Doctoral Researcher ​/ PostDoc Researcher

• Wann 12.05.2026 to 11.06.2026 (Europe/Berlin / UTC
  200)

Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) is one of the largest universities in Germany. Thanks to its location in the Rhine-Main science region, the university can unfold to its full potential and showcase its innovative power and dynamism. Its status as a comprehensive university allows for multidisciplinary learning and teaching and has great potential for internationally renowned, interdisciplinary research. Almost all of its institutes are located on a single campus close to the Mainz city center – creating a lively academic culture for researchers, teaching staff, and students from every continent.

The position is offered within the framework of the research project “Racial Socialism:
Racialization and Value in Socialist Red Cross Societies”, funded by the European Research Council (ERC), as a part of the Consolidator Grant (: ) led by Čarna Brković. “Racial Socialism” examines humanitarian work in socialist countries to generate new perspectives on racialization. Racialization is the process of constructing certain groups as fundamentally distinct from one another based on allegedly essential biological differences.

The role that racialization has played in the historical emergence of capitalism is well understood, as the extraction of socio-economic value has often been justified by the framing of populations as ontologically different along racialized lines. Yet, historical sources also show that people in socialist societies were racialized, too, but little theoretical work has been done to clarify this apparent contradiction.

The project studies national Red Cross societies in three socialist countries – the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia, the German Democratic Republic, and the People’s Republic of Bulgaria. By combining detailed historical research on socialist humanitarian organizations with anthropological theories of value and racialization, the project will develop new theoretical framework to understand the ways that racialization was deployed in socialist societies.

The key objectives of Racial Socialism are to:

undertake original empirical research on whether different groups were racialized in socialist Red Cross societies and, if so, how;

in the selected socialist countries, identify different registers and struggles over value, including political, economic, social, and cultural value, and their modes of hierarchical integration;

theorize racialization in socialism, which has typically been understood as part of capitalist social formations.

We are seeking a motivated researcher to conduct a doctoral case study either on the Red Cross Society of the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia, or on the Red Cross Society of the German Democratic Republic.

participation in the scientific research project “Racial Socialism”

development of a doctoral research project under the theoretical framework of “Racial Socialism”

conducting independent empirical research on the Red Cross of the German Democratic Republic, or on the Red Cross of Yugoslavia ), including archival research, oral histories, coding

participation in team activities and group analysis

publishing research results in project publications as well as independently

participation in project-related conference activities

other project-related tasks set by the doctoral supervisor

• A successfully completed university degree (MA) in ethnology, anthropology, folklore or a related discipline
• at least B2 knowledge of German (GDR case study) or Serbo-Croatian, depending on the case study
• knowledge of the anthropology of value, and/or historical anthropology of socialism
• knowledge of Albanian, Macedonian, and/or Slovenian (for the SFRY case study)
• previous experience with archival and/or field research
• peer‑reviewed academic publications
• In addition to the general requirements according to public services law, applicants must meet the recruitment requirements stipulated in Section 57 of Hochschulgesetz of Rhineland-Palatinate.

The position is paid according to EG 13 TV-L and to be filled by 11/1/202…