荷兰乌得勒支大学社会与行为科学学院2024年招聘博士后

乌得勒支大学（Utrecht University，简称：UU），又名乌特勒支大学，是一所公立研究型大学，欧洲最古老的大学之一，多次被U.S. News和软科世界大学学术排名评为荷兰第一。

乌得勒支大学建立于1636年，该校位于荷兰第四大城市乌得勒支。迄今为止，乌得勒支大学共培养出12位诺贝尔奖得主以及15位斯宾诺莎奖得主。学校现为欧洲研究型大学联盟和世界大学联盟等组织成员。

Postdoc on Infrastructural Imperialism

Utrecht University - Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences

Your job

INFRAEMPIRE is a five-year project that explores the ways that rising economic powers such as Turkey, China, and Brazil rely on building the infrastructure of other states to drive reconstruction in their own capitals and create ‘soft power’ empires. INFRAEMPIRE turns an ethnographic lens on the infrastructural imperialism of the Turkish state, a growing power whose construction sector is reshaping the Global South and for almost two decades drove a domestic economic boom. INFRAEMPIRE will examine the infra-imaginaries, infra-power, and infra-subjectivities that such projects create.

Infra-imaginaries are those new visions of global futures and new conceptions of the global distribution of power that emerge around such projects. INFRAEMPIRE posits that in contrast to the hierarchical relations of European colonialism, infrastructural imperialism relies upon a global “big brother” phenomenon, or infra-power, in which relations of domination are cast as “equal” and “fraternal.” Infra-subjectivities are those new forms of political subjectivity that require a language beyond that of neoliberal globalisation, with its teleological assumptions of increasing political and economic liberalisation.

INFRAEMPIRE will examine foreign-funded megaprojects as geopolitical sites in which these new forms of imaginary, power, and subjectivity can be studied. The six case studies will take place at a crucial geopolitical juncture: the seam of Eurasia, where former and aspiring empires intersect, compete, and build new worlds through infrastructure. The aim of INFRAEMPIRE is to theorise the relationship between infrastructure and empire and to offer a fundamentally new understanding of power relations in a globalised world.

We seek three postdoctoral researchers who have the necessary research experience and language skills to conduct one of the subprojects in Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, or Turkey.

Requirements

You have completed your PhD by the time of application.

You have demonstrable field research experience and affinity with research in political anthropology, particularly that concerned with infrastructure, materiality, and everyday geopolitics.

You have well-developed analytical skills.

You are a motivated and collaborative team member who is also able to work independently.

You have excellent verbal and written communication skills in English and one of the languages necessary to conduct the case study.

Our offer

a position for one year, which will be extended with 21 months after positive evaluation;

a working week of 38 hours and a gross monthly salary between