Postdoctoral Researcher in Education and Belonging
The Department of Education at Utrecht University seeks a postdoctoral research for the education work package of the NWA-ORC funded project Re/Presenting Europe: Popular Representations of Diversity and Belonging.
Research project
The full project consists of work packages that will address representations of belonging in the formal institutional space of schooling as well as informal spaces of community-based education and popular culture. The education work package on which the postdoctoral scholar will work addresses education in both formal and community-based sites of learning (e.g., arts organizations), with a particular focus on the subjects of arts education, Dutch language, and history. The focus is on secondary school students from non-dominant backgrounds as agents who construct their cultural identities and groupings in formal and informal sites of learning in these content areas. As sites of formal learning, schools produce highly visible, dominant representations of social groupings and relations. Students are required to attend school and engage with these representations. However, students also learn in voluntary, informal sites. We compare and contrast sites of learning both inside and outside of school, particularly examining how students and educators co-construct experiences of equitable representation and belonging and how students experience belonging and/or Othering. The focus is on research with and by people in districts and neighborhoods of the Netherlands, based on the assumption that art and culture contribute to a more positive, inclusive society. We collaborate with community partners as sites of out-of-school learning as well as with teachers in schools to provide comprehensive ethnographic portraits of students’ experiences. Based on these experiences, we collaborate with community partners and teachers to renegotiate current educational practices, and to develop more inclusive ones.
Job description
The postdoctoral scholar will collaborate closely with the work package leader, work package team, community-based partners, and schools to:
Required Qualifications
Preferred Qualifications
Terms of Employment
We are offering
- a position (0.8 fte) for a period of five years beginning September 1, 2022. This is a job in which high-quality academic research and societal impact created by research go hand-in-hand. You will be able to organize your own work in collaboration with other team members. Working from home will be possible, although you will be required to attend on-site meetings with collaborators and external partners primarily in, but not limited to, Utrecht. Travel to data collection sites in Groningen and the G4 will be required;
A better future for everyone. This ambition motivates our scientists in executing their leading research and inspiring teaching. At Utrecht University, the various disciplines collaborate intensively towards major societal themes. Our focus is on Dynamics of Youth, Institutions for Open Societies, Life Sciences and Sustainability.
Utrecht is a young and vibrant city with a large academic population, around 30 minutes south of Amsterdam. It combines a beautiful old city center with a modern university. Utrecht has an excellent quality of life, with plenty of green space and a strong bicycle culture.
The Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences is one of the leading faculties in Europe providing research and academic teaching in cultural anthropology, educational sciences, interdisciplinary social science, pedagogical sciences, psychology, and sociology. More than 5,600 students are enrolled in a broad range of undergraduate and graduate programmes. The Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences has some 850 faculty and staff members, all providing their individual contribution to the training and education of young talent and to the research into and finding solutions for scientific and societal issues.
Additional information
For more information, please contact dr. Brianna L. Kennedy at b.l.kennedy@uu.nl
To apply
Everyone deserves to feel at home at our university. We welcome employees with a wide variety of backgrounds and perspectives. To apply, please send a motivation letter including a description of how you meet the job requirements and preferred qualifications, two representative publications, contact information for three professional references and of course a cv via the ‘apply’ button on the website of Utrecht University.
To receive full consideration for this position, submit all required documents by June 7, 2022. This position will remain open until filled.