Duties/Responsibilities
You are capable of working independently while also proactively seeking collaboration. You are confident in asking critical questions, are eager to engage with others, disseminate your ideas, and translate complex and isolated information into accessible narratives.
Research: You will reconstruct accurately the settlement and food production in the Pacific islands in pre- and early European colonial times through existing colonial documents, and track the colonial impacts by the decade.
1) You will reconstruct ways of life of indigenous people in the Mariana Islands before and during early contacts with Europeans, using historical documents to build a systematic ethnohistory;
2) You will extract data from historical documents regarding demography, settlement, plant use and agriculture, since plants are key for life in the Pacific islands.
3) This research will allow a historical systematic approach to what Europeans found on the Northern Mariana Islands at the boundary of the 16th century, observed in contrast and comparative perspective with Guam. The focus on plant use and plant introductions potentially recorded in the texts has not been studied in either case. The combination of texts and archaeological record will allow us to build a showcase of demographic impacts, even in situations where colonists did not fully settle the islands until late in time. It will also provide important information on traditional ecological knowledge relating to plant use in the past.
Further activities/fieldwork: Teamwork, close collaboration with the 5 other PhDs involved in the project, active participation in the team’s international and research activities, including workshops and archival fieldwork are expected.
Your Team
You will work closely with 5 other PhD students in the PacificPeopleForest consortium. This international research team aims to uncover the history, extent and chronology of the impacts of European colonialism in the Pacific Islands (16-17th century). By integrating historical, archaeological, and ecological disciplines and perspectives through an interdisciplinary consortium including 6 PhD students, we want to understand the interplay between human populations and forest dynamics, before and after European contact.
You will also become part of our Crossroads Research Centre, a group of PhDs and postdoc working on various aspects of early modern global history, with a focus on Transpacific maritime relations.
Database
The successful candidate will contribute to our project database.
Profile
Master degree in History (or a comparable master degree in another discipline but with a focus on history), preferably early modern history, with a focus on world or Spanish American history. Fundamental general knowledge of European activities in the Mariana Islands and the larger Pacific space is highly recommended.
You possess high competence in early modern European (16th to early 19th centuries), especially Spanish, paleography, and are familiar with archival research. Good paleological skills are an absolute requirement. In addition, an excellent command of English; very good Spanish, Dutch and ideally also French language skills will be necessary to be able to read your sources. Basic skills in IT and GIS technology are highly recommended.
You will perform field work in European archives and on the Northern Mariana Islands, visit European partners in the consortium, publish your findings as scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals, and present results at (inter)national conferences. If successful, you will obtain your PhD degree from KU Leuven.
Offer
We offer a 3-year PhD position (1-year contract with a 2-year extension after successful evaluation), starting preferably on February 1, 2026, as part of a Marie Curie Doctoral Network project, PacificPeopleForest, ‘History, Archaeology, and Botany of Pacific Islands: assessing the Long-Term Impacts of Early European colonialism on Peoples and Forests’. We offer an excellent opportunity to work in international inter- and transdisciplinary research project, with a global network of scholars working on various aspects of transpacific connections and interaction.
Interested?
Preferred starting date: February 01, 2026
Interviews (online) will be held in the first half of December 2025.
For more information please contact Prof. dr. Angela Schottenhammer, mail:.
Please upload your cv, diplomas and two reference letters through the application tool.
You can apply for this job no later than November 30, 2025 via the online application tool
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