The Department of Anthropology, one of the Departments in the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences (FMG) , is looking for three PhD candidates who will participate in the research project 'Global future health: a multi-sited ethnography of an adaptive intervention' (FutureHealth), which is funded through a European Research Council Starting Grant.

The research project is a multi-sited ethnography of an emergent global health intervention to improve nutrition in the first 1000 days of life. We will study how the intervention is designed and then variously adapted as it is implemented in different sites. The project will draw on and combine research repertoires from various anthropological subfields – ranging from medical anthropology, science ethnography, environmental anthropology, development studies, and political/legal anthropology. The aim is to study the social life of a maternal-child nutrition initiative while adding insight into the question of how anthropologists work with, alongside, and at times in contrast to other fields.

We are seeking candidates to carry out in-country ethnography of the intervention in one of three national sites (Guatemala, the Netherlands, the Philippines).

• Conduct focused ethnographic field research of the intervention’s deployment in selected national contexts;
• collaborate with peers who are conducting fieldwork in other sites, to jointly define themes for in-depth inquiry and analysis;
• write a PhD thesis as well as articles to be submitted to international refereed journals;
• participate in the AISSR PhD program;
• participate actively in (the organization of) conferences, workshops, seminars and other scholarly activities and in a variety of online communities;
• 10% teaching (upon availability).

Candidates will have the following credentials:

• completed MA degree in social/cultural anthropology or closely related discipline;
• experience in conducting ethnographic fieldwork;
• willingness and demonstrated ability to work collegially with other members of the research team and participate actively in the activities of the project;
• excellent written and spoken English;
• research experience in the field of FutureHealth and relevant language competence(s) will be considered a strong advantage.

The full-time appointments will be for a period of four years (12 months plus a further 36 months contingent on a satisfactory performance during the first year), starting after 1 June 2018.

The gross monthly salary will range from €2,222 in the first year to €2,840 in the final year, based on a full-time position of 38 hours per week, plus 8% holiday allowance and 8,3% end-of- year allowance, in conformity with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities.  

University of Amsterdam

With over 5,000 employees, 30,000 students and a budget of more than 600 million euros, the University of Amsterdam (UvA) is an intellectual hub within the Netherlands. Teaching and research at the UvA are conducted within seven faculties: Humanities, Social and Behavioural Sciences, Economics and Business, Law, Science, Medicine and Dentistry. Housed on four city campuses in or near the heart of Amsterdam, where disciplines come together and interact, the faculties have close links with thousands of researchers and hundreds of institutions at home and abroad.  

The UvA’s students and employees are independent thinkers, competent rebels who dare to question dogmas and aren’t satisfied with easy answers and standard solutions. To work at the UvA is to work in an independent, creative, innovative and international climate characterised by an open atmosphere and a genuine engagement with the city of Amsterdam and society.

http://www.uva.nl/en/home

Department of Anthropology

The Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences (FMG) is the largest social-science educational and research institution in the Netherlands. The Faculty serves around 7,500 students in numerous Bachelor's and Master's programmes in Political Science, Sociology, Anthropology, Communication Science, Psychology, Social Geography, International Development Studies and Educational Sciences. The academic staff is employed in education as well as research. There are over 1,100 employees at the Faculty, located in a number of buildings in the centre of Amsterdam.

The Department of Anthropology is one of the Departments in the FMG. Research and education are carried out by special institutes. The College of Social Sciences (CSS) and the Graduate School for the Social Sciences (GSSS) are responsible for the undergraduate and graduate teaching programmes in the social sciences. Research takes place under the aegis of the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR), a multidisciplinary research institute, the biggest one of its kind in the Netherlands and possibly in Europe. The broad scope and pluralism of our education and research programmes are inspired by and reflect a strong degree of internationalisation.

http://www.uva.nl/en/disciplines/anthropology