The University of Amsterdam is currently looking for four PhD students and one postdoc in the field of Asian cultural studies. It concerns a project funded by the European Research Council (ERC), ChinaCreative, on creativity and creative cultures in China.
Details of these positions can be found here:
Application deadline is August 15.
ChinaCreative explores the histories, meanings and implications of creativity in the context of China. With its emergence as a global power, China aspires to move from a “made in China” to a “created in China” country. Creativity and culture have become a crucial source for innovation and financial growth, but are also mobilised to promote a new and open China to both the citizenry and the outside world. They are part of what is termed China’s “soft power”. This project aims to analyse claims of creativity in different cultural practices, and to analyse how emerging creativities in China are part of tactics of governmentality and disable or enable possibilities of criticality. Using a comparative, multi-disciplinary, multi-method and multi-sited research design, four PhD subprojects analyse (PhD 1) contemporary art, (PhD 2) calligraphy, (PhD 3) independent documentary cinema (all in Beijing), (PhD 4) Hunan Satellite Television (in Changsha). In addition, one postdoc project studies “fake” (shanzhai) art (in Shenzhen). Methods involve a combination of visual and aesthetic analysis, ethnography, mobile methods and cultural mapping. The candidates will be based in Amsterdam and conduct at least ten months of fieldwork in China.