The University of Bremen, U Bremen Excellence Chair Prof. Dr. Shalini Randeria / Research Group "Soft Authoritarianisms: Comparative Interdisciplinary Perspectives" as part of the Interdisciplinary Research Platform "Worlds of Contradiction" (WoC, faculties 6, 8, 9, 10 & 12), invites applications for the following position within the fields of the humanities, cultural, social or legal sciences (Cultural Studies, Law, Linguistics, Political Sciences, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Sociology & related fields) full time and limited to 3 years (with a possibility of extension for a further three years).
Start of contract: 01/01/2020 or earlier. The University of Bremen, a mid-sized university with 320 professors, 19.500 students and a full-spectrum of academic disciplines is one of Europe‘s leading research universities and maintains close cooperation with international universities and non-university research institutions in the region. The promotion of young researchers is a core element of Bremen's research strategy. The 'U Bremen Excellence Chairs' program is a new initiative at University of Bremen since 2019. It enables internationally outstanding researchers to establish their own working groups at the university and to integrate them into a network of excellent research institutions worldwide in their respective disciplines. Shalini Randeria's research group Soft Authoritarianisms: Comparative Interdisciplinary Perspectives studies how "soft authoritarian" rule functions, how it is put in place institutionally and sustained rhetorically, how the rule of law is dismantled in everyday life and how democratic institutions are hollowed out slowly and systematically. Three case studies will focus on France, Eastern Europe and Turkey including their diasporas in order (1) to analyse authoritarian practices of state transformation, (2) to sharpen our political sensibilities and social science vocabulary and (3) to build process-sensitive theory that overcomes the West-non-West divide characteristic of the social sciences. Methodologically, the research group will fuse ethnographic approaches with text-, language- and discourse-oriented methods. The research group will also conduct a series of Young Scholars Autumn Research Schools starting in 2020 and in collaboration with WoC, it will build the new research field "Contradictions of Extractive Populisms". Tasks:

• independent research, development of own research profile within the research field mentioned above, willingness to conduct a full case study either in Eastern Europe (preferably Poland or Hungary) or in France and to work towards a second book and/or habilitation thesis
• cooperate closely with the other researchers of the research group and within the wider WoC network and contribute to the successful implementation of the research group program as a whole
• expand the activities of the research group through third party funding applications
• co-organisation and conceptual development of workshops, conferences, and the Young Scholars Autumn Research Schools
• realisation of individual and team publications resulting from the research group's activities.

Requirements:

• very good Masters degree in the humanities, cultural, social or legal sciences
• very good doctoral degree in the humanities, cultural, social or legal sciences (cultural studies, law, linguistics, political sciences, social and cultural anthropology, sociology or related fields)
• research proposal (for habilitation or second book)
• considerable experience with qualitative methods (ethnographic / praxeographic field research, discourse analysis, language and text analysis), interest in interdisciplinary collaboration and research
• experience in one or more of the following fields is welcome: political linguistics, political ethnography, comparative legal studies, comparative politics, political or legal anthropology
• high level of proficiency in English (including demonstrated academic writing skills), proficiency in German is highly welcome, but not mandatory
• language proficiency required for the respective case study
• willingness to pursue research abroad for longer periods of time
• experience of working in international projects, organizing academic events and developing project proposals, preferably shown through employment, fellowship or extended research stay at an international research institution within the past five years.
• strong interest in networking in the field of research; experience gained at other national/international research institutions is advantageous.
• demonstrated organisational and teamwork skills
• you should be highly motivated, reliable, and have good attention to detail

The University of Bremen intends to increase the proportion of women in academia and therefore specifically encourages women to apply. Severely, disabled applicants will be given priority if they show the same professional and personal suitability. We invite applications from people with a migration background. We encourage applications from international candidates, especially from the Global South. For further information, please contact Prof. Dr. Shalini Randeria (Randeria@uni-bremen.de) or Prof. Dr. Michi Knecht (knecht@uni-bremen.de). Please note that the application should be submitted in English and that we can only accept it if it includes all required documents: letter of motivation, CV (with publication record), certificates, a sample chapter of your PhD thesis and up to two published papers, and a brief proposal of not more than three pages outlining your individual research agenda within the framework of the research group described above, including methodology and a time line. Please send the documents with the reference number A101/19 until 29 July 2019 to University of Bremen
attn. Ms. Martina Girwert
WoC Worlds of Contradiction/
office of Prof. Dr. Ingo H. Warnke
Postfach 330440
28334 Bremen
Germany
or by mail as single PDF-file to:
girwert@uni-bremen.de Please submit only copies with your
application (no folders) as we are unable
to return application material, which will
be destroyed after the selection process.