The Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology is one of the world’s leading centres for research in social anthropology. Common to all research projects at the Max Planck Institute is the comparative analysis of social change; it is primarily in this domain that its researchers contribute to anthropological theory, though many programmes also have applied significance and political topicality.

The Department 'Resilience and Transformation in Eurasia' of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology is offering

Postdoctoral and Ph.D. positions for a new Research Group: Financialization
led by Chris Hann and Don Kalb, starting on 1st October 2015 (subject to agreement, individual projects may also begin on 1st January 2016 or 1st April 2016).

This project will extend economic anthropologists’ traditional focus on money toward questions of finance and financialization. Debt, austerity and expanding inequalities are central features of the ongoing crisis of capitalism, but current patterns are not entirely novel. Anthropologists can illuminate the moral, discursive, and political issues surrounding finance, as well as the shifting social relations of which they are a part. Class formation, moral economy and politics (‘regulation’, ‘mobilization’) are inseparable from this agenda. These topics can be addressed using various methods, including ethnographic fieldwork and archival research, and can be embedded in multi-scalar perspectives as well as historical comparison. The department has a prime concern with Eurasia (understood as the entire landmass of Europe and Asia, plus fringes in North Africa and the Middle East) but it is expected that some individual projects in this Group will open up to investigate global ramifications.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities
This new team is conceived as a successor to earlier postdoc Groups in economic anthropology: see homepage: http://www.eth.mpg.de/cms/de/research/d2/economic_anth/index.html
On this occasion Ph.D. applications will also be considered, if suitable candidates present themselves. The group will work together in Halle/Saale (except when undertaking field or archival research elsewhere, the costs of which will be covered).

Your Profile
Good field research skills, the ability to work in a team, and a good command of written and spoken English are required. Postdoctoral applicants should either be in possession of a Ph.D. in anthropology, sociology or a related discipline or submit evidence indicating that such a dissertation will be finished and submitted before the designated starting date. Applications for a Ph.D. position should be in an equivalent situation concerning the completion of a Masters.
We anticipate that some researchers will return to an earlier field site but proposals to open up a new site will also be considered.
German language expertise is not required but learning German is encouraged, especially if relevant literature is available in German.

Our Offer
The positions are awarded for three years. It is thus anticipated that the group will work together in Halle until the summer of 2018, while some individual contracts may extend into 2019.

Postdoctoral grants can only be awarded to scientists who have received their doctorate within the last ten years.

The Max Planck Society strives to employ more persons with disabilities and explicitly encourages applications. Furthermore, the Max Planck Society is committed to raising the proportion of women in underrepresented fields; we thus explicitly encourage applications by women.

Contact
Please submit your application electronically by 30 April 2015 following the link for vacancies on our homepage.

Applicants should send the following documentation:

- cover letter
- CV, including list of publications
- writing sample (chapter or article length)
- 1-2 page summary of Ph.D./Master´s thesis (as applicable)
- short (1-2 pages) proposal (this will form a basis for discussion if the applicant is short-listed. It is anticipated that each individual study will to undergo some modification to optimize the coherence of the project as a whole).
- photocopies of university degrees
- names of two referees

Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology
Personnel Administration
Janka Diallo
jdiallo@eth.mpg.de

Informal enquiries concerning the positions may be directed to both Chris Hann (hann@eth.mpg.de) and Don Kalb (kalbd@ceu.hu).

We look forward to receiving your completed online application:
http://www.eth.mpg.de/cms/de/vacancies/vacancies_external.html?url=/Jobs/1%3Flang=ger

Further information on the research agenda of the Max Planck Institute is available on our website: http://www.eth.mpg.de