Binnen het project ‘Historical future expectations in the Late Medieval and Early modern Period (case study Italy)’ is een vacature beschikbaar voor een doctoraatsstudent. De jobomschijving is hieronder beschikbaar.

Vacancy: Doctoral student at the University of Antwerp, Historical future expectations in the Late Medieval and Early Modern Period (case study Italy) – 2020BAPFLWEF129

The Faculty of Arts is seeking to fill a full-time (100%) vacancy in the Department of History for a Doctoral student in an ERC-funded project on historical future expectations in the Late Medieval and Early Modern Period.

The fully-funded PhD-student will be affiliated with the Centre for Urban History. The Centre for Urban History is an international acknowledged research centre focusing on urban societies, structures and processes in historical perspective. The candidate will contribute to the ERC Starting Grant Project “Back to the Future: Future expectations and actions in late medieval and early modern Europe, c.1400-c.1830” funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 851053, https://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/225075/factsheet/en) and supervised by prof. dr. Jeroen Puttevils.

To gain more insight in how people in the past thought about the future and how this affected their actions, this project draws on a combination of close and distant reading methods of more than 15,000 letters written in (varieties of) Italian, German, French, Dutch and English by and to European merchants in the period 1400-1830.

The doctoral student will carry out the analysis of long-term developments in the linguistic expression and rhetoric of future statements on the basis of Italian merchant letters from the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries. Central in this PhD-project will be the role of capitalism and its relation to future-thinking.

Job description

• You prepare a doctoral thesis in the field of  late medieval history.
• You contribute to research in the field of the late medieval and early modern future expectations in general and to the research goals of the project.
• You publish scientific articles related to the research project of the assignment. These publications can be co-authored with other project members and external researchers.
• You co-manage the project website and the project’s presence on social media.
• You have a limited teaching responsibility in the History Department related to your own field of expertise and you contribute to research in the History Department and the Faculty of Arts.

Profile and requirements

• You hold a master degree  in history and/or Italian (historical) literature or linguistics.
• Profound knowledge of Italian and its historical variants is absolutely required.
• You are fluent in academic English (speaking and writing).
• You have experience in managing large amounts of historical sources and texts.
• You can submit outstanding academic results.
• Also students in the final year of their degree can apply.
• Your academic qualities comply with the requirements stipulated in the university’s policy.
• The focus in your teaching corresponds to the educational vision of the university.
• You are quality-oriented, conscientious, creative and cooperative.
• You have strong communication skills.

We offer

• a doctoral scholarship for a period of two years, with the possibility of renewal for a further two-year period after positive evaluation;
• the start date of scholarship will be July 1 2020;
• a gross monthly grant ranging from € 2.447,20 – € 2.596,27;
• a dynamic and stimulating work environment at the Centre for Urban History.

How to apply?

• Applications may only be submitted online, until the closing date 26 April 2020.
• A pre-selection will be made from amongst the submitted applications. The remainder of the selection procedure is specific to the position and will be determined by the selection panel.
• The interviews of the candidates, preselected by a selection panel, will take place on in the first week of June 2020.
• More information about the application form can be obtained from vacatures@uantwerpen.be
• For questions about the profile and the description of duties, please contact Prof.dr. Jeroen Puttevils +32 (0) 3 265 94 02, jeroen.puttevils@uantwerpen.be.

Because of the ongoing COVID-19 health crisis, we need to be flexible in this hiring procedure. If we can assist in any way or should be made aware of certain issues that affect your application, please let us know as soon as possible so we can take these into account.

The University of Antwerp is a family friendly organization, with a focus on equal opportunities and diversity. Our HR-policy for researchers was awarded by the European Commission with the quality label HR Excellence in research.

We support the Science4Refugees initiative and encourage asylum-seeking, refugee scientists and researchers to apply for a job at the University of Antwerp.

Website: https://www.uantwerpen.be/en/jobs/vacancies/ap/2020bapflwef129/

De vzw Vlaamse Erfgoedbibliotheken is op zoek naar een tijdelijke projectmedewerker voor hun project over middeleeuwse handschriften (MMFC). De volledige vacaturetekst vindt u hier en in dit bericht, een bondiger profiel is onderaan in pdf-formaat bijgevoegd.

VACATURE: MEDEWERKER HANDSCHRIFTENPROJECT (BETAALDE STAGE) BIJ DE VLAAMSE ERFGOEDBIBLIOTHEKEN

Ben jij een teamspeler die geboeid is door geschreven erfgoed en bibliotheken? Zoek je een prikkelende omgeving om jouw professionele loopbaan in deze richting op te starten? De vzw Vlaamse Erfgoedbibliotheken geeft werkzoekenden en pas-afgestudeerden de kans om praktische werkervaring op te doen via een beroepsinlevingsstage (BIS). Momenteel zoeken we twee stagiairs voor ons handschriftenproject.

