The Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies (Faculty of Humanities) of Utrecht University offers two Postdoc positions in the four-year research project “Pressing Matter – Ownership, Value and the Question of Colonial Heritage in Museums”. The project is situated at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU), and led by Prof. Susan Legêne (Project Leader) and Prof. Wayne Modest (Programme Leader). The application deadline is September 1st, 2021.

One work package within the project, titled “Heritage and the Question of Conversion” and chaired by Prof. Birgit Meyer (UU) and Prof. Peter Pels (Leiden University), will explore objects acquired through missionary collecting as a form of voluntary dispossession. The Researcher will conduct comparative research on objects collected by Catholic and Protestant missionaries in Papua (Indonesia) and in Western or Central Africa, focusing on collections from the Nationaal Museum Van Wereldculturen and Wereldmuseum. 

Click here to read the full job description and to gain access to the additional application information.