Postdoctoral position in Danish modern history at the new Center of Excellence “TRANSITION – Changing Urban and Rural lives”

The new Center of Excellence “TRANSITION – Changing Urban and Rural lives”, a cooperation between the University of Copenhagen and the National Museum of Denmark, is seeking applicants for a postdoctoral position in modern cultural History.

The position has a 30-month full time employment period starting March 1, 2025 or as soon as possible thereafter.

The successful candidate will join TRANSITION – Center for Changing Urban and Rural Lives, which is a new Center of Excellence set to open on February 1, 2025. It is funded for up to 10 years by the Danish National Research Foundation (https://dg.dk/en/) and represents a collaboration between the Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics at the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Copenhagen and the National Museum of Denmark. The center will be physically located at the Faculty of Humanities.

The successful candidate will be employed by the National Museum and the workplace will be at the TRANSITION Center at the Faculty of Humanities as well as the National Museum, Department of Modern History and World Cultures.

Worldwide, the transition from predominantly rural to urban-centric societies marks one of the most significant shifts in human history, with profound implications for culture, language, and individual identities. This shift has fostered a longstanding narrative of opposition between rural and urban life, influencing social cohesion, democracy, and sustainability. The aim of the center’s research is to uncover and understand the cultural history and lived experiences of people during the 20th-century transition from agrarian societies to today’s post-industrial world. The research spans the entire period and explores, among other topics, life trajectories, experiences of living in new contexts, and places in transition.

TRANSITION – Changing Urban and Rural lives is an interdisciplinary center that combines linguistic, literary, and historical scholarship. Its research draws on extensive cultural-historical archives and collections, including the National Museum’s Ethnological Surveys (NEU), the Dialect Archive at NorS, and Danish literary history. These sources, systematically collected throughout the 20th century, include autobiographies, memoirs, diaries, and life-story interview recordings. The successful candidate must utilize the data resources affiliated with the center in their research and must engage in and actively contribute to the center's interdisciplinary work, including participation in interdisciplinary data sessions and co-publications.

About the position

The postdoc candidate will be a part of the interdisciplinary team at the Center and is expected to contribute to the center’s research agenda based on the candidate’s specific research strengths. The successful candidate is expected to participate in the Center’s collective activities while also working independently on a sub-project dedicated to the history and experience of rural and urban transitions.

The abovementioned urbanization was followed by transformations, both in life worlds and built environments. The TRANSITION center will investigate the routes, cultural practices and transitory lived experiences connected to these processes, and their possible patterns of distinction or cohesion. Danish history has strong lines of urban or rural history, and a potential for the project is to look beyond this division to an urban-rural cultural history, emphasizing connections and social-cultural exchange. The detailed content of this subproject will be determined in consultation between the candidate and the leading researchers in the group. The postdoc will join the Center in the first stage of its work and is therefore also expected to take an active part in the initial process of mapping and identifying relevant research topics and objects.

Required qualifications

The successful candidate holds a PhD in History, Ethology or similar, has a strong research profile and track record of publications. Experience of archival research, especially with ego-documents-type archives, and historical methodological approaches such as History of Experience, Spatial Theory or Microhistory is an advantage. It is also an advantage to be acquainted with collective, interdisciplinary research and to be familiar with digital humanities since some material is digitized.

Salary and terms of employment
The working hours are 37 hours a week. Terms of pay and employment are determined in accordance with the collective agreement for academics employed by the Danish state and executive order of 30 October 2015 on the job structure for academic staff with research responsibilities in archives, libraries, museums etc. under the Danish Ministry of Culture (Bekendtgørelse om stillingsstruktur for videnskabeligt personale med forskningsopgaver ved arkiver, biblioteker, museer mv. under Kulturministeriet).

The place of employment is the National Museum, with regular presence at the TRANSITION center at the Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen.

The position is for 30 months, and the position is expected to be filled on 1 March 2025 or as soon as possible hereafter.

The applicants’ academic qualifications will be assessed by an expert Assessment Committee.

Application
The National Museum is actively working to promote equality among employees and encourages all qualified, regardless of personal background, to apply for the position.

The application is to be submitted in English and must include the following:

1. Motivated letter of application (max. one page). This letter should outline how the postdoc project relates to the TRANSITION center and describe your competencies and personal qualifications.

2. CV (max. two pages). The CV should contain details about educational background, language skills and other skills relevant for the position.

3. Copies of master’s and PhD diploma and transcripts of university exams into English, if not written in English, Danish, Norwegian or Swedish.

4. Postdoc project description - max. 6,000 characters, incl. spaces, excl. list of references. Applicants must include a detailed project description outlining:

• the proposed research question(s)
• state of the art
• considerations concerning theory, methods, and research design
• a description of the project itself and how you see it fitting in with the larger research project and contributing substantially to it
• a working plan for the project

5. Complete list of publications (attached publications must be marked with an asterisk).

6. Copies of up to 3 publications to be considered in the assessment. Full copies must be uploaded as pdf via the electronic recruitment system or sent by post.

If a publication has more than one author, or is the result of a collective effort, it must be clearly specified which part of the publication the applicant is responsible for. In the absence of a specification, the Assessment Committee will disregard that publication (s).

Applications must be sent via the electronic recruitment system on our website www.natmus.dk/job and must be uploaded no later than 6th of January 2025.

Any publications to be included in the assessment must be received by the National Museum 6th of January 2025. Publications can either be uploaded to the recruitment system or sent to Nationalmuseet, Frederiksholms Kanal 12, 1220 København K, Denmark, marking the envelope ‘Personale’. Publications sent to the Museum must be submitted in 3 copies. Only books or similar will be returned.

The National Museum will set up an expert Assessment Committee to evaluate the applications. Selected applicants will be invited for interviews in a panel set up by the National Museum.

For further information about the position, please contact one of the following: Head of Research of the Dept. of Modern History and World Cultures, Christian Sune Pedersen, tel. 0045 41206200, [email protected] or Senior Researcher Mikkel Thelle, tel. 0045 41206223, [email protected].



Nationalmuseet er Danmarks kulturhistoriske hovedmuseum og et statsmuseum under Kulturministeriet. Nationalmuseet styrker historiebevidsthed og medborgerskab ved at belyse Danmarks og verdens kulturer og deres indbyrdes afhængighed. Ca. 655 medarbejdere er fordelt på 4 afdelinger: Forskning, Samling og Bevaring, Museer og Slotte, Nationalmuseet København samt Drift og Administration. Se mere om Nationalmuseet på www.natmus.dk