The NIOD-KNAW ImageLab in Amsterdam is looking for a Research Assistant to work with us on a project focusing on photography, digital archives, and the history and memory of the Holocaust.

Job description:
We are looking for a creative and enthusiastic Research Assistant who will work closely with the ImageLab research team, to successfully implement the “History’s Darkroom” project (Imagining and Understanding War, Mass Violence & Visual Culture from WWII to the Digital Age).

Responsibilities will include:

• assisting the project researchers with contextualising historical photographs of Jewish victims of Nazi persecution that are held in the ImageBank;
• helping to develop a crowdsourcing project to augment the research by identifying those represented through co-creation of metadata involving family members of victims and members of the public;
• working with collections specialists to link images in the ImageBank to related archival material;
• assisting with planning and co-ordinating workshops on new and creative approaches to visual archives, metadata and multi-media publishing.

• An MA or BA degree in history, visual studies, art and design, cultural/memory/museum studies;
• you have an affinity with the mission of NIOD and an interest in visual history and the history of the Second World War and its ongoing social significance;
• Research experience;
• Good organizing skills;
• The ability to work both independently and in a team;
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English, knowledge of Dutch and German would be an asset;
• Good IT skills and experience with digital design and media, including social media.

In return, we provide:
The appointment at the NIOD-KNAW ImageLab is for 22,8 hours a week for a period of 6 months. Depending on your education and experience, the salary amounts to at least € 2367,-- gross per month and a maximum of € 3.196,-- gross per month (scale 7 CAO-NU) for full-time employment, excluding 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% year-end bonus. On top of that, you’ll be part of a fun and generally awesome international team of smart people.

NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies

NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies (NIOD-KNAW) is an Academy research institute. The NIOD’s expertise lies in the dissemination of knowledge about the Second World War, the Holocaust and genocide. In addition to research, NIOD offers content-rich, intensive services. Both professionals and private individuals can approach NIOD for information or to consult its extensive collection.

Why work at the NIOD ImageLab?

Rapid developments in visual technology and digital archives continually change how we experience, see, think about, remember and represent war and mass violence. NIOD’s ImageLab analyses the historical significance and affective force of images developed in the ‘darkroom of history’ and remediated in the digital age. The project explores how new technology relates to the visual memory of various wars and genocides in the 20th and 21st century through research that engages critically with images in the WWII ImageBank, and will produce a case study focusing on these developments in relation to online memory of the Holocaust.

The ImageLab’s research programme will begin by developing a case study highlighting the research potential (and cultural significance) of the WWII ImageBank: an analysis of photographs representing Jewish people who were forced to wear the Yellow Star during the Nazi regime. Although these compelling images have been at the centre of transnational representations of the Holocaust ever since, they have rarely been studied in depth. The ImageLab will create an integrated study of the iconic symbol and the personal histories it affected. Apart from analysing how the persecuted were represented in images created with various aims, this case study will use crowdsourcing methods to stimulate the (personal, temporal and geographic) identification of those photographed and, drawing on the expertise of collections specialists at NIOD, will link these images to existing archival material held in collections across the world.