Postdoctoral: Transitional Justice, Understanding the Age of Transitional Justice: Narratives in a Historical Perspective, NIOD, Amsterdam‏

“Understanding the Age of Transitional Justice: Narratives in a
Historical Perspective”

The general goal of the NIOD program on Transitional justice is to
contribute to understanding the impact and aftermath of mass
state-sponsored human rights violations on post-genocidal,
post-conflict, post-repressive societies. In pursuit of a
conceptualization of generic mechanisms and factors that influence
genocidal crimes and the subsequent transitional justice processes,
this program opts for the portal of the personal, the legal, and the
political narrative. It will examine the various phases and levels at
which testimonies, or narratives of events, play a role in influencing
the form of TJ undertaken by a given post-repressive society.

The levels may be distinguished as follows:
 The victims (the individuals telling their story)
 The institutions for the administration of Transitional Justice (the
narrative of judicial and extra-judicial authorities)
 The validators, or ‘form-givers’ – political elites, media, police,
and other relevant actors – who selectively frame the public debate
and impart the narratives and the use of narratives (produced in
trials, vetting procedures, truth commissions, NGO-sponsored oral
histories) with a particular political and social significance.

A dynamic multi-leveled approach that aims to reveal the interaction
between the testimonies, the formality of processing them, and the
developing political system should shed light on the individual,
psychological, social, and political impact/consequences of TJ
processes.

The NIOD has created a post-doc position in order to study the role,
impact, and significance of testimonies in transitional justice. We
are looking for proposals to develop key elements of the program,
resulting in a monograph. The qualified candidate will conduct a study
of transitional justice as a field and social phenomenon, or movement,
with a focus on key thematic, cross-cutting issues, and an emphasis on
(review and analyses of) approaches to reconciling conflicting
narratives. Other issues would include memory, truth, testimonies,
transitional justice tools and their impact, the beginning and
endpoints of TJ processes, victims and victimhood, perpetrators,
bystanders, and guilt.

Qualified candidates are invited to send a short proposal (max. 1000
words) on the research they propose to conduct within the framework of
the NIOD-TJ program.

The candidate will play a key role in the future development of the
NIOD-TJ program.

Job requirements
 Ph.D. in History, Law, or Social- and Political Sciences, or at
least three years professional (Ph.D. level) experience on topics
related to the program
 Can initiate challenging discussion about the specific area of
scientific interest and in general the research done at the NIOD
 Self-reliant
 Experience with modern information technology
 Professional attitude with excellent communication skills
 Fluent English
 Skilled in the development of proposals which could, via the
content, design, and execution fundamentally augment the Transitional
Justice program

Appointment
This is a fulltime position of 38 hours per week for a period of two
years at the NIOD.

We offer:
The NIOD offers an informal, internationally-oriented working
environment with a great deal of room for individual initiative and
responsibility. The maximum salary for a full-time position is €
4,970.00 per month gross (based on experience, scale 11 or 12,
collective labour agreement Dutch Universities), excluding 8% vacation
bonus and an 8.3% end-of-the-year bonus. There is an additional
extensive secondary benefits packet. Secondment is among the
possibilities.

More information
The Transitional Justice Research Agenda can be viewed at our website
at www.niod.nl. Inquiries may be directed to the Transitional Justice
Program Leader at the NIOD, Dr. Nanci Adler, e-mail address
n.adler@niod.knaw.nl. For more information about the appointment,
please contact Mr. William Arink, Business Director, e-mail address
w.arink@niod.knaw.nl. The NIOD can be contacted at +31 (0)20-523 3800.

Interested?
We welcome your proposal, accompanied by an explanatory letter of
intent and CV, all in English. Please submit them to
vacature@niod.knaw.nl, attention Mr. W. Arink, with the subject line
“Post-Doc TJ”. Closing date is 25 July, 2011. Interviews will take
place in the second and third weeks of September. If all other factors
are equal, preference will be given to internal candidates.

Please no reactions from recruiters.

NIOD is an institute belonging to the Royal Netherlands Academy of
Arts and Sciences