"PhD Position in Visual Sociology - Contested Objects, Connected Histories"

The project Contested Objects, Connected Histories traces Bunzlauer/Bolesławiec pottery, a craft shaped by territorial transfer, displacement, and contested ownership. How can ceramics embody violence and loss, yet be an anchor of belonging? We seek an ambitious PhD candidate interested in combining social scientific rigor with the affective force of visual storytelling to explore ways of knowing difficult pasts and heritage.

Exploring craft, memory, and displacement through text and image: As PhD candidate in the project you will explore how ceramic-making relates to histories of violence and displacement, while also fostering new forms of belonging and ownership. The project focuses on Bolesławiec pottery -- a craft taken over by resettled Poles when Germans were expelled from Silesia after 1945. Today internationally renowned, the pottery remains entangled with memories of loss and appropriation, political change, and legal contest.

You will work closely with the principal investigator and a small research team, including a research assistant and partner institutions in Poland and Germany. By bringing filming and editing skills to the project, you will complement the PI’s sociological expertise enabling a productive exchange between visual and social scientific approaches, artistic and analytical sensibilities, shaping a truly interdisciplinary research process. Together, we will develop new ways of understanding that unite social scientific rigor with the affective language of visual storytelling.

You will produce a practice-based dissertation of 70,000 words. You will write academic articles and experiment with visual forms of knowledge: an essay-film and a contribution to mounting a public exhibition of the pottery using objects as well as film. You will build an academic and professional network among researchers, artists, and museum specialists.

A typical day may include filming a ceramist at work, conducting an interview about the style and technique, or analyzing how museum professionals present objects to the public, emphasizing and re-articulating some aspects of their provenance and the historical context over others. The project’s public-facing outputs offer you the unique opportunity to reach audiences inside and beyond academia, and gain experience in curating and visual storytelling.

What are you going to do: Take part in training activities, colloquia, and seminars offered by the Graduate School of Social Sciences at the University of Amsterdam; Carry out ethnographic research in Poland and Germany, including filming and interviewing ceramists and museum professionals. The research will be carried out under a close supervision of, and in collaboration with the project’s PI, your supervisor. You will also have a co-supervisor from among visual anthropologists; Edit and analyze filmed material and develop it into an essay-film as part of the dissertation; Participate in teaching for an average of 10% of your working time; Produce a multimodal dissertation (70,000 words or so), integrating textual and visual components; Collaborate with the PI, research assistant, and institutional partners in Poland and Germany publishing academic articles and presenting findings at international conferences; If desired you may also take part in a preparation of a museum exposition.

What do you have to offer: You have a Master’s degree, preferably, but not necessarily, in the social sciences or humanities. You have skills in filmmaking, including editing. You are fluent in Polish or German. Applicants without language skills must demonstrate a clear strategy for conducting a successful fieldwork with Polish- and German-speaking population. You are eager to combine sociological research with film and think creatively and critically about their relationship. You think deeply in search of theoretical concepts. You keep focus when juggling visual, textual, and analytical tasks. You collaborate well in a small team and contribute to collective outputs. This position is in Sociology, and successful completion of the PhD requires meeting the disciplinary standards of the social sciences. Therefore experience in social research and familiarity with social and political theory will be a strong advantage.

What else do we offer you: We offer temporary employment contract of 38 hours per week at the Department of Sociology for a maximum term of four years. The initial employment is for one year and will preferably start on 1 February 2026. Following a positive assessment, this term will be extended by a maximum of three years, which should result in the conferral of a doctorate. For this position the University Job Classification profile “Promovendus” applies. Your salary will be €3,059 gross per month in the first year and will increase to €3,881 in the final year, based on full-time employment of 38 hours per week and in keeping with the Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities. We encourage you to shape your own academic trajectory by developing your own research and theoretical questions and conceptual tools, by taking control of your work schedule, and making contribution to the project’s overall development. You will be supported by two academic supervisors (one of them is the project’s PI), who will guide you through AISSR course selection, prepare you for the fieldwork, and review your output providing feedback. We will put together a curriculum which will also include the opportunity to attend training courses and both national and international events. You will also have access to facilities for film production and editing at CameraWise (the Amsterdam Centre for Visual Anthropology).