Call for applications: fully funded postdoctoral position in Anthropology: Curative uses of the environment in past and present Central Africa
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Deadline: 31 January 2024
Starting date: flexible between 1 April and 1 October 2024
Duration: 24 months, renewable for a further 24 months
Position description
The Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Department of History is looking for one postdoctoral researcher in anthropology working on “curative uses of the environment in past and present Central Africa”. This two-year position is renewable for a further two years, and has a flexible start date between 1 April and 1 October 2024.
The candidate will be affiliated to the ERC Starting Grant project FORAGENCY. Foraging, Colonialism and More-than-Human Agency in Central Africa. They will join a team of researchers who study how communities in the Congo basin managed to counter, alleviate or minimize their encroachment by colonial actors through the maintenance and adaptation of vernacular, non-agricultural uses of the environment, such as foraging, fishing and hunting. The project studies these activities as more-than-human entanglements, and intends to shed light on how “agency” as a historical process involves forms of collaboration with, reliance on and limitations by non-human actors.
The project comprises four thematic sub-studies: on intoxicating substances (PhD, History); on hunted and foraged foodstuffs (PhD, History); on curative uses of the environment (Postdoc, Anthropology); and on colonialism and more-than-human agency (P.I., History). Each sub-study will consider the ecological interactions between four colonial cities and their hinterland: Kinshasa (Léopoldville), Brazzaville, Kisangani (Stanleyville) and Bujumbura (Usumbura). The study will combine archival research, the study of material culture, oral history and ethnographic fieldwork.
The project is coordinated by Prof. Dr. Benoît Henriet at the Department of History at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). Although Brussels is the home base of the project, there will be several months of fieldwork required in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republic of Congo and Burundi.
More concretely your work package contains the following elements:
- You are responsible for the project’s sub-study on curative uses of the environment in past and present Central Africa. Concretely, you will study one or several of the project’s ecoregions as fields of competition, tension and potential collaboration between biomedicine and vernacular healing practices. This research aims at highlighting how the coexistence of different medical epistemes could foster new forms of vernacular and more-than-human agency, in three different ways. First, it investigates the curative uses of living organisms – both for their biological properties and as spiritual medicines – as sites of multispecies encounters. Second, it focuses on (post)colonial regulation and repression of vernacular healing, and how they were responded by ‘traditional’ practitioners and their clients/patients. Third, it considers the studied bioregions as fields of (colonial) biomedical research, and how “middle figures” such as customary chiefs, elders, or doctors and healers could act as information brokers on local organisms for public and private actors.
- You will publish two peer-reviewed papers, and act as the lead editor of a special issue or of an edited volume related to your sub-study’s topic.
- You contribute to other work packages and sub-studies by assisting with data collection or dissemination (more specifically by collecting ethnographic data in the field)
- You assist the team with logistical and administrative support
- You contribute to the project’s visibility by participating to and helping organize scientific events, and by updating the project’s website and social media accounts
- You play a role in the development of future research possibilities in the line of the project
- You contribute to the life and activities of the research group Social History of Capitalism (SHOC)
For this function, our main campus in Etterbeek will serve as your home base.
Profile: what do we expect from you?
- You hold a Doctoral degree in Anthropology or African Studies by the time of appointment (at the latest for 1/10/2024)
- You have a background in at least one of the following fields: medical anthropology, environmental anthropology/humanities, historical anthropology, and have a keen interest in more-than-human entanglements
- You have extensive fieldwork experience, and are willing to spend significant time in the field during the project
- You can demonstrate your scientific excellence through the quality of PhD dissertation and of your peer-reviewed publications
- An affinity with one of the four cities studied in the project is appreciated
- You are willing to engage with new theoretical frameworks and methodologies
- You can work in a team that consists of the other ERC project members as well as the broader research group and department
- Proficiency in academic English and good communication skills are required.
- A B2 level in French is required. Some knowledge Lingala, Swahili and/or Kirundi is considered as an advantage
Send the following documents to Benoît Henriet (benoit.henriet@vub.be) and at latest on 31 January 2024
- Your CV,
- Doctoral degree, or a document in which you pledge to have completed your PhD by 1 October 2024,
- Letter of motivation,
- At least one of your peer-reviewed, scientific publications
- The name, institution and email of two referees who may be contacted for recommendation
Do you have questions about the job content? Contact Benoît Henriet at benoit.henriet@vub.be
Would you like to know what it’s like to work at the VUB? Go to www.vub.ac.be/vacatures and find all there is to know about our campuses, benefits, strategic goals and your future colleagues.
Photo credits: Iboga plan,t 2010, Inkisi, DR Congo CC license.