Postdoctoral Early Career Researcher Positions, Centre of Excellence for The World in the Viking Age (WIVA)

The Department of Archaeology and Ancient History is a multidisciplinary institution dedicated to teaching and research in Archaeology, Osteology, Classical cultures and societies, Egyptology, and Global environmental history. With operations in both Uppsala at Campus Engelska Parken and Visby at Campus Gotland, the department offers two bachelor's programs, four international master's programs, and numerous standalone courses, supported by a team of approximately 60 staff members. Read more about the Department here: Institutionen för arkeologi och antik historia - Uppsala universitet (uu.se)

About the WIVA Centre
In June 2023, the Swedish Research Council established 15 national Centres of Excellence, each funded for an initial five years with a possible five-year extension as they become self-reliant. Our team at Uppsala University was fortunate to be awarded one of these generous grants to set up a Centre for The World in the Viking Age (WIVA) as a collaborative, interdisciplinary meeting place for the study and wider communication of a defining episode in global history. The core staff comprises Professor Neil Price (director) with Docents Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson and John Ljungkvist (co-directors), and Ms Rahaf Abu Shaer (coordinator). After a soft start in January this year, we are preparing for a full launch of WIVA in the coming months.

Our Mission
For centuries, the so-called Viking Age (c.750-1050 CE) has been subject to political misappropriation and projected, monochrome stereotype – making it all the more urgent to emphasise that the people of the time were individuals as varied and complicated, in every way, as ourselves. This spotlight on diversity, in all senses of the term, lies at the heart of the WIVA Centre: our objective is to recover a Viking Age that does not care what we think of it, a pluralistic past as it was (hard though that can be to access), not as anyone might wish it to have been. The notion of a Norse diaspora has now become commonplace in studies of the period, but also requires deconstruction. Our focus is the world in the Viking Age, an arena of mutual interactions, contacts and cultural feedback, subtly different from the more familiar ‘Viking world’. Moving past the Eurocentric notions of a ‘western’ and ‘eastern’ Viking Age, it is possible to perceive the finer grain of Scandinavian cultural encounters. We aim to explore the full span of the extended, Afro-Eurasian world of the Norse, looking primarily south and east along the so-called Silk Roads, tracing their activities in networks of early globalisation that connected the Baltic to the Mediterranean, the Indian Ocean, Asia, and the eastern seas – places where the Scandinavians were as often in a minority, but also at a disadvantage.

We are now seeking to appoint two postdoctoral Early Career Researchers to full-time positions, fixed-term for two years. Duties include up to 20% teaching and supervision, alongside 80% dedicated to personal research on themes related to the Centre.

In parallel with these postdoc positions, we are also seeking a number of International Visiting Researchers (advertised separately), and more posts of both kinds will be added over time. A new interdisciplinary, two-year MA degree programme will also be launched, again addressing the same theme of the world in the Viking Age. All these activities will be supplemented by seminars, workshops, informal contact events, and public outreach. Finally, WIVA is an invitation, not a fixed entity. The Centre is not a research project, but rather a home and a hub for them, as well as a base for teaching. We will populate WIVA with projects, programmes, and people, and we hope that others will wish to join us on this exciting journey.

Responsibilities

• The WIVA Centre is naturally concerned primarily with the Viking Age (defined c.750-1050 CE), but we also work in a longer time frame and are open to research covering any part of the Late Iron Age (c.400-1050). We seek scholars who will extend the frontiers of our knowledge concerning global interactions of ideas and material culture at this time, with ultimate connections to the Scandinavian peoples. In the first instance we are interested in those working with Norse contacts with the so-called Silk Roads, broadly defined. Our primary focus is on overland and maritime interactions with western, central and eastern Asia, and with both shores of the Mediterranean. At WIVA we wish to promote a genuinely global perspective and we encourage applications from scholars whose work emerges from these regions. We are also open to research on other areas of the Norse diaspora, not least in a comparative context.

Requirements

• Applicants will possess a PhD degree, or a foreign equivalent degree, in a relevant discipline (Archaeology, History, etc). These are qualifying positions for researchers in the early stages of their careers, and we will primarily consider candidates who have obtained their PhD no more than three years prior to the application deadline. This three-year time frame may only be extended in special circumstances, accounting for periods of parental leave, illness, labour union duties and similar.
• Candidates should be able to demonstrate a promising and relevant track record of independent achievement and original thinking.
• Our MA courses on the Viking Age are taught in English, and facility in this language is therefore a requirement for applicants seeking these positions.

Assessment criteria
When selecting among qualified applicants, an overall assessment will be made of academic research skills, the thematic focus and quality of the proposed research, and also the social fit and collaborative potential of the candidate.

Further information
Although the WIVA Centre is located in the Department of Archaeology & Ancient History, we are strongly interdisciplinary in outlook and encourage applications from any relevant subject area. The WIVA Centre operates in English and the Scandinavian languages.

About the position
The employments are temporary positions of two years each, according to central collective agreement. This position is full-time. Starting date: 1st October 2024 or as agreed. Placement: Uppsala.

Application Requirements

• A full CV of education and work experience, with a list of publications
• A covering letter, including reflections on how your work might be integrated into MA-level teaching on the world in the Viking Age
• A detailed plan for your proposed research and its outputs.

For further information about the position, please contact: Neil Price, neil.price@arkeologi.uu.se or Rahaf Abu Shaer, rahaf.abu_shaer@arkeologi.uu.se

Please submit your application by 31 July 2024 UFV-PA 2024/1146.

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