The Institute of Political History invites applications for 2 junior (PhD student) and 2 post-doc research positions within the ERC funded NEPOSTRANS - Negotiating post-imperial transitions: from remobilization to nation-state consolidation. A comparative study of local and regional transitions in post-Habsburg East and Central Europe project. (http://polhist.hu/nepostrans-negotiating-post-imperial-transitions/)
The project
The project’s goal is to provide a new, overall narrative of how the Habsburg Empire was replaced by nation states at the end of WWI and reconsider in the light of its results categories and concepts like state and statehood, local, regional and national, transition and transformation. A novel combination of historical comparison and histoire croisée enables the in-depth analyses of a set of local transitions in diverse regions (agrarian, industrial, commercial, urban, rural, multi-and mono-ethnic, borderland and mainland, litoral) and the combination of these results with the existing literature on other localities.
The team addresses four main themes: state, elites, identities and discourses. The focus is always local, the question is how these societies faced the momentous changes and found their place within empire and nation-state(s). It will look at interactions, cultures and especially rupture and continuity of people, norms, practices, institutional cultures in order to discover patterns of transitions and the social factors influencing them. Besides a typology of transitions, it also aims at gaining a new perspective on empire and nation-state from this crucial moment of collapse and state-building.
What we expect
You will conduct research on your choice of region from the following ones:
- Bukovina-Galicia borderlands
- Prekmurje-Zala
- Northern Tirol
- Skalica-Znojmo-Břeclav-Laa a. d. Thaya
You will work under the guidance of the PI as member of a team of nine researchers. The key themes of the research are: the relationship of the state and the local society, the local elites and their challengers, ethnicity and alternative identities, local discourses of transition. The project goes through the themes in this sequence, one year is dedicated to each. If you are a junior researcher, you are expected to work towards a dissertation within the broader theme. You are also expected to participate at project workshop and present your findings, help organizing project events, editing project publications and contribute to the maintenance of the project website.
What we offer
We offer a two-year contract, renewable for 2 years for junior researchers, for 30 months for post-docs, after an interim evaluation. The gross salary is 1500 euros/month for junior researchers and 2000 euros/month for post-docs, corresponding with a 70% position. Intensity and length of employment is negotiable. Starting date is September 1, 2018.
Funding for research trips, conference and workshop participation will be provided.
Your qualifications
Applicants for junior positions are expected to hold at least an MA degree (or equivalent), preferably in the history of the Habsburg Monarchy and/or its successor states. Post-docs should have a PhD by September 1, 2018.
How to apply
Send us by April 30th the latest:
- a CV with contact details and list of publications
- a motivation letter, also indicating which region the applicant wants to study and why (max. 1500 words)
- A writing sample (publication, chapter of an MA thesis)
- contact details (name, address, phone number, email) of two referees. (Please, do not send letters of reference!)
The documents should be sent in a single pdf file to the address: info@phistory.hu . Please, indicate as the letter’s subject: ERC CoG NEPOSTRANS junior/post-doc application.
You will be informed of the outcome of the first phase of the selection process by May 31. Shortlisted candidates will be interviewed until June 30.
For further information contact the principal investigator:
Gábor Egry
Politikatörténeti Intézet
1054 Budapest, Alkotmány u. 2.
egrygabor@phistory.hu