidate:
Each One Teach One: Dutch Urban and Hip-Hop as a Counter-Hegemonic Discourse of Dutch Cultural Identity from the 1980s to the Present
Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society (Faculty of Humanities Leiden University) seeks a PhD candidate in the area of Cultural Diversity and Inclusion in Dutch Urban and Hip-Hop Culture. The position is part of the NWA-ORC funded project Re/Presenting Europe: Popular Representations of Diversity and Belonging. This NWA project is a collaboration between several universities and societal and grassroot organisations in the Netherlands, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten. The full project consists of work packages that will address dominant spaces of representation of belonging, both in the formal institutional space of education and healing, as well as informal spaces of sports, popular culture, and urban arts. The goal of the project is to come to a more inclusive understanding of Europe.

This PhD position is part of the work package on diversity and belonging in Urban Arts and Hip-Hop. The objective of this work package is (a) to develop an analytic and discursive insight in how urban music and dance contributed to the construction of an alternative and anti-hegemonic embodiment of Dutch cultural identity. These insights are produced bottom-up, with the lived experience and knowledge of practitioners in the field of urban arts and more specifically hip-hop as co-creators as our starting point. Subsequently, the project (b) utilises this knowledge to re-envision the audio-visual (musical, lyrical, and choreographed) construction of identity currently present in Dutch knowledge institutions (i.e. high school and higher education curricula) and in Dutch national archives (e.g. Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision).

The PhD project will retrace and articulate the historical emergence of (one or more cases of) urban arts and/or hip-hop in the Netherlands and will map how and when its unique and global intersection of multi-ethnic dance, media and musical traditions have allowed its various practitioners in the Netherlands to articulate a counter-hegemonic understanding of their Dutch identity. It will develop a clear theoretical framework and methodology that is in line with the objectives of the project and will deliver results that can contribute to a more inclusive understanding of European audio-visual performative cultures and embodied knowledge.

The PhD will closely collaborate with the other team members in this work package as well as with researchers of other work packages in the project, in particular sports, urban arts, and education. In addition, they will closely collaborate with the social stakeholders and grass roots organizations involved in this work package.

Profile

• You hold a Research Master or comparable degree in Media Studies, Dutch Studies, Musicology, Performance Studies, History, Anthropology, Cultural Studies, or a comparable discipline; academic and/or practice-based experience in urban arts and Hip-hop is a recommendation;
• You have an affinity with archival research, oral history, postcolonial theory and media theory;
• You have excellent oral and writing skills in Dutch and English, as demonstrated in an excellent thesis and/or other publications; experience in other languages, particularly Sranan Tongo, Spanish, Papiamento, Malay, is a recommendation;
• You are able to work independently and flexibly, and take initiative where needed;
• You are able to communicate and collaborate effectively in a team setting; experience and affinity with working with grass roots organisations and practitioners is a recommendation;
• You are interested in and committed to teaching and supervising Bachelor's students.
• You work at least 75% of your time from the Netherlands.

Main Responsibilities:

• Completing a PhD thesis in four years (in case of a 1.0fte appointment) or in five years (in case of a 0.8fte appointment);
• Publishing 2 peer review academic articles related to your thesis topic and one long-read (popular article) on the topic;
• Contributing to a lesson plan for teaching ‘Dutch Hip Hop and the popular representation of diversity and belonging’ in Dutch high schools;
• Supervising BA theses and teaching in LUCAS-related BA programs;
• Actively participating in the activities of the research consortium Re/Presenting Europe: Popular Representations of Diversity and Belonging;
• Actively participating in the activities of LUCAS and a national research school (eg. NICA, OSL, Huizinga).

We offer

• PhD project, 4 years (1.0fte, 38 hrs per week), starting date 1 February 2023. Initially the employee will receive a 14-months contract, with extension for the following 34 months on condition of a positive evaluation. A part-time (0.8fte) appointment is also possible; the full duration of the appointment will in that case be 5 years.
• Salary range from € 2,541- to € 3,247,- gross per month for a fulltime appointment (pay scale P, in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities).
• Leiden University offers an attractive benefits package with additional holiday (8%) and end-of-year bonuses (8.3 %), training and career development and sabbatical leave. Our individual choices model gives you some freedom to assemble your own set of terms and conditions.

The Organisation

The Faculty of Humanities is a unique international centre for the advanced study of languages, cultures, arts, and societies worldwide, in their historical contexts from prehistory to the present. Our faculty is home to more than 6,000 students and 800 staff members. See https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/humanities  for more information.
The Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS) is one of the seven Research Institutes of the Faculty of Humanities. LUCAS is dedicated to ground-breaking research that explores the multifaceted relationships between the arts and society. See https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/humanities/centre-for-the-arts-in-society  for more information 

Diversity & Inclusion

Fostering an inclusive community is a central element of the values and vision of Leiden University. Leiden University is committed to becoming an inclusive community which enables all students and staff to feel valued and respected and to develop their full potential. Diversity in experiences and perspectives enriches our teaching and strengthens our research. High quality teaching and research is inclusive.

Would you like more information?

For more information about this position and the NWA project Re-Presenting Europe, please contact Bram Ieven, University Lecturer in Modern Dutch Culture at [email protected]  . Questions about the procedure can be directed at Mariska de Groot ( [email protected]  ). Information about LUCAS can be found at https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/geesteswetenschappen/centre-for-the-arts-in-society  and about Leiden University at https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en . 

How to apply

You can apply until October 7 2022, exclusively using the button below. Please fill in the application form and attach the following documents:

•    Motivation letter including a description of how you meet the job requirements;
•    Your CV, including contact details of two academic references;
•    A 500-word outline in which you elaborate on how you want approach the project theme (focus and research question).

The interviews will be held in the third week of October. The starting date is 1 February 2023.