Vacancy: PhD Candidate in practices of caring for housing at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Department of Society Studies, Maastricht University
There is a vacancy to develop a PhD project related to the themes of “Care Matters.” This research agenda explores how the labour of caring for a home is changing along with increasingly mobile and partial practices of dwelling. This labour has normally been assumed as an obligation of owning and occupying housing, yet it becomes difficult to accomplish as more and more dwellers do not follow a traditional model of a static and persistent home. Through multilocal lifestyles and transnational migrations, we circulate more frequently between homes. In corollary, using platforms like AirBnB, we temporarily partition them to accommodate strangers. Each of these practices changes how houses need care and maintenance to be liveable, thrive able environments for users. Moreover, challenges to care have been presented by the COVID19 crisis, in that for some caring for home became a crucial project to create comfort for a whole household during lockdowns, while others may be unable to access – or care for – their homes across borders.
Thinking across this spectrum of housing as circulating and multiuser, this project investigates how care work is a material entanglement between a home and its humans, in order to illuminate the hidden practices of caring for housing.
As part of this application, candidates should submit a preliminary idea for their PhD project, which should include details about a site, community, or context in which they propose to pursue their research (see #5 in the Application documents). This idea does not need to be developed in extensive detail as a research proposal but should show the candidate’s independent perspective within the larger project and intended directions for research. Further details and documentation about Care Matters can be found here.
The position is 0,9 fte research and 0,1 fte teaching. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences offers BA programmes in Arts & Culture, European Studies, Digital Society, and Global Studies. Information on those and other FASoS teaching programmes can be found on the university website. Other faculties at Maastricht University also host programmes, such as University College Maastricht, that provide teaching opportunities closely related to your expertise.
Requirements
Applicants are required to hold a MA/MSc degree in anthropology, human geography, sociology or a related discipline (or are expected to obtain such a degree by October 2021). This ought to include excellent grades and an obvious interest in academic research, particularly qualitative or mixed methods approaches. The candidate will be expected to autonomously conduct original research as well as working in a team. They also need to be fluent in English (Cambridge English Proficiency, level C2, oral and written); knowledge of other languages related to your proposed field site is an asset.