News
Postdoctoral researcher in the field of Spatial History (Universit of Antwerp) – deadline 1 March 2025
The Department of History in the Faculty of Arts of the University of Antwerp is looking for a full-time (100%) postdoctoral researcher in the field of Spatial History for the project DiplomatiCon – A Connected history of Medieval Mediterranean Diplomacy: The Mamluk Sultanate, Italy and the Crown of Aragon (14th-15th century). Part-time commitment for at least 50%, with subsequent extension of the contract period, can be negotiated. DiplomatiCon is a research project funded by the EOS (Excellence of Science) programme of the F.R.S.-FNRS and the FWO-Flanders. It is a collaboration between the University of Antwerp (Malika Dekkiche and Iason Jongepier) and University of Liège (Frédéric Bauden), with the University of Molise, Universit of Bologna (Isabella Lazzarini), and the IMF – CSIC (Roser Salicrú I Lluch).
Based on the approaches and methodologies advocated by the New Diplomatic History and Connected History, the project will focus on the three most important actors of the late medieval world – the Mamluk Sultanate of Cairo on the Islamic side and the Italian polities as well as the Crown of Aragon on the Christian side – and it will challenge the common narratives of political and cultural antagonism between the two worlds by pointing at the spheres of contact and interaction where an informal type of diplomacy could be performed. This approach will allow to reveal the networks and whole set of actors and agents involved in the diplomatic process, as well as the way Mediterranean space was produced and perceived. In order to do so, the project turns to state-of-the-art methodologies using Geographic Information Systems (HisGIS) and Social Network Analysis (SNA).
The postdoc will (inter alia) conduct GIS-based research in the field of Spatial History (more specifically on Medieval Mediterranean space), co-produce a Medieval Mediterranean gazetteer consisting of all places occurring in the project sources, lead the GIS-training and assist in supervision of PhD students and other team members, and closely collaborate with our already appointed postdoc that manages Social Network Analysis.
Applications should be submitted ultimately 1 March 2025.
