Postdoctoral position associated with ERC Starting Grant AfDevLives to study the afterlives of development interventions with emphasis on space and mobility

• Established familiarity with Eastern Africa
• Experience in working with, and possibly developing, creative research methods and approaches of relevance to the position (e.g., involving space and movement, mapping, materiality)
• Ethnographic experience, possibly involving participatory methods
• Established knowledge of the international development sector (e.g., through academic research, employment history, and/or voluntary work)
• Experience with academic collaborations and with interdisciplinary research projects
• Experience publishing in peer-reviewed academic outlets
• Knowledge of relevant languages including Swahili, Portuguese, and/or other languages spoken in Eastern Africa

• A doctorate in a field relevant to the position (e.g., social anthropology, social geography, architecture)
• Willingness to relocate to Lisbon and to conduct multiple fieldwork rounds in Eastern Africa (Kenya/Tanzania/Mozambique)
• Good interpersonal skills and ability to work in a team
• Excellent knowledge of English

Application documents

Applications must include the following documents:

• Cover letter (1-2 pages) summarizing the candidate’s relevant background and skills as well as their interest in the project
• Essay (1-2 pages, excluding bibliography and images if relevant): “Which research approaches and methods related to space and mobility would you propose to develop that will align with Project AfDevLives’ rationale and objectives?” Candidates may draw on their own experience as well as on academic literature. They are welcome to suggest creative and ‘out of the box’ approaches but should pay attention to potential risks and consider mitigation strategies. In preparing their essays, candidates are encouraged to familiarize themselves with Project AfDevLives’ rationale and objectives (see section 6 and 7 of the call: https://cei.iscte-iul.pt/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/postdoc_call_final-w...).
• Complete academic CV and publication list (if available)
• Two writing samples (e.g., PhD chapter, academic publications if available)
• University grade sheets and proofs of academic degrees. Copies of additional diplomas and training certificates, as well as proofs of employment history, are welcome but not mandatory.
• Two letters of recommendation, addressed to Dr. Yonatan N. Gez and the selection committee. In the interest of confidentiality, referees may submit their letters directly to the project’s email address (afdevlives@gmail.com)

The application will be written in English. All application material, including letters of motivation and recommendations, must be submitted in PDF format.

Evaluation criteria

Candidates that meet the application conditions will be scored on a scale of 0 to 100 based on the submitted documents. Assessment will be made based on the following evaluation criteria:

• Criterion A: Motivation and vision for the position: 40%
• Criterion B: Relevant academic experience and merit: 40%
• Criterion C: Non-academic experience and additional skills (e.g., languages): 20%

Shortlisted candidates will be invited for an online interview (dates TBD).

6. About the project

International development involves ideologies and activities ostensibly directed towards the improvement of well-being of populations in the Global South. Mainstream development interventions emphasize forward-looking ideas of progress and advocate for novelty. In so doing, however, the sector is often myopic, as evidenced by countless unintended consequences that stretch beyond interventions' official life cycle. Whether deemed as success or failure, such interventions leave behind a long trail of tangible and intangible traces. Project AfDevLives explores how development interventions' representational and material remains are experienced, utilized, and re-appropriated by local actors over time, and how such active immanence of the past affects people's life-worlds. It weaves together three temporal gazes: prospective (development's blueprints); retrospective (sediments of the past, shorthanded as interventions' 'afterlives'); and present-time lived experience. Consciously de-centering formal development discourse and temporalities, the project develops and applies a phenomenological framework oriented around the embodied interweaving of people, objects, and space. Using an interdisciplinary approach centered on social anthropology, research will be conducted in Kenya, Tanzania, and Mozambique, neighbouring Eastern African countries that are among the highest recipients of development aid and whose past and present hold both continuities and ruptures. The project will unfold via an iterative process involving four complementary work packages: Movement, Image, Storytelling, and Synthesis. Working across work packages, countries, and case studies, the project will pursue three categories of objectives: conceptual (methodological toolkit), empirical (based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork), and practical (aimed at the development sector, local heirs of interventions, and the public at large). The project will result in a robust set of outputs.

7. Additional references:

• https://blog.cei.iscte-iul.pt/erc-grant-yonatan-development-east-africa/
• https://erc.easme-web.eu/?p=101041788
• Gez, Yonatan N. 2021. “The Afterlives of International Development Interventions: A Site-Specific Approach.” Journal of Development Studies 57(9): 1511-1526
• Gez, Yonatan N., Fouéré, Marie-Aude, & Bulugu, Fabian. 2022. “Telling Ruins: The Afterlives of an Early Post-Independence Development Intervention in Lake Victoria, Tanzania.” The Journal of Modern African Studies: 1-26