Job vacancy: Postdoc Visualizing the Unknown – Huygens Instituut, Amsterdam
The Huygens Institute (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences) is looking for a postdoctoral researcher in the project Visualizing the Unknown (max. 40 hours), 2 year contract.
Visualizing the Unknown is a NWO-funded research project hosted by the Huygens Institute (Amsterdam) and the Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History (Rome). The project www.visualizingtheunknown.com examines the emerging study of the micro-world in the seventeenth century, with a focus on the manner in which images came to be used in scientific observation, representation and communication.
This two-year position aims at providing a wider context to the processes and results of microscopic observation in the form of drawings, printed images, and other art media. This postdoctoral project will go beyond the uses of images only, and will compare two-dimensional representations to objects as in for example taxidermy, herbaria, life-casts and nature prints, as well as scale models. In this way we hope to frame discussions about images in a wider context of ad vivum, abstraction, and objectivity.
The postdoctoral researcher will physically be based at the Huygens Institute in Amsterdam, in the department Knowledge– and Art Practices. The researcher will takeup a central role in the interdisciplinary and international research team of Visualizing the Unknown. The partnership with the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge (UK) will give the candidate the opportunity to spend up to six months of their research time in Cambridge working with the paintings, drawings, and prints collections in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Special Collections at the University Library, and the collections at the Cambridge University Herbarium, Zoology Museum and Whipple Museum of the History of Science.
To apply the candidate needs to to write a research proposal that fits within the overall framework of the Visualizing the Unknown-project. Close collaboration with all team members is self-evident The postdoctoral position will be mentored by Prof. Dr. Eric Jorink (Huygens Institute) and Prof. Dr. Erma Hermens (Fitzwilliam Museum).
The position will start by December 2024 or as soon as possible after.
We are looking for someone:
- Who has finished their PhD in a related topic (at the start of the appointment);
- Who has a good knowledge of English; at least passive knowledge of Dutch, and at least one other modern European language;
- Who has a background in (technical) art history and/or history of knowledge;
- Who is both a team player and an independent thinker and researcher;
- You are registered in the Netherlands at the start and during employment.
- Who can think outside-the-box
For all information on the project and to find out how to apply, please visit this page.
Deadline for applications: 30 September 2024. Interviews will take place in the week of October 28th 2024.
For questions about the content of the Postdoc, feel free to contact Eric Jorink.