De job

Je komt terecht bij een dienstverlenende netwerkorganisatie die samen met collectiebeheerders werkt aan allerlei overkoepelende projecten die de kennis over (het beheer van) collecties verhogen. Als stagiair leer je dit netwerk van binnenuit kennen door mee te werken aan het project ‘Medieval Manuscripts in Flemish Collections’ (MMFC). Je verwerft hierdoor zowel algemene als gespecialiseerde competenties die je voorbereiden op een functie in de erfgoed/bibliotheeksector, met een nadruk op het oudere geschreven erfgoed.

Als stagiair (m/v/x) zal je :

• Meewerken aan het beschrijven van handschriften, op basis van bestaande informatiebronnen en door rechtstreekse controle op de originelen, waarvoor je zal worden opgeleid in de catalografie van middeleeuwse handschriften.
• Betrokken worden bij het systematisch aanleggen van fotografische documentatie over de handschriften.
• Verantwoordelijk zijn voor een deel van de communicatie over het project (o.a. nieuwsbrief, social media, conversation management tijdens het crowdsourcingsinitiatief).
• Worden ingezet voor verschillende administratieve opdrachten (o.a. correspondentie betreffende het project, beheer info-mailbox, organisatie van vergaderingen, organisatie van plaatsbezoeken aan de diverse bibliotheken, etc.).
• Achter de schermen kennis kunnen maken met de verschillende functies van een erfgoedbibliotheek.
• Deelnemen aan interne vergaderingen en externe overlegmomenten met diverse partners in de sector.

Jouw profiel

Je beschikt over een masterdiploma in een van de vakgebieden die direct relevant zijn voor het MMFC project (geschiedenis, kunstgeschiedenis, literatuur, taalkunde, filosofie, muziekwetenschap, godsdienstwetenschappen, …).

• Je hebt je tijdens je opleiding kunnen specialiseren in de periode vóór 1600 door je scriptie-onderzoek en/of door gespecialiseerde keuzevakken.
• Je hebt goede communicatieve en redactionele vaardigheden en bent mee met sociale media.
• Je bent efficiënt in je aanpak en volgt taken en projecten nauwkeurig op.
• Je verwerkt gegevens met oog voor detail en past daarbij nauwkeurig regels en richtlijnen toe.
• Je kan efficiënt werken met gangbare kantoortoepassingen zoals MS Office en Google Apps en nieuwe software maak je je snel eigen. Kennis van webtechnologie of datamanipulatie zijn een plus.  Je voelt je thuis bij de kernwaarden van de organisatie: samenwerken, klantgerichtheid, resultaatgerichtheid, flexibiliteit, analyse en empathie.

Ons aanbod

• De stage vangt aan op 1 april 2020 of zo snel mogelijk daarna.
• We bieden voor (maximaal) 24 weken een overeenkomst aan voor een voltijdse beroepsinlevingsstage (35u/week). De financiële vergoeding is afhankelijk van je leeftijd en bedraagt maximaal 796,90 euro per maand, aangevuld met een abonnement voor woon-werkverkeer.
• Je werkt in een klein, ervaren team en wordt professioneel begeleid door verschillende collega’s. Je wordt intern opgeleid en krijgt feedback op jouw prestaties.
• Je krijgt de mogelijkheid om een sterkere positie op de arbeidsmarkt te verwerven door je competenties te ontwikkelen, een breed netwerk uit te bouwen en concrete ervaring op te doen binnen een dienstverlenende organisatie die bibliotheken ondersteunt in de uitvoering van hun erfgoedtaken.

Interesse?

• Stuur uiterlijk woensdag 18 maart 2020 een uitgebreid curriculum vitae en een motivatiebrief naar info@vlaamse-erfgoedbibliotheken.be. Het is belangrijk dat je in deze brief duidelijk maakt wat jouw verwachtingen zijn van de stage, welke relevante expertise en kennis je al bezit, wat jouw vaardigheden zijn, en hoe deze stage past in jouw loopbaanontwikkeling. Bekijk voor meer informatie het functieprofiel in bijlage.
• Op basis van deze motivatie en het curriculum vitae maken we een eerste selectie. Geselecteerde kandidaten worden uitgenodigd voor een schriftelijke proef en een gesprek in Berchem op maandag 23 maart 2020. Zo nodig volgt nog een tweede ronde gesprekken.
• Heb je vragen over deze vacature? Dan kan je contact opnemen met de projectleider, Godfried Croenen via +32 (3) 202 87 83 of godfried@vlaamse-erfgoedbibliotheek.be. Meer informatie over de Vlaamse Erfgoedbibliotheken vind je op vlaamse-erfgoedbibliotheken.be.

