Job: four Ph.D. Positions, research project on ‘The Global City: Challenges, Trust and the Role of Law’, The Asser Institute

The Asser Institute invites applications for four Ph.D. positions within the Gieskes Strijbis Fonds funded research project on ‘The Global City: Challenges, Trust and the Role of Law’.

Job description

The first pair of Ph.D. researchers will explore seventeenth-century Amsterdam’s intellectual history, that is, the early modern Portuguese Jewish body of social-political and legal thought on diversity, identity, and global trade relations as found in the holdings of Ets Haim/Livraria Montezinos, as well as some related other collections, and the second pair of Ph.D. researchers will deal with the role of international (human rights) law in the global city’s approach to urgent societal challenges of the twenty-first century. While each of the four Ph.D. projects will deal with its own set of questions, together these studies explore an interrelated set of themes: that is, firstly, identity construction, citizenship, and fundamental rights as a source of trust in the global city (then and now), and, secondly, the role and position of the global city at the international stage (then and now). 

The four Ph.D. researchers thus are expected to engage respectively with:

• A. Ets Haim and identity within the context of the early modern Amsterdam legal debate on citizenship (vacancy 01); 
• B. Ets Haim and the early modern Amsterdam legal debate on trade and war with the non-European world (vacancy 02); 
• C. Diversity and identity in Global Cities: human rights as a source of trust (vacancy 03); 
• D. Global Cities, human rights, and the reconfiguration of international law (vacancy 04). 

See for more information: www.asser.nl/about-the-institute/jobs-opportunities/ 

The Ph.D. researchers are expected to develop their own project, as part of a Ph.D., within the framework described above and to engage in individual and collective activities related to the main research project (the doctoral thesis will be written in English). This project is structured in such a way that the Ph.D. researchers are expected to collaborate closely and intensively with one another and be willing to do some research travel / commuting. You are also expected to participate in the organization of several international conferences and in the writing of occasional blogs for the project’s website. The researchers will be based at the Asser Institute, while PhDs 01 and 02 will also have working facilities at Ets Haim Library when needed.

Requirements 

You are an outstanding student with a strong commitment to and a proven ability in independent research work. 

For PhD position 01 and 02:

• a (research) master in an appropriate field with an outstanding record of undergraduate and master’s degree work;
• Demonstrated research affinity with the project;
• good working knowledge of rabbinic Hebrew and Portuguese;
• good communication skills in oral and written English;
• be able to work under pressure, meet deadlines;
• quality-oriented, conscientious, cooperative and creative, result orientated;
• a clear willingness to contribute to research and valorization activities. 

For PhD position 03 and 04:

• a (research) master in international (human rights) law, with an outstanding record of undergraduate and master’s degree work;
• Demonstrated research affinity with the project;
• good communication skills in oral and written English;
• be able to work under pressure, meet deadlines;
• quality-oriented, conscientious, cooperative and creative, result orientated;
• a clear willingness to contribute to research and valorization activities.

 
You can apply for this job until June 5, 2016.
More information