About the project

The project is interested in how cross-cultural contact in frontier zones encouraged individuals and communities to rethink questions of identity, as unstable and shifting political, cultural and military contexts constantly forced them to (re-)conceptualize categories such as self and other, civilized or uncivilized, enemy or ally. Different communal identities, such as religion, ethnicity, and social status, had a varying relative importance in different social and political contexts. These shifting identities gave rise to legal and political (theoretical) reflection, but they also had practical repercussions that could make the difference between in or out, free or enslaved, heard or unheard. Taking in a broad range of frontier zones in Eurasia, Africa and the Americas across the premodern period, this project aims to outline how identity operated both in theory and practice in a world in motion.

Candidates need to have the following qualifications:

• a completed Master's degree in History (or a comparable discipline such as Area Studies, Religious Studies, or literary/linguistic studies of the region). You may apply if you have not yet completed your Master's degree only if you provide a signed letter from your supervisor stating that you will graduate before 31 August 2025;
• excellent research skills demonstrated by an outstanding Master's thesis and a demonstrable capacity to develop a track record of publishing in high-ranking journals and/or with leading presses;
• a strong cooperative attitude and willingness to engage in collaborative research;
• enthusiasm for communicating academic research to non-academic audiences;
• good command of English and the languages and reading skills relevant to the project is required.

Please note that if you already hold a doctorate/PhD or are working towards obtaining a similar degree elsewhere, you will not be admitted to a doctoral programme at the UvA.