Research Group Leader; m​/f​/d) Max Planck Institute Legal History and Legal Theory, Frankfurt, BCDSS

Offered by Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory, Frankfurt am Main, with the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS), University of Bonn
.

Type

Full-time

Stipend

EUR 67,500 (E14 band
1) to EUR 96,000 (E14 band
6) annual salary before tax for a full-time position, under the TVöD

Duration

Fixed term of 54 months from 1 March 2027, with the possibility of extension up to 12 additional months

Location

Where

Abroad

A doctoral degree in history, law, area…

Openings

1

The Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory (MPILHLT), Department 'Historical Regimes of Normativity' (director Prof. Dr. Thomas Duve), and the Cluster of Excellence 'Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies' (BCDSS) at the University of Bonn are recruiting one Research Group Leader (m/f/d), from 1 March 2027 or as soon as possible thereafter.

The successful candidate will design and lead an independent research group comprising the group leader position and two doctoral (PhD) positions, based at the MPILHLT in Frankfurt and affiliated with the BCDSS. The group is jointly embedded in the BCDSS Phase 2 ) programme of Historically Informed Dependency Studies and in the MPILHLT department's research programme on historical regimes of normativity, that is, the historical study of law as one among several competing and interacting bodies of normative knowledge.

Applicants propose a research project situated in one (or, where genuinely warranted, both) of these BCDSS Research Areas:

• RA A, Transitions and Transformations: how Strong Asymmetrical Dependencies (SADs) change, persist or dissolve across the macro-, meso- and micro-levels of societies, and how they relate to and co-determine one another over time.
• RA D, Cultural Heritage, Transitional Justice, Memory Cultures: cultural heritage, memory and (in) justice as contested fields, including how contemporary notions of justice engage with histories of colonial dispossession, enslavement and other forms of SAD.

Projects combining RA A and RA D, or bringing legal-historical and legal-theoretical questions from the MPILHLT department into dialogue with either area, are particularly welcome. Preference will be given to projects focused on the early modern Iberian empires (Spanish and/or Portuguese, in the Americas, Africa and/or Asia), for example coerced labour and ownership regimes, normativity on dependency and indigenous, colonial and spiritual knowledge across empire, or the afterlives of these regimes in memory cultures, heritage debates and claims to (transitional) justice.

• A doctoral degree in history, law, area studies, or a related discipline of the humanities or social sciences, completed with distinction.
• An excellent, internationally visible record of publication in a field pertinent to the proposed project.
• Postdoctoral research experience and, ideally, prior experience in leading, co-leading or coordinating research projects.
• Willingness and ability to relocate to Frankfurt and to engage actively in the BCDSS and the collaborative formats of both host institutions in Frankfurt and Bonn.

The advertisement states no nationality restriction: the Max Planck Society and the University of Bonn 'welcome applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of ethnic or social origin, religion, disability, age, or sexual orientation and identity'.

• A full-time appointment (39 hours per week); a part-time appointment is theoretically possible.
• A fixed-term position from 1 March 2027 for 54 months, with a group of two doctoral…