Post Doctoral researcher

The Department of Archaeology at Ghent University (Belgium) is seeking one well-qualified applicant for a full-time post-doctoral research contract attached to the European Research Council Consolidator Grant project DAEDALOS. Conceptualising Processes of Monumental Architectural Creation in the Eastern Mediterranean Bronze Age. Prof. Maud Devolder, with her interest in ancient building projects, is the Principal Investigator. https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101043552

ABOUT GHENT UNIVERSITY

Ghent University (Belgium) is a world of its own. Employing more than 8,000 people, it is actively involved in education and research, management and administration, as well as technical and social service provision on a daily basis. With its 11 faculties and more than 80 departments offering state-of-the-art study programmes grounded in research in a wide range of academic fields, Ghent University is one of the top universities in Belgium.

Ghent is an attractive medieval town, with a strong economic base and lively cultural scene. Just 30 minutes by train from Brussels, two hours from Paris and Amsterdam, and two and a half hours from London, it is ideally situated at the heart of European intellectual life.

YOUR TASKS

Area of research of DAEDALOS

At least 70% of your assignment will be spent on academic research. Most human societies produce monumental edifices, the construction of which required vast amounts of human and material resources. It is generally presumed that only centralised hierarchical socio-political systems have the ability to mobilise and organise countless builders and impressive quantities of building materials. To say it otherwise, power is often deemed a necessary precondition for monumental architectural creation. This assumption has been integral to many New Archaeological or Processual analyses world-wide for some 50 years, and it is especially pervasive in the study of societies of the 2nd mill. BCE in Mainland Greece, Western Anatolia, and the islands of Crete, Cyprus and the Cyclades. Because of the lack of explicit written sources, the socio-political organisation in most of these regions is still undefined; but their monuments – whether we call them palaces, or administrative or elite buildings – are still systematically taken as the proof for the existence of powerful rulers. However, recent research has shown the incremental construction and the marked heterogeneity in the materials and techniques of monuments in these regions and during this period, far from the material homogeneity that is expected from highly controlled building projects. These observations challenge the predominant view that conflates power and architecture, and DAEDALOS wants to explore the possibility that monuments could also be produced by building groups that cooperated within a non-hierarchical socio-political setting, a dynamic rarely considered in traditional architectural studies.

Area of your post-doctoral research

Your task will be to collect and process primary architectural evidence pertaining to the building components, masonries, structural connections, layout, and decorative elements of the Minoan Palace at Phaistos (Neopalatial period). As a participant to the data-collection and processing phase of the ERC project, you will be responsible for recording targeted architectural information based on fieldwork; for associating this fieldwork with literature review; for processing documentation preserved in the SAIA archives; for encoding the acquired information in a database; and for producing a synthetic architectural report that will focus on the features that shed light to the construction process. You will be working in collaboration with and under the supervision of the principal investigator.

We expect you to be a dynamic and meticulous researcher. Ability to carry out extensive fieldwork on site is required in the framework of your appointment. The ability to interact, even remotely, with the other members of the team, is also a requirement.

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR

6. Additional knowledge in cultural heritage management is an asset.

We expect that the successful applicant will:

WHAT WE CAN OFFER YOU

INTERESTED?

Apply online through the e-recruitment system before the application deadline (15/12/2022). We do not accept late applications or applications that are not submitted through the online system.

Your application must include the following documents:

• In the field ‘CV’: your CV merged into one pdf file.
• In the field ‘Cover letter’: your application letter in pdf format, in which you highlight why you are interested in the project, how it resonates with your own expertise, what relevant experience/knowledge you have, and what knowledge and experience you expect to acquire from the position;
• In the field ‘Diploma’: a transcript of the required degree. If you have a foreign diploma in a language other than our national languages (Dutch, French or German) or English, please add a translation in one of the mentioned languages.
• In the field ‘other documents’:
  • your PhD dissertation;
  • writing samples such as papers or reports on excavations and/or study programs (3 max.).

Note that the maximum file size for each field is 10 MB.

As Ghent University maintains an equal opportunities and diversity policy, everyone is encouraged to apply for this position.

MORE INFORMATION

Shortlisted candidates will be notified by the 20th of December 2022.

Interviews will take place in the 2nd week of January 2023.

For more information about this vacancy, please contact Prof. Maud Devolder at: maud.devolder@ugent.be

Universiteit Gent

Faculty of Arts and Philosophy

Department of Archaeology

Campus Ufo, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 35
B-9000 Ghent – Belgium

Important: do NOT send your application by email but apply online.

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Do you have a question regarding the online application process? Please read our FAQ.