The Max Planck Institute for social anthropology and the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg offer two-years PhD positions and scholarships in history, ethnology and archeology. No knowledge of German language is necessary.

Presentation

The Max Planck Institute for social anthropology and the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg offer two-years PhD positions and scholarships in history, ethnology and archeology. No knowledge of German language is necessary.

The PhD project should deal with one of the following topics:

• social status,
• social inequality,
• property,
• kinship and family,
• migrations,
• social integration,
• and diasporas.

The geographical scope is limited to Europe, Asia, and the Islamic world.

The aim of ANARCHIE is to renew transdisciplinary agendas in fields where socio-cultural anthropologists, archaeologists, and historians have much to gain from cross-fertilisation. While the first and the second cohorts of PhD students are conducting research in the fields of collective identifications and religion and ritual respectively, the third cohort will explore inequality and social change, with a particular focus on economic and demographic drivers. For the purposes of ANARCHIE, Eurasia is defined as the super-continent which comprises the whole of Asia and the whole of Europe. Current projects range from Britain and Spain to Mongolia and Vietnam. The IMPRS ANARCHIE is open to students from all countries and offers an international three-year PhD program in a stimulating research environment. Highly motivated M.A. graduates in Social Anthropology, Archaeology, History or a related discipline are encouraged to apply.

starting 1st of October 2015.

Partner Institutions

• The Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology is one of the world’s leading centres for research in social anthropology. Common to all research projects at the Max Planck Institute is the comparative analysis of social change; it is primarily in this domain that its researchers contribute to anthropological theory, though many programmes also have applied significance and political topicality.
• Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) – for more than 500 years a place of scientific enlightenment, academic development and future-oriented research – is the largest university in the state of Saxony-Anhalt. The historical departments of the MLU specialize in the study of transnational spaces and the analysis of social, political and cultural transformation processes in a longue durée perspective. Staff are active in systematic comparative research in both European and extra-European contexts. Archaeologists at the MLU investigate Europe and the Mediterranean region in its Eurasian context. Of particular interest are large-scale communication systems which facilitate the movement of knowledge, persons and goods.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Students will obtain their doctorate in one of the three disciplines, but will participate in a common programme organised jointly by social anthropologists (Department “Resilience and Transformation in Eurasia” of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology), historians (the Institutes for History and for the Study of the Ancient World of the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg), and archaeologists (Institute for Art History and European Archaeology of the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg). ANARCHIE is embedded in other institutions of the Martin Luther University, notably the University’s International Graduate Academy.

The IMPRS is in certain circumstances ready to consider joint supervision of PhD projects with colleagues based at institutions outside Halle.

The group will work together in Halle/Saale (except when undertaking field or archival research elsewhere, the costs of which will be covered).

Your Profile

See Appendices below for more detail concerning each discipline. Applicants should make their primary discipline clear in their proposal. If shortlisted, they may be invited to revise it to fit in better with the overall profile of ANARCHIE and the expertise available to provide supervision.

Financial Support

The PhD positions/grants (1745 Euro brut/mois) offered here will be awarded for up to three years. (Grants are not taxed and they are free from social security stipulations).

Application document

Applicants should send the following documentation:

1. Signed cover letter listing your aims and reasons for pursuing your doctorate at the IMPRS ANARCHIE
2. Curriculum vitae in the European Curriculum Vitae format (http://europass.cedefop.europa.eu/), including list of publications
3. Short summary (no more than two pages) of the research proposed, which should demonstrate clear links both to the applicant’s previous work and qualifications as well as to the IMPRS ANARCHIE
4. Copies of all relevant degree certificates and official transcripts of all academic records (B.A. and M.A.). If issued in a language other than English or German, please include translations.
5. Names and contact details of two referees, whom we may contact.

All application documents should be scanned in the order listed above and uploaded as one PDF file (max. 10 MB).

Application dates

Please submit your application electronically following the link for vacancies on our homepage (click here)

by 28 February 2015.

Final selection will be made following interviews (provisional) in May 2015.

Inquiries

Informal enquiries concerning the positions may be directed to the coordinator.

The Max Planck Society strives to employ more persons with disabilities and explicitly encourages applications. Furthermore, the Max Planck Society is committed to raising the proportion of women in underrepresented fields; we thus explicitly encourage applications by women.

Appendices

History

The historians of the MLU are especially interested in projects which focus on social inequality in the context of economic and demographic change. Applications are welcome that deal with the social organization of inequality (e.g. in the domains of family, kinship, and market exchange), and with the ensuing consequences for individuals, families or societies. Comparative proposals are especially welcome, in societies and cultures in Eurasia from antiquity to the present. The following fields are of particular interest:

• property regimes
• life courses and economic hardship
• construction and uses of kinship and family
• migration, integration and diasporas

Faculty

• Particular fields of expertise in Halle include Ancient History, Early Modern History, East European History, and Social and Economic History: 
• Georg Fertig (Economic History and Historical Demography in transnational contexts, 18th to 20th centuries)
• Michael G. Müller (East European History, 16th to 19th centuries)
• Andreas Pečar (Early Modern European History; Intellectual History and the History of Political Culture)
• Christian Mileta (Ancient History, with special emphasis on the political, social and cultural evolution of the Ancient World) 
• Stefan Pfeiffer (Ancient History, with special emphasis on the Hellenistic World and Greco-Roman Egypt)

Social Anthropology

Questions of economic, social and demographic change have long been central to socio-cultural anthropology, e.g. in sub-fields such as economic anthropology, development, kinship studies and historical anthropology. We welcome proposals to engage anthropologically with the following themes:

• social inequality and property
• construction and uses of kinship and family
• mobility, integration and diasporas
• socialism and postsocialism
• markets and their regulation
• urban transformations
• colonial and imperial transformations

Faculty

For further information about the anthropologists who offer doctoral-level supervision in the IMPRS ANARCHIE, please consult their individual pages at the website.

Their regional expertise covers most regions of Eurasia:

• Christoph Brumann: Japan and China
• Kirsten Endres: South-East Asia (with particular reference to Vietnam)
• Chris Hann: Europe (especially east-central Europe), Turkey, China (especially Xinjiang)
• Dittmar Schorkowitz: Eastern Europe, Russian Federation, Caucasus, Mongolia
• Lale Yalcin-Heckmann: Germany, Caucasus, Central Asia, Turkey

Archaeology

Questions of economic, social and demographic change as well as social stratification have long been central items in archaeology. The PhD applications now invited are encouraged to address the reconstruction of social groups, social structures and economic systems of ancient civilizations in Eurasia from Prehistory to the medieval period. We particularly welcome proposals to engage from an archaeological as well as a multidisciplinary view with the following themes:

• the rise of social complexity
• social inequality and property
• construction and uses of kinship and family
• mobility, integration and diasporas
• technical change and innovations
• markets and their regulation
• urban transformations
• changing of the cultural landscape

Faculty

François Bertemes is currently paying particular attention to issues of this kind in Europe (especially the Aegean) during the early complex societies. Other active colleagues include Helga Bumke (Classical Archaeology), who has particular interests in ethnic identity in ancient Greece, its recognition in material culture, and the role of religion in its definition; and Hans-Georg Stephan, who works on the development of settlements and cultural landscapes in Central Europe (c. 500-1850 AD), with particular interests in cultural change, the role of monasteries, crafts and commerce.