EASt invites applications for 1 PhD in Urban Anthropology of Youth in Southeast Asia (Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam)
Application deadline: 5th of September 2017
EASt, centre for East Asian Studies, is a research unit within the Maison des sciences humaines of the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Belgium. The key role of EASt is to be a central hub of the ULB to foster Asia related activities and research across the university. EASt offers high quality research on current developments in the East Asian region, and established research projects and networks focusing on Asian studies. PhD positions are funded by an ARC project, “GENEsYs – East Asian Youth: Identities and Practices in Public Space”, which already includes 2 doctoral and 2 postdoctoral fellows. Public spaces fulfil a key role in developing citizenship, social inclusion and critical discourses. They are also sites where competing memories and contested positions are displayed, experienced or even silenced. The main objective of this cutting-edge project is to understand how (South) East Asian youth occupy and use public spaces, be they material or digital ones. This project seeks to develop an interdisciplinary research team and agenda on the emerging region of (South) East Asia, fostering collaboration at ULB between scholars from cultural studies, anthropology, sociology, philosophy and political science.
Negotiating Identities in Public Spaces Among Young City Dwellers (Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam)
Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam have recently witnessed substantial changes that dramatically transform the physical and human cityscapes. This process occurs simultaneously with rapid technological changes, large urban infrastructural planning projects, and the development of digital spaces. The research will explore, through ethnographic methods, how young people experience, use and appropriate public spaces, including cyberspace. The applicant will select one of the four countries listed and is free to elaborate a specific project that fits with the general topic. Since another PhD student funded by EASt is working on digital space, the proposal should concentrate on physical space (even if acknowledging the connection between the two domains). The approach should be ethnographic. The Selection committee will especially appreciate the originality of the proposal and its possible contribution to anthropology at large.
Supervisor: Pierre PETIT, pierre.petit@ulb.ac.be.
Faculty of Philosphy and Social Sciences: https://www.ulb.ac.be/ulb/presentation/philosoc.html Laboratoire d’Anthropologie des Mondes Contemporains: http://lamc.ulb.ac.be
Any question pertaining to this post and the related application process are to be directed via e-mail to the supervisor.
For more info: http://msh.ulb.ac.be/east-opens-one-doctoral-position/