The Saxo Institute, Faculty of Humanities at the University of Copenhagen is pleased to announce a call for applications for an 18-month postdoctoral position in European and international history. The position is available from 1 July 2023. The position is fully funded by the research project AUTONOMY & EXPERTISE in international organizations, 1940s-1970s, financed by the Independent Research Council Denmark (2022-2025).
AUTONOMY & EXPERTISE offers a comparative and connective investigation of how the administrations of The Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC)/The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), The European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and the European Community (EC), and The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) accumulated expertise and autonomy to gain their (limited/specific) powers between the 1940s and the 1970s.
Further information about the project AUTONOMY & EXPERTISE in international organizations, 1940s-1970s can be seen here: Autonomy and Expertise in International Administrations, 1940s-1970s: https://saxoinstitute.ku.dk/research/history/autonomy-and-expertise-in-international-administrations-1940s-1970s/
The successful postdoctoral candidate will focus on the ECSC/EC and the OEEC/OECD while also contributing to the overall research aims of AUTONOMY & EXPERTISE.
Historical studies of IO administrations have conventionally either focused on organizational autonomy in a narrow sense or the development of transnational expertise, very often within a singular IO.
With an interdisciplinary approach this project seeks to:
(a) compare how and to what extent the three IO administrations gained autonomy from state power through an analysis of how they were created, organized and developed over time.
(b) map the expertise cultivated by the administrations via a prosopography (standardized biographies) that will locate nodes of influential higher officials and their network.
(c) identify how autonomy and expertise combined across IOs to create distinct bureaucratic roles enabling specific administrative powers, by creating a typology of international officials.
Accordingly, relevant themes for the postdoc include, but are not limited to, comparative and connective analyses of the ECSC/EC and OEEC/OECD’s constitutional set-up, administrative rules and regulations, recruitment patterns, leadership styles, hierarchies, roles and practices, networks and/or work on specific policy areas.
The successful candidate will work together with and under the supervision of the Principal Investigator (PI), based at the Saxo Institute, University of Copenhagen.
JOB DESCRIPTION
The PI and the selected postdoc of AUTONOMY & EXPERTISE closely collaborates in all stages of the research process and the selected candidate is expected to contribute to this research method.
Collaborative research elements include:
- Collecting and sharing of historical evidence concerning the various research topics of AUTONOMY & EXPERTISE.
- Close coordination of research trips to archives, libraries, workshops, and conferences.
- Participating in fortnightly supervision and biannual career development meetings.
- Contributing to the construction of prosopographical databases.
- Publishing within the framework of AUTONOMY & EXPERTISE.
- Active participation in a 1-month fellowship at the SIRICE research centre (Sorbonne, Paris).
QUALIFICATIONS
To be eligible for the position, the candidate should demonstrate a thorough working knowledge of European Integration and/or International Organization History, including working experience with the Historical Archives of the European Union (Florence), the EU Commission Archives (Brussels) and/or the OEEC/OECD archives (Paris).
Candidates should have excellent reading skills in English and French.
Candidates with interests in interdisciplinarity, databases, prosopography and/or digital history are also welcomed.
In addition, the applicants must have research qualifications at least corresponding to those achieved through a successfully completed PhD within a relevant field.
According to the terms of the grant from the Independent Research Foundation Denmark - the PhD degree must have been obtained a maximum of 4 years before the application deadline (maternity, paternity and certain other forms of leave may be added to this).
SALARY AND CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT
Terms of appointment and salary will be in accordance with an agreement between the Ministry of Finance and The Danish Confederation of Professional Associations (AC). The salary range starts at DKK 35,700 (EUR 4,800) per month + a 17,1 % contribution to the pension scheme. It is possible to negotiate salary supplements on an annual basis.
The Danish Ministry of Finance and the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations (AC) have further agreed on a protocol that makes it possible for international researchers employed by the University to achieve a pension exemption, whereby the pension contribution will be paid out as salary. For more information about the different pension schemes, please see: https://ism.ku.dk/salary-tax-pension/pension/
A special tax scheme is offered to researchers recruited abroad Tax – University of Copenhagen (ku.dk)
If you consider applying from abroad, you may find useful information on working in Denmark and at UCPH here: http://ism.ku.dk, http://www.nyidanmark.dk/en-us/frontpage.htm and https://www.workindenmark.dk