For the DFG-funded research project “University Students as Migrants: A New History of Educational Mobility in Western Europe, 1960s–2000s”, the Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam (ZZF) is seeking one

Research Fellow

to start on 1 March 2025. The position is advertised for a fixed term of up to three years and is full-time (40 hours per week). Part-time employment is an option. The successful candidate will be remunerated at pay grade 13 under the Collective Agreement on Employees of the German States (TV-L).

Your duties:
You will be expected to independently conduct a research project that connects student mobility to changing migration policies and discourses in Western Europe between the 1960s and the 2000s. It scrutinises how student mobility has developed and changed in the context of local, national and European migration policies. It investigates the relationship between restrictive migration policies in Western Europe and schemes that facilitated the transnational mobility of students. Moreover, it seeks to analyse how such mobility intersected with other forms of migration (such as flight, exile and labour migration) and what this meant for the mobile students who often faced many of the issues that were central to migrant experiences more broadly. The regional focus for your project component will be on West Germany and France. The project is headed by Prof Dr Isabella Löhr (working in cooperation with Dr Daniel Laqua, Northumbria University) and is part of the ZZF's “Globalizations in a Divided World” department.

You will have:

  • A university degree in history or a related discipline

  • An excellent doctorate in modern or contemporary history

  • A sound knowledge of methods and debates in migration history 

  • Knowledge of German, English and French

  • Good communication skills and the ability to work well in a team

  • The ability to work independently and in a structured way

What we offer: 

The ZZF is a research institute specialising in German and European contemporary history and a member of the Leibniz Association. We offer you a challenging and varied working environment with a motivating and friendly working atmosphere as well as flexible working hours. We place great importance on developing our employees’ academic skills and help them to gain additional qualifications. As a postdoc, you will be part of the research activities and discussions of the department “Globalizations in a Divided World” that offers different approaches to the history of our global present.

 

Applications from women are explicitly welcomed. Applicants with severe disabilities will be given priority if, in all other respects, their suitability, aptitude and academic track record are essentially deemed equal to those of other candidates.

Please send your full application (cover letter, CV with publications, certificates and a brief statement on your previous engagements with migration history, max. 500 words) by 6 January 2025 by email to bewerbung [at] zzf-potsdam [dot] de (bewerbung[at]zzf-potsdam[dot]de,) putting “WM 01-2025” in the subject line. Applications can only be accepted as a single PDF file. 

The interviews are expected to take place on 17 January 2025.

If you would like further information on the remit of the role, please email Prof Dr Isabella Löhr at isabella [dot] loehr [at] zzf-potsdam [dot] de.
 

During the application procedure, we will store and process the data that you send us. You can object to this at any time by emailing bewerbung [at] zzf-potsdam [dot] de (bewerbung[at]zzf-potsdam[dot]de). Our Privacy Notice at https://zzf- potsdam.de/en/privacy-notice provides you with comprehensive information on how your personal data is collected, processed and used. It also contains a link to a PGP public key, should you wish to send your application in a digitally encrypted form.