About us
UCL’s Institute of Advanced Studies in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences was founded in 2015. It is based at the heart of UCL’s Bloomsbury campus in a suite of rooms in the South Wing. The IAS is a research-based community of scholars comprising colleagues and doctoral students from across UCL as well as visiting fellows and research collaborators / interlocutors from the UK and internationally. The IAS is committed to critical thinking and engaged enquiry both within and across conventional disciplinary and institutional boundaries, and aims to provide a creative and generative context in which to question habitual practices and modes of thought. In particular, in the context of a major multi-disciplinary university, the IAS harnesses UCL’s extensive expertise across the arts, humanities and social sciences to investigate received wisdom, to bring the aesthetic and the political into dialogue, to foster collaborative cutting-edge research, to identify and address the urgent ethical and intellectual challenges that face us today, and to confront our responsibilities as citizens of an inter-connected world, exploring our place (historically as well as spatially) within it.
The UCL Centre for Collective Violence, Holocaust and Genocide Studies (UCL-CCV) adopts a multi-disciplinary approach to understanding the processes, character and implications of collective violence, past and present. In addition to historical analyses of major incidents of collective violence - notably the Holocaust and other aspects of Nazi persecution, as well as genocides and other eruptions of violence across the world - we seek to make significant analytic contributions to understanding collective violence in political, cultural, geographic and social context, exploring also what follows in the wake of such violence. Previous notable projects have included the AHRC-funded project ‘Compromised Identities? Reflections on Perpetration and Complicity under Nazism’ and the related online exhibition, https://compromised-identities.org/, which was funded by the AHRC and Pears Foundation.
About the role
The Post-doctoral Research Fellow will develop and conduct research within the context of a collaborative research project on ‘Good Citizens, Terrible Times: Community, Courage and Compliance in and beyond the Holocaust’, funded by the AHRC and the DFG and directed by Prof. Mary Fulbrook (UCL) and Prof. Christina Morina (University of Bielefeld), 2023–25. The post is fixed term, funded for 27 months full-time (salary range £38,308 to £46,155 pa). The Research Fellow will develop and carry out a discrete research project that will form part of and make a significant contribution to a wider, collaborative research project on conceptions and practices of citizenship and community in different areas of Europe during the Holocaust, as these variously affected compliance with state or occupation policies, or inspired sympathy with those who were persecuted.
About the project
The sheer scale of what we call the Holocaust continues to challenge both scholars and wider publics around the world. Despite innumerable attempts to understand the organised mass murder of more than six million Jews, alongside Roma and Sinti, the mentally and physically disabled, and many other victims, key questions remain. Research to date has highlighted German policies and practices, varieties of occupation and collaboration, as well as both organised resistance and individual rescue efforts. This project addresses areas that have not as yet received adequate attention: the significance of surrounding societies and notions of community and citizenship for the startlingly different survival rates of Jews in different areas of Europe. While scholars have explored a wide variety of factors, public perceptions tend to highlight the significance of individual actions. In particular, ‘good citizenship’ and ‘civil courage’ have been widely emphasised in civic education, pedagogical initiatives, and Holocaust memorialisation since 1945. Such approaches rarely register, however, that being a ‘good citizen’ in a state initiating and condoning violence against targeted minorities may in fact mean compliance with systemic violence.
The research project focuses directly on conceptions and practices of citizenship and community, as these variously affected compliance with state or occupation policies, or inspired sympathy with those who were ousted if considered as part of a wider ‘community of empathy’. In-depth case studies explore Nazi Germany, in comparison both with annexed Austria, which became part of the Greater German Reich in 1938, and the occupied Netherlands. These are complemented by detailed comparative case studies of rescue and survival in different areas of eastern and western Europe, including France and Romania, given that structural and situational factors also affected the willingness and capacity of people to side with victims rather than perpetrators. Moreover, survival depended on the social environment or wider circumstances in which victims of Nazi persecution sought to ‘go under’, find refuge, or ‘pass’ among members of the surrounding society, depending on changing socio-political circumstances. A comprehensive survey of societal factors affecting survival in different areas of eastern and western Europe at different times is designed to explore the significance of inter-ethnic and community relations before and during the war; structures of power and repression; and shifting aspirations, cultural conceptions, and borders of communities.
The project combines broad structural analysis of changing historical circumstances with detailed exploration of subjective perceptions and individual behaviours in different settings, using diaries, letters, and memoirs by both Jews and non-Jews, and other archival sources. In this way, the research seeks to identify and disentangle the different elements of societal contexts that may help to explain variations in survival.
By looking at contested constructions of citizenship, community, and compliance with both written and unwritten codes of behaviour, and by exploring the conditions under which those who were initially bystanders might become increasingly complicit or, by contrast, extend gestures of sympathy or assistance to victims, this collaborative research will make a significant contribution to the field of Holocaust studies in Germany, the UK, and internationally. It will also, by engaging with the implications of the findings for Holocaust memorialisation and civic education, contribute to a better understanding of issues surrounding notions of ‘lesson learning’ and citizenship, a topic of vital importance in Europe today.
About you
Candidates will be expected to have expertise in 20th-century European history, with particular reference to one or more areas of Europe during the Nazi era. Preference may be given to candidates with experience of comparative work and/or expertise in micro-histories of the Holocaust in central, eastern and south-eastern Europe, but research proposals on any area of Europe will be considered. They should have a PhD in a relevant subject area (NB the thesis must have been successfully passed and award of PhD confirmed in principle by no later than 30 January 2023) and theoretical expertise and knowledge relevant to analysis of material concerning perpetration, victimhood, and bystanding, and processes of historical discrimination, citizenship, and persecution in the Holocaust. They should also have experience of working in a research environment.
What we offer
As well as the exciting opportunities this role presents, we also offer some great benefits some of which are below: - 41 days' holiday (27 days' annual leave, 8 bank holidays and 6 closure days) - Additional 5 days’ annual leave purchase scheme - Defined benefit career average revalued earnings pension scheme (CARE) - Cycle to work scheme and season ticket loan - Immigration loan - Relocation scheme for certain posts - On-site nursery - On-site gym - Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption pay - Employee assistance programme: Staff Support Service - Discounted medical insurance Visit https://www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/reward-and-benefits to find out more.
Our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
As London’s Global University, we know diversity fosters creativity and innovation, and we want our community to represent the diversity of the world’s talent. We are committed to equality of opportunity, to being fair and inclusive, and to being a place where we all belong. We therefore particularly encourage applications from candidates who are likely to be underrepresented in UCL’s workforce. These include people from Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds; disabled people; LGBTQI+ people.
How to apply
Please apply through the UCL online recruitment page (http://www.ucl.ac.uk/hr/jobs/) by midnight on 30 January 2023. Interviews will be held (online) on 9 February 2023. We will offer feedback to all interviewees, but we regret that we are unable to provide feedback at any earlier stage of the application process. If you have any other questions about the post, please contact the IAS Administrator, Catherine Stokes: c.stokes@ucl.ac.uk.
More information, including a detailed description, is available on the "Work at UCL" section of the UCL website. Reference number: B03-01427