Binnen het FWO-project “The Quest for Otherness. Uncovering Narratives of Religious Distinction in the ‘Long Tenth Century” is een vacature beschikbaar voor een doctoraatsstudent, het jobaanbod is hieronder te vinden.

Doctoral fellow

Department: LW03 – Department of History

Employment category: Doctoral fellow

Contract: Limited duration

Degree: Master’s degree in History or a related field

Occupancy rate: 100%

Vacancy Type: Research staff

Job description

One doctoral position (PhD studentship) is available starting 1 May 2020 (with the possibility of a delayed start until 30 December 2020) on an FWO Senior Research Project titled ‘The Quest for Otherness. Uncovering Narratives of Religious Distinction in the ‘Long Tenth Century’.

The eleventh century is commonly seen as the time when Western Christianity first drew strict moral and behavioral boundaries between the servants of the Church and the laity. Recent scholarship has indicated, though, that many ideas and solutions propagated then built on a legacy from up to two hundred years earlier. Crucially, the contribution of the ‘long tenth century’ (c. 880–1020/30) – a critical transition phase – remains for the most part unknown. While case studies have shown that commentators of this period were deeply preoccupied with the moral identity and conduct of ecclesiastical personnel in particular, a systematic investigation of surviving testimonies remains a major gap in religious and historical scholarship. In order to resolve this gap, the project will offer a detailed reconstruction of a large, regionally defined sample of narratives of religious distinction.

Supervised at the Ghent University by prof. dr. Steven Vanderputten, in a first part of the project the PhD researcher will work on a well-defined set of mostly narrative sources to establish how exactly tenth-century commentators described the separate moral and social status of clerics, monks, and women religious. The researcher will look at precisely which properties –in terms of physical appearance, social conduct, and morality generally– they attributed to the ideal member of each of these cohorts, and which ones they considered a cause for scandal. In addition, they will reconstruct the precise settings in which these authors situated their descriptions: did they give a literal account of the ‘stage play’ of the distinct morality of ecclesiastical personnel (for instance, by portraying appropriate behaviour as it was supposed to be displayed during liturgical and other ceremonies, secular feasts, public meetings, ceremonies, individual interactions with the laity, and interactions within religious communities), or did they instead speak mostly in abstract terms? Finally, the researcher will also seek to establish the specific purpose of these accounts of distinction, which was the intended audience, and if they were transmitted outside of their original context of origin. In case of the latter, were they adapted in any way?

In a second part, the PhD researcher will try to establish if specific narratives on religious distinction can be matched with specific political, institutional, intellectual, and personal networks. Similarities in the argument of a number of key texts suggest that this is the case. However, due to the limited attempts at comparative analysis and the slim body of studied evidence we currently have very little to validate – or invalidate – this impression. Nor has there been a systematic effort to consider either cross-pollination of ideas and narratives between different networks, or the internal differences of views within specific networks. A key point is the adaptation of religious distinction narratives when they were transferred from major institutional and intellectual centers to small communities of clerics, monks, or women religious. In other words, are there indications that local expectations (by the religious themselves and by their social environment) and traditions influenced the way in which these narratives were received by, and communicated to, the religious in these places?

The project’s innovative quality lies in the fact that it transcends the focus of former scholarship on specific commentators and their work. Not only will it undertake an unprecedented comparative study of known commentaries, it will also considerably expand the body of primary evidence by including a range of narrative texts that have so far remained beyond the specialists’ focus. As such, this project will award to the long tenth century the key place it deserves in the study of religious reflection and debate in the medieval West.

The fellowship provides a monthly salary of ca. 1900 euros on a full-time basis, in concordance with the requirements of the Flemish Government. It is fiscally exempted and Ghent University offers a holiday allowance, gratis public transport between home and work place, access to university sports facilities and university restaurants, and end-of-year bonus. For more information, see www.ugent.be/en/work.

Profile of the candidate

The successful candidate preferably has:

– A master’s degree (in hand or in progress) in Medieval History or in a related discipline (for individuals whose master’s degree is in progress, the doctoral position may only be taken up if that degree is successfully completed before the start of the project).

– Demonstrated experience with Latin sources.

– Demonstrated experience with qualitative research methods and a willingness to work towards acquiring new research skills.

– Demonstrated capacity for creative and independent research.

– Reading-knowledge of English and French and a willingness to acquire the necessary passive language skills to read German and Italian publications.

– The ability and willingness to work as a member of an international research community at Ghent University, including contributions to a shared database as well as joint publication.

– The ability and willingness to develop a publication track record of high academic standards.

Ghent University is a multi-lingual environment. Most official communication is done in Dutch and English: PhD researchers are welcome to publish and do conference presentations in any West European language, and may submit their dissertation in English, French, German, or Dutch. Candidates are not required to be able to read and/or speak Dutch prior to or during their appointment at Ghent University, but are encouraged to acquire basic language skills to facilitate social integration.

