"PhD position - Benign Blockades? Blockades and sanctions, 1919-1939"

The Amsterdam School for Historical Studies (ASH) invites applications for a fully funded PhD position (4 years, 1.0ft). This position is part of the ERC Synergy-funded research programme BLOCKADE, which explores the global blockades of the First and Second World Wars, and their aftermaths. A cooperation between the universities of Trondheim, Hamburg, Freiburg and Amsterdam, BLOCKADE sets out to prove that these blockades are crucial to understanding not only the way the world wars were fought but also their globality and totality, their immediate effects and their long-term global repercussions. More information can be found on the project website: https://blockades.eu/.

Join our team! This PhD project will focus on the interwar period. Following the experiences of economic warfare during the First World War, blockades and sanctions became tools wielded by the League of Nations (LoN) and by others on behalf of an ‘international community’ to combat infractions of international law. Examples include sanctions levied against Japan following its invasion of Manchuria and against Italy following that of Ethiopia, as well as the multinational non-intervention committee set up to isolate both camps in the Spanish Civil War. Your PhD will focus on the interaction between the international level (and the development of thinking on the ethics and efficacy of using sanctions and blockades in the interest, however defined, of political aims) and one or more concrete case studies of interwar blockades. You will focus on the operation of blockades, their interaction with economic, diplomatic/legal and military measures taken by the belligerents, criteria for success or failure, and their economic, social, political and/or cultural impacts. You will also analyse what lessons contemporaries drew from these sanctions and blockades, both at state and international levels.

Samuël Kruizinga will be your PhD supervisor.

This is what you will do:

• submission of a PhD thesis within the period of appointment;
• presenting intermediate research results at workshops and conferences;
• participation in the Research School and Faculty of Humanities PhD training programmes;
• participating in seminars, workshops, and conferences of the BLOCKADE research group and contribute to its shared source base;
• (co-)teaching courses at BA-level in the second and third year of the appointment (maximum 0,2 fte per year).

This is what we ask of you:

• a completed Master's degree in history, or a related discipline;
• solid knowledge of European and/or international history in the period 1914-1945;
• excellent research skills demonstrated by a completed Master’s thesis;
• solid knowledge of quantitative and/or qualitative research methods;
• (passive) language skills that allow you to read source materials relevant to your research;
• a strong cooperative attitude and willingness to engage in collaborative research;
• enthusiasm for communicating academic research to non-academic audiences;
• excellent command of English.
• Please note that if you already hold a doctorate/PhD or are working towards obtaining a similar degree elsewhere, you will not be admitted to a doctoral programme at the UvA.

This is what we offer you:

We offer a temporary employment contract for the period of 48 months. The first contract will be for 16 months, with an extension for the following 32 months, contingent on a positive performance evaluation within the first 12 months. The preferred starting date is between January 15th 2026 and February 1st 2026.

Based on a full-time appointment (38 hours per week) the gross monthly salary will range from €3.059 in the first year to €3.881 (scale P) in the last year. This does not include 8% holiday allowance and 8,3% year-end allowance. The UFO profile PhD candidate applicable. The Collective Labour Agreement of Universities of the Netherlands is applicable.

PhD candidates receive a tuition fee waiver. PhD candidates have free access to courses offered by the Graduate School of Humanities and the Dutch National Research Schools.

We also offer: Generous funding for research and conference visits. Opportunities for intellectual growth and career advancement, including a wide variety of training, mentoring and professional development offerings available at the university. Open, inclusive and supportive work environment with committed colleagues. Excellent possibilities for further professional development and education. An inspiring academic and international work environment in the heart of Amsterdam. The opportunity to collaborate with leading researchers at research institutes that - partly as a result of their interdisciplinary approach - are world renowned.

This is where you will be working: At the Amsterdam School of Historical Studies (ASH) of the University of Amsterdam you will benefit from an international, creative and independent work environment, as well as excellent terms of employment. Your place of work will be the vibrant city centre of Amsterdam as part of an internationally orientated history department (https://www.uva.nl/en/discipline/history/history.html).

The project you will be working on is an essential part of the wider BLOCKADE project, bringing together four universities, 19 project members and 4 project leaders in an interdisciplinary working environment with the ambitious goal to rewrite the history of the World Wars and their aftermaths.