Junior Researcher HTR for Colonial Archives and Slavery Studies – IISG

Location: Amsterdam
Max hours per week: 38,00
Max salary: 5.278
Duration of agreement: 1 jaar
Apply until: 10/13/2024

The International Institute of Social History (IISH) is searching for a Junior Researcher  (0,7 – 1,0 fte) for a coalition of research projects that tackle (digitized) early modern colonial archives to revisit the history of slave trade, slavery and colonialism, we aim to expand the corpus of text-recognized sources. This will create a tremendous resource for research into the early modern history of societies, colonialism and intercultural contact across Asia and the Atlantic.

Based in the projects The Global Business of Slave Trade and Voices of Resistance at the IISH, you will closely collaborate with specialists of the GLOBALISE project to learn to apply our existing pipelines to create largescale text-recognition of early modern archives in primarily Dutch and later also the Spanish, Portuguese and French language.

What you will do

You will take charge of a workflow that develops text-recognition (htr) for digitized early modern colonial archives on a large scale. You will collect the digitized material and you will apply the pipeline for text recognition and layout analysis (Loghi). You will ensure the output is stored in durable ways (dataverse) and described with high-quality documentation. You will be able to use methods and practices that are developed and use in the GLOBALISE project.

To help you set up and learn the acquired tasks, you will be able to draw on supervision and expert knowledge from colleagues in the different projects (esp. GLOBALISE, Exploring Slave Trade in Asia and the research projects on slavery). You will collaborate with the project teams to organize the creation of new ground truth where needed. The htr output can be used for entity recognition or data extraction that facilitates the collaborative research on slave trade, slavery and racialization.

What you bring 

You have finished a (Res)MA in History or another discipline in the Humanities, or you have an explicit interest in the humanities. You are enthusiastic about research and digital techniques. Even though you may not yet consider yourself an expert, you already have some demonstrable basic experience with python or command line and you are excited to expand these capabilities in your role as junior researcher. You take responsibility, work independently, and like to collaborate in a team. You are organized and proactive.

We value it if you have affinity with the history of the early modern period, colonialism, slavery or related topics. You understand the complexities of early modern handwritten archives and the value of digital techniques.

What do we offer?

You will work in the Research Department and the Data Department of the IISH in Amsterdam as part of the research projects The Global Business of Slave Trade and Voices of Resistance. You will directly collaborate with the GLOBALISE project team based at the Huygens Institute. At the IISH you can also engage with initiatives such as Exploring Slave Trade in Asia and the Global Labour Conflicts Hub.

This is what we expect from you:

• A completed research master’s or master’s degree in history, or another relevant discipline;
• (Starting) Experience with python, command line, datasets and/or Digital Humanities methods;
• Willingness to learn more;
• Experience with organizing and coordinating tasks, documentation, etc;
• Proficiency of English and Dutch, and/or other languages;
• An active, independent and collegial working attitude.
• We consider it an advantage if you have affinity with the history of slavery, colonial or social history, early modern history;

Response:

You can apply by sending:

– curriculum vitae

– a motivation letter

– two references: we ask only for the contact details of two references we can contact, it is not needed to include a reference letter.

Deadline and application

Responses can be submitted until 13 October.  For more information about the vacancy you can contact Matthias van Rossum (projectleader and supervisor). The project description can be found attached to the vacancy on the website of the IISH, please see for this ‘jobs’ on https://iisg.amsterdam.

About the IISG
The International Institute of Social History (IISG-KNAW) is an Academy research institute. IISG is one of the most prestigious social history research institutes worldwide. It examines how work and labour relations have developed globally over time. To support its research, it collects archives and data from all over the world. The relationship between its research and its data and archive collections contributes substantially to the institute’s unique nature.

Terms of employment
Depending on education and experience the minimum salary is 3.345 and the maximum salary is 5.278 gross per month for a full-time appointment (scale 10 cao Nederlandse Universiteiten/KNAW). This is exclusive of 8% vacation allowance, 8.3% year-end bonus, travel allowance, internet allowance, home working allowance and pension accrual with ABP.

The KNAW offers its staff an excellent package of secondary benefits. A package that meets the different needs of employees depending on their stage of life, lifestyle or career ambitions. For example, by working an extra two hours a week, it is possible to increase the number of days off from 29 to 41 days a year (with full-time employment).

For a complete overview of the terms of employment, please refer to the web page: werken bij de KNAW.

Applying for a Certificate of Good Conduct can be part of the employment procedure.

Diversity & Inclusion
The KNAW considers a working environment in which everyone feels welcome and appreciated of great importance. A working environment in which attention is paid to individual quality and where development opportunities are paramount. Together we strive for an inclusive culture in which we embrace differences. We would therefore like to invite candidates who want to contribute to this through their background and experience. In the event of equal suitability, preference will be given to the candidate who thus enhances diversity within the Academy.

We will not respond to any supplier enquiries based on this job advertisement.