Lead by the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Germany, the Digital Provenance and Collection Research Science Space (Wissenschaftsraum Provenienz- und Sammlungsforschung Digital) is funded by the state of Lower Saxony and the Volkswagen Foundation with around 3 million euros. The institutions participating in this joint research project are situated in Oldenburg, Hanover, Lüneburg, Göttingen and Bremerhaven, and they are advertising ten positions of research associates over the funding period of a total of four years. The Institute of English and American Studies at the University of Oldenburg is seeking to fill the position of a Doctoral Candidate (m/f/d) (Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin / Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter) for a fixed term of three years commencing on 1 November 2024 or as soon as possible. The position will be part-time (65 %) with working hours of currently 25.87 hours per week, and the salary will be based on the German public service pay scale 13 TV-L. The Digital Provenance and Collection Research Science Space consists of several sub-projects designed to jointly develop new digital methods for processing and analysing information about museum objects which were – under the circumstances of colonialism, war, looting, persecution and market dynamics – removed from their contexts of origin and brought to Europe where they are currently kept in museums, recorded in databases and presented in exhibitions. In two case studies, provenance and collection research will be expanded to include IT- and AI-supported methods and, together with international partners, the production of knowledge about the collection items and the handling of unreliable data as well as of epistemic and algorithmic bias will be researched. The position at the Institute of English and American Studies is part of the case study on collection research which focuses on cowry shells. The successful candidate is supposed to analyse representations and reframings of cowry shells in post- and decolonial texts and contexts (such as postcolonial literatures, pop-cultural phenomena, digital and social media, restitution debates); building on this, the candidate’s research project is meant to contribute to the theorisation of postcolonial epistemologies in times of digitisation as well as to post- and decolonial criticisms of the nature – culture divide. The position provides the opportunity to pursue a doctoral degree (PhD).
