Erasmus University Rotterdam PhD Candidate Position 2026: Study the Transimperial History of Women’s Work
Overview
The Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication at Erasmus University Rotterdam is seeking two fully funded PhD candidates for a project on the transimperial history of women's work between 1600 and 1900. The team is led by Dr. Natália da Silva Perez and works in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The project asks how European colonial expansion shaped ideas about, and experiences of, women's labour in different regions, comparing normative ideas about gendered work with women's lived experience. It takes a transimperial view, following how ideas, people, texts and institutions moved between colonial territories and European centres.
What the role involves
Each candidate pursues independent doctoral research on one of two cases: Pernambuco, or Atlantic Africa, with possible focus areas including Senegambia, the Gold Coast and Angola. The work combines traditional archival history with digital methods such as handwritten text recognition, multilingual datasets, natural language processing and statistical analysis. Candidates help build and curate multilingual historical datasets drawn from handwritten and printed sources, colonial records, correspondence and administrative documents.
Who can apply
The project suits researchers interested in colonial, early modern, women's, gender, African, Atlantic, labour and social history, digital humanities and computational methods, intersectionality and social reproduction theory. Strong knowledge of at least one language relevant to the chosen case is required, and willingness to develop more is viewed positively. For Pernambuco, useful languages include Portuguese, Dutch and Spanish. For Atlantic Africa they include French, English and Danish.
What you get
The positions offer a competitive monthly salary, extensive employment benefits, professional development, research experience, teaching exposure and an international academic environment.
How to apply
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