Vacancy: PhD Researcher in Transnational Labour Mobilities in Southeast Asia (FASoS, Maastricht University)
Are you interested in joining an interdisciplinary team to study transnational mobilities and wellbeing in Asia? Passionate about ethnographic research? Self-motivated and ready to learn new research skills?
Job Description
The Department of Society Studies is looking for a PhD candidate to undertake in-depth ethnographic research on transnational labour mobilities in the wellness and hospitality sector in Singapore. You will be part of a new European Research Council-funded project entitled ‘WELL-ASIA: The Pursuit of Wellness in Southeast Asia: New Encounters and Inequalities in an Emerging Industry’.
WELL-ASIA investigates the expanding and lucrative wellness industry in Southeast Asia, and the transnational mobilities and inequalities associated with it. The region has long been a crossroads of multiple healing traditions and practices. These practices are being increasingly commercialized in a global post-pandemic context as people around the world seek experiences to improve their physical and emotional wellbeing through practices such as yoga, meditation, spa therapies, and sound healing. WELL-ASIA adopts a multi-dimensional focus on the uneven interactions between those who labour in the industry, those who seek and consume wellness experiences, and the local communities impacted.
The PhD will focus on migrant workers employed within Singapore’s expanding wellness and wellness tourism sector (e.g. as masseuses, spa workers, those training and working in hotels and resorts). There is room, within this framework, to shape the PhD project in line with your own interests. You will be part of a team conducting fieldwork on the transnational encounters and inequalities in the wellness industry in Singapore, Ubud (Indonesia), and Chiang Mai (Thailand). The team consists of the Principal Investigator (PI), Dr. Megha Amrith, two postdoctoral researchers, a project manager, and research assistants. The team will jointly address the project’s larger conceptual questions through reading groups, workshops, and collaborative writing projects.
For more information and to submit your application, go to: https://vacancies.maastrichtuniversity.nl/job/Maastricht-PhD-in-Transnational-Labour-Mobilities-in-Southeast-Asia/814160502/.