The Global History of Material Culture and Technology, 1850 – 2000, research project funded by the European Research Council (ERC)
Project leader: Professor Mikael Hård
The Technical University of Darmstadt (TU Darmstadt), near Frankfurt, Germany, announces a two-year post-doctoral position, beginning 1 October 2020. We welcome applications from talented and diligent historians of all genders who are about to develop an independent research profile in the global history of technology and material culture.
The successful candidate will become a member of a larger project called “A Global History of Technology, 1850–2000” (GLOBAL-HOT). The project investigates the history of material culture and artifacts in various parts of the world from 1850 to 2000. The researchers investigate the persistent use of indigenous technologies along with globalized ones, as well as the emergence of hybrid solutions. The goal is to increase our understanding of the relationship between the development and use of technologies in the West (Europe and North America) on the one hand and the East and the South (Asia, Africa, Latin America) on the other. The project draws on a wide array of sources that go beyond written material in official archives—including artifacts, artwork, and images, along with interviews, oral sources, and the media. For further information, please visit our homepage: www.global-hot.eu
Requirements: Applications are accepted by historians who have completed their PhD studies and received their diploma. Only applicants with very good or excellent credentials and grades will be considered. This announcement is only directed at scholars who have started to work on a new field of research in Latin American, Asian, or African history of technology. Applicants need to have experience from archival research in one of these regions; they also ought to show active presence in scholarly networks in the region. It is expected that the applicant will publish a second book by the end of her/his appointment in the project. It is possible to submit this book as a Habilitationsschrift to the Department of History and Social Sciences at the TU Darmstadt. Project communication takes place in English, and the applicant’s book also has to be written in this language. The position is intended to further the scientific development of the successful applicant.
The project provides funds for travels, publications, and research assistance. Since it is momentarily hardly possible to carry out research trips overseas, we expect applicants to have gathered most of the relevant sources already.
The applicant is required to contribute actively to the success of the research project as a whole, e.g., by participating in regular meetings, coordinating their time and work plans with the team, co-authoring articles, and helping with publicity and the organization of events. We thus expect strong collaborative abilities and a pronounced willingness to
become part of an exciting research team. The place of employment is Darmstadt.
How to apply: Your electronic application—written in English—should include a CV and an extended prospectus of your book project. We expect your project description to include information about which material you have gathered and to which extent the sources have already been treated; please add a working plan for the coming two years. Please attach degree certificates and further documents that support your qualification for the position, such as language certificates, and transcripts. All documents need to be merged into one single pdf file that does not exceed 10 MB and sent to:
global-hot@pg.tu-darmstadt.de
Please use the following text in the “subject” line of your email: “code no. 338 + your last name.”
TU Darmstadt intends to increase the number of female employees and encourages women to apply. In case of equal qualifications, applicants with a degree of disability of at least 50 or equal will be given preference. Wages and salaries are according to the collective agreements on those salary scales which apply to the Technical University of Darmstadt (TV – TU Darmstadt). Part-time employment is generally possible. The position includes health insurance and social security.
Contact person: Professor Mikael Hård, Institute of History, Department of History and Social Sciences, Technical University of Darmstadt, Dolivostrasse 15, DE-64293 Darmstadt, Germany:
hard@ifs.tu-darmstadt.de
Code No.: 338
Application Deadline: 21 August 2020