How to apply

Applications are to be sent as a pdf-file to Professor Steven Vanderputten (steven.Vanderputten@ugent.be) and must include the following elements:

– Motivation letter.

– Curriculum Vitae, including an overview of language skills (active and passive); experience with Latin-sources; and PC-skills.

– A pdf-copy of the master dissertation or undergraduate dissertation (for those with a masters in progress).

– Certified copies of relevant diplomas.

– Contact details of two referees (name, institutional affiliation, and email address) and/or two letters of reference.

In the second stage of the application procedure, the selected candidates will be interviewed in person or via Skype.

Binnen het FWO-project “Renovating the church” is een vacature beschikbaar voor een doctoraatsstudent, het jobaanbod is hieronder te vinden.

Doctoral fellow

Last application date: March 31, 2020 17:00

Department: LW03 – Department of History

Employment category: Doctoral fellow

Contract: Limited duration

Degree: Master’s degree in History or Art History

Occupancy rate: 100%

Vacancy Type: Research staff

Job description

One doctoral position (PhD studentship) is available starting 1 June 2020 (with the possibility of a delayed start until 30 December 2020) on an FWO Senior Research Project titled “Renovating the church: material culture, Habsburg ritual and early Counter-Reformation experiments in the Low Countries (c. 1535-1585)”.

In the sixteenth century, the Protestant Reformation seriously challenged Catholicism. According to the communis opinio, the Catholic Church only found an adequate answer towards the end of the century, when it launched a coordinated campaign that implemented the tenets of the Council of Trent (1545-63). In the historiography on the Low Countries, the Fall of Antwerp (1585) is usually designated as the starting point, which coincides with the political separation of the Habsburg Low Countries and the Dutch Republic. This project challenges this view by investigating Catholic experiments in countering the Reformation in the Low Countries in the transitional period from c. 1535 to c. 1585.

Supervised at the Ghent University by prof. dr. Anne-Laure Van Bruaene (History) and prof. dr. Koenraad Jonckheere (Art History), this interdisciplinary project will give centre stage to the church building, more particularly to the interiors of the cathedrals, collegiate churches and main parish churches of the larger cities. The aim is to learn and understand how Catholic elites (prince, courtiers, bishops, canons, churchwardens) invested in material culture through a broad range of artistic media. The project will pay special attention to the dynamic interplay between stylistic experiments and the ritual uses of objects during Habsburg ceremonies. Through this double focus on material culture and political ritual, the project intends not only to revise the chronology of the Counter-Reformation in the Low Countries, but also to develop new interdisciplinary methodologies for (art) historical research.

The project comprises of three work packages:

Work package 1 is the construction of a dataset of still extant objects in the principal churches of Belgium, the Netherlands and Northern France (more specifically, the territory of the historical Low Countries) in order to chart the religious art patronage between c. 1535 and c. 1585.

Work package 2 is an in-depth study of the church archives for three representative cases (Brussels, Ghent, Utrecht), in order to reconstruct in detail the investment in and attitudes towards religious material culture. The emphasis will lie on source types such as churchwarden accounts, separate accounts for building, renovation and restoration works, contracts, inventories, correspondence, memorials for rituals and feasts etc.

Work package 3 is an exploration of a range of archival, printed and published sources, in order to further contextualize the material gathered in work packages 1 and 2. The focus will be on the role of material culture in religious and political ritual (including iconoclasm).

For a full project description, contact prof. dr. Anne-Laure Van Bruaene.

Profile of the candidate

The successful candidate preferably has:

–     A master’s degree (in hand or in progress) in History or in Art History (for individuals whose master’s degree is in progress, the doctoral position may only be taken up if that degree is successfully completed before the start of the project).

–     Demonstrated interest in the cultural history of the late medieval or early modern Low Countries.

–     Demonstrated interest in visual sources.

–     Demonstrated experience with historical languages (Dutch, French, Latin).

–     Demonstrated experience with paleography.

–     Demonstrated capacity for creative and independent research.

–     Reading-knowledge of English and French and a willingness to acquire the necessary passive language skills to read publications in other European languages.

–     The ability and willingness to work as a member of an international and interdisciplinary research team at Ghent University.

–     The ability and willingness to develop a publication track record of high academic standards.

How to apply

Applications are to be sent as a pdf-file to prof.dr. Anne-Laure Van Bruaene (annelaure.vanbruaene@ugent.be) and must include the following elements:

– Motivation letter.

– Curriculum Vitae, including an overview of language skills (active and passive); experience with paleography and historical sources; and PC-skills.

– A pdf-copy of the master dissertation or undergraduate dissertation (for those with a masters in progress).

– Certified copies of relevant diplomas.

– Contact details of two referees (name, institutional affiliation, and email address) and/or two letters of reference.

In the second stage of the application procedure, the selected candidates will be interviewed.