Opening of junior researcher/Ph.D. student position (m/f/d) (1,0)

The Institute of International Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in Prague is opening a junior researcher/Ph.D. student (m/f/d) position (1,0) for 36 months, with a start date between 1.3.2024 and 1.5.2024.

The researcher will work on the project „Linking Arms: Central Europe’s Weapons Industries, 1954-1994“ supported by funding from the FWF (Austria) and GA ČR (Czech Republic), and led by Rosamund Johnston (RECET, University of Vienna) and Tomáš Nigrin (Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University).

The researcher will gain her/his Ph.D. in modern history at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University through participation in this project (upon fulfillment of all study requirements). We are looking for a colleague able to conduct research independently according to the project outline below, learn and apply new approaches and methodologies, and cooperate with the research team.

Description of Ph.D. project:

“Arms Town Steyr as Home Front in the Global Cold War”

Fusing corporate archives and oral histories, the researcher will chart the international connections fostered through the arms sector in Cold War Central Europe from the perspectives of arms workers, business, and political elites. In particular, they will focus on how the dynamics of the international trade in Central European arms played out in the Upper Austrian town of Steyr--one of the Austrian sites most historically linked to this industry. The researcher will ask, for example, what role arms producer Steyr-Daimler-Puch (SDP) played in the broader life of the town over the forty years that followed the resumption of small arms manufacturing in Austria in the mid-1950s? And how did this change over time?

Consulting local newspapers and council meeting protocols held in Steyr’s municipal archive, the researcher will ask how governmental regulation of arms inflected society and the economy in Steyr. These sources can also shed light on how grassroots lobbying at the local level could inflect national regulation of arms and their international sales. Conducting oral histories and using documents and material items housed at the Museum Arbeitswelt in Steyr, this researcher will also seek to recover production processes and the experience of workers, considering how these altered over the forty years in focus. Interrogating the changing relationship between civilian and military production at the concern, the researcher will ultimately examine how employees engaging in both streams of work related to each other, the SDP concern at large, and the enterprise’s clients both in Austria and overseas.

Outputs expected over 36 months:

• 1x article
• 1x doctoral dissertation which will lead to a published monograph
• Up to 3x active participation in international conferences

Additionally, the researcher will work with the other members of the project team on a co-authored volume about the Cold War trade in arms from Central Europe.

Expected/necessary qualifications:

• MA degree in history, area studies, anthropology, sociology, political sciences or another relevant social science (or a maximum of 3 months until MA final exams/defense upon starting the position)
• Language skills: English – C1; German – C1.

We offer:

• 47.000 CZK/month (1.880 €) brutto + 10.000 CZK/month (400 €) netto as a Ph.D. student at the Faculty of Social Sciences (and further employment benefits).
• Involvement in institutions of international and regional scholarly excellence (IMS & RECET, Austria)
• Involvement and integration into scholarly communities in both the Czech Republic and Austria
• A generous budget for international travel to conferences and to conduct research
• Language training
• Mentorship with writing and research skills offered by project staff and an international board of experts

Applications should include:

• CV and a one-page motivation letter in English
• One writing sample (e.g. a BA/MA thesis; seminar paper; article)
• Proof of language skills (if available)
• Diplomas and other certificates of higher education (if available)
• One recommendation letter.

The deadline for applications is January 25, 2024.

With questions and application materials, please contact: Tomáš Nigrin - tomas.nigrin@fsv.cuni.cz.