Job vacancy: Postdoc for project “The Great Game of Pandemics”

Utrecht University is looking for a Postdoctoral Researcher in the field of international history to join the project of Dr. Ozan Ozavci. This position is available for 12 months, and after the successful evaluation of the first year, it will be extended by 30 months, both for 0.75 FTE. The desired starting date is 1 November 2023.

The project

Led by Dr. Ozan Ozavci (Principal Investigator), the Great Game of Pandemics project aims to write a new history of international health cooperation with a focus on sanitary internationalism in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in the long nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It will investigate cooperative practices between global northern (European, American) and MENA actors (diplomats, doctors, merchants, missionaries, etc.) in the age of empires and high imperialism. The project investigates the relationship between global imperial interests of the so-called nineteenth-century Great Powers and perceived threats and interest calculations of local societies in MENA. It will look into the question of what enabled their cooperation in the fight against epidemics and pandemics and how the hierarchical nature of their relationship affected this cooperation. To address these questions, the project team will conduct research in several American, European, Middle Eastern and North African archives and libraries.

Deadline for applications: 27 August 2023.

For more information on the position and on how to apply, please visit this page.