MSCA-IF: Joint application at the University of Granada. Department of Prehistory and Archaeology

Professor Gonzalo Aranda Jiménez, from the Department of Prehistory and Archaeology at the University of Granada, welcomes postdoctoral candidates interested in applying for a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (MSCA-IF) in 2020 at this University. Please note that applicants must comply with the Mobility Rule (more information: http://sl.ugr.es/0aNV).

Brief description of the institution:

The University of Granada (UGR), founded in 1531, is one of the largest and most important universities in Spain. The UGR has been awarded with the "Human Resources Excellence in Research (HRS4R)", which reflects the UGR’s commitment to continuously improve its human resource policies in line with the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers. The UGR is also a leading institution in research, located in the top 5/10 of Spanish universities by a variety of ranking criteria, such as national R&D projects, fellowships awarded, publications, or international funding.

UGR is one of the few Spanish Universities listed in the Shanghai Top 500 ranking (http://sl.ugr.es/0aw0). The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) places the UGR in 268th position in the world and as the 4th highest ranked University in Spain, reaffirming its position as an institution at the forefront of national and international research. From the perspective of specialist areas in the ARWU rankings, the UGR is outstanding in Documentation (ranked in the 36th in the world) or Food science technology (ranked 37th in the world), Mathematics and Computer Science (ranked among the top 76-100 in the world).

The UGR has 4 researchers at the top of the Highly Cited Researchers (HCR) list in the Computer Science area. With regard to broader subject fields, the UGR is ranked in 45th position in the universities worldwide in the discipline of Engineering. It is also well recognized for its web presence (http://sl.ugr.es/0a6i) taking 36th place in the top 200 Universities in Europe. Internationally, we bet decidedly by our participation in the calls of the Framework Programme of the European Union. For the duration of the last two Framework Programmes, the UGR has obtained a total of 66 projects, with total funding of 18.02 million euros, and for H2020, 80 projects with total funding around 20.6 million euros.

Brief description of the Centre/Research Group

The “GEA. Material Culture and Social Identity in the Late Prehistory of Southern Iberia” Research Group (HUM-065) is made up of a multidisciplinary team firmly committed to quality research and dissemination based on an open and plural debate between its members. Its research, which focuses on the study of late prehistoric societies in southern Iberia, began in 2010 with two main goals: i) to produce scientific research of excellence, which involves permanent theoretical and epistemological updating and the fostering of new methodologies and techniques for studying material culture, and ii) the internationalisation of knowledge through publication in the major journals in the field and cooperation with other international institutions on common research projects. All the members, research interests, projects, publications and dissemination activities can be found at http://en.webgea.es/

Project description

Innovation, hybridisation and cultural resistance. The third and second millennia cal BC societies on the southern Iberian Peninsula

This line of research is aimed at exploring cultural phenomena such as creativity, innovation, continuity and resistance and their links to the ways in which social idientities are built. The late prehistoric communities of the southern Iberian Peninsula are a particularly suitable case study for analysing these objectives, as they have traditionally been used as a valuable laboratory for exploring the dynamics that led to social hierarchisation. In fact, the so-called Copper and Bronze Ages are characterised by a remarkable historical process in which emphasis has been placed on the evolution towards increasing social and economic complexity. In contrast, those social dynamics that entail the maintenance, continuity or changes that promote relational identities have not been taken into account. All this has meant that certain periods and cultural phenomena have been researched intensively, while others have been bypassed, as they do not fit conveniently into the prevailing discourses. This line of research promotes new narratives based on those cultural phenomena not usually considered, such as continuity, relationality, resistance and hybridisation. To do this, we will take into account cutting edge methodologies in the study of material culture, including isotopic studies of biological materials, radiocarbon dating and Bayesian modelling, DNA analysis and graphic modelling systems using BIM (Building Information Modelling).

Research Area: Economic Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities (ECO-SOC)

For a correct evaluation of your candidature, please send the documents below to Professor Gonzalo Aranda Jiménez (garanda@ugr.es):

• CV
• Letter of recommendation (optional)