European history, we argue, is characterised by a preoccupation with health as the common good. By taking medicine as an analytical lens, we will develop a common history of Europe beyond the usual east-west dichotomy. The collaborative research project is conducted by teams at the Charité Institute for the History of Medicine and Ethics in Medicine, at the CEU (Budapest / Vienna), the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (Sofia) and the University of Hamburg.

You will be given the opportunity to develop your own topic within the framework of the Berlin research focus in the ERC-project. The Berlin working group focuses on the reconstruction of clinical research on both sides of the Iron Curtain. After all, clinical research under state socialism, despite a different form of interaction between science, politics, and industry, on the whole kept pace with developments in the capitalist West. Special attention is therefore paid to the re-modeling of classical explanatory models of innovation and expertise. The current research in the Berlin team addresses transnational drug research and -standardization focusing the GDR and Hungary (1960s–1980s) and the development of kidney transplantation in the Eurotransplant and Intertransplant organizations (1960s–1980s).

We require a university degree in history or cultural studies (M.A, Mag., PhD) and appropriate language skills (e.g. French and Czech, English and Hungarian). German language skills are an advantage. We appreciate the benefits of presence work, but we are open to flexible working models. You will have the opportunity to take part in and shape the vivid institutional life (scientific events, etc.). You will fit to our team if you are self-responsible, solution-oriented, writing-enthusiastic and if you appreciate teamwork and exchange.

We offer a position in a challenging project within a stimulating intellectual environment with numerous other researchers. Working at the Charité will offer you opportunities for international networking and an excellent infrastructure of the Library & Medical Humanities Collection at one of the most prestigious institutions in the history of medicine and science in the German speaking countries. In addition, we always try to offer our staff the possibility of continued employment beyond the duration of the project. We encourage qualification (PhD, habil. / second book).

The Institute is located on the campus of the FU in Berlin-Dahlem and cooperates with the history departments of the HU and FU as well as with the MPI for the History of Science.

Please send your application (CV, list of publications, samples of your work) and a research outline (up to 3,000 words) to the Institute's secretariat (stefanie.voth@charite.de) by 15 March 2023. Please send enquiries to volker.hess@charite.de.

For more information on the project visit: https://leviathan-europe.eu/research/.

The selection interviews are expected to take place at the end of March, with recruitment scheduled for June 2023.