Two PhD candidates in the politics of family migration
Are you interested in researching political struggles over immigration? Do you want to work at the crossroads of migration studies and gender & sexuality studies? Is it your ambition to become an accomplished social scientist?
The Department of Political Science is looking for two PhD candidates to work within the ‘Strange(r) Families’ project, funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) and led by Saskia Bonjour. The PhD track is part of the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR)programme group Challenges to Democratic Representation.
What will you be doing?
The ‘Strange(r) Families’ project explores political contestation over family migration rights for non-normative families in Europe. How do migration law and politics deal with different kinds of families asking permission to live together in Europe? The research will cover political contestation not only in parliaments and ministries but also in the media, civil society, and courts. The first PhD project will focus on contestation over family migration rights for ‘queer’ families, the second on contestation over family migration rights for ‘culturally different’ families. Both projects will cover two European countries (preferably the Netherlands and France). Further information about the research project may be found here.
You will:
- be affiliated with the AISSR’s organized PhD training. The academic work is to result in a doctoral thesis that will be defended at the Faculty of Social Sciences with a view to obtaining the degree of PhD;
- conduct archive and document research as well as interviews;
- take active part in the research environment at the AISSR;
- teach (circa 10% of the time) upon availability.
REQUIREMENTS
You have the following credentials.
Essential:
- A Master’s degree or equivalent with a relevant specialization within the social sciences e.g. political science, political sociology, or sociology of law. The degree must have been obtained by the start of your employment;
- excellent oral and written communication skills in English;
- familiarity with or keen interest in qualitative research methods, such as discourse analysis or framing analysis
- independent thinking and critical analytical skills;
- the ability to work relatively independently;
- the ability to collaborate in a team.
Desirable:
- Expertise in or affinity with migration studies, ethnic and racial studies, or postcolonial studies;
- expertise in or affinity with gender and sexuality studies;
- ability to collect and analyse data in both Dutch and French.