Doctoral Researcher (m/f/diverse) - Position No. 2026-A2-01

Tätigkeitsprofil:

The German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS) conducts high-quality research, offers independent policy advice, and facilitates transregional knowledge cooperation and training at the intersection of “development” and “sustainability”, with the aspiration to co-shape a collaborative multipolar world for sustainable futures.

The Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS), a German Research Council-funded “Cluster of Excellence” provides an outstanding setting for interdisciplinary and comparative research of different forms of Strong Asymmetrical Dependencies (SADs) across time periods and world regions. During its first phase (2019–2025), the BCDSS successfully developed the concept of SADs as a comprehensive analytical framework to understand how power imbalances have been shaped in the past, and continue to influence societies around the world today. In its second funding phase (2026–2032), the BCDSS will investigate the underlying causes and mechanisms that contribute to the persistence of SADs across historical and contemporary contexts. We aim to anchor historically-informed “Dependency Studies” as a key interdisciplinary field, encouraging scholars across the humanities and social sciences to systematically integrate the analysis of SADs into the study of social, economic, and cultural phenomena.

Together, BCDSS and IDOS offer a rich, interdisciplinary, and supportive research environment that brings historically grounded work on asymmetric dependency relations into dialogue with contemporary debates in global politics, development, and sustainability cooperation.

The BCDSS–IDOS research group, Power, Knowledge, and Servitude at Sea (POESIS), invites applications for a:

Doctoral Researcher (m/f/diverse) - Position No. 2026-A2-01

Part time 65%, 25,35 hours/week

German public sector tariff, EG 13, TVoeD Bund, according to qualifications

60.000 – 86.000 Euro gross (65%)

Subject to final approval of funds, the position may be filled as of 01 October 2026 and is limited to four years, with possibility of further extension.

The doctoral position is embedded in the BCDSS-funded collaborative research group with IDOS, Power, Knowledge and Servitude at Sea (POESIS). POESIS turns to maritime and littoral worlds to trace the asymmetric dependencies that land-centred accounts often obscure, asking how power takes shape through epistemic hierarchies, labour regimes, and more-than-human relations, and how these formations are navigated and contested in everyday life.

Based in Work Package 3: “Submerged Dependencies,” this PhD project explores environments below the waterline as sites where biodiversity conservation, cultural heritage management, and security regimes converge. It invites proposals that examine how heritage governance, conservation, and security reshape access, custodianship, and the very definition of biocultural heritage under particular conditions. Projects may focus on marine protected areas, UNESCO biosphere reserves, and other submerged zones, particularly where these intersect with militarised spaces and extractive frontiers.

The PhD will be awarded by the University of Bonn’s Department of Sociology and is open to interdisciplinary work spanning the critical humanities and social sciences. The doctoral project will be co-supervised by Dr. Rapti Siriwardane-de Zoysa and Prof. Dr. Anna-Katharina Hornidge and can be pursued either as a monograph or as a cumulative dissertation based on three or more peer-reviewed journal articles.

Applications from all geographical regions are welcome. We encourage historically informed, methodologically diverse projects that combine ethnographic and archival research with socio-legal, multispecies, arts-based, and other experimental approaches. We are particularly interested in projects that place contemporary debates on “just transitions” and sustainability in conversation with longer histories of empire, resource use, and socioecological change. Proposals may engage a wide range of extractive contexts, including mineral extraction and emerging marine frontiers; riverine, coastal, and alluvial extraction; hydrological transformations such as dams, dredging, coastal engineering, and brine-based economies; as well as less examined forms involving water, soils, multispecies life, and in relevance to the extraction of knowledge, expertise, and data.

Anforderungsprofil:

Qualifications and requirements:

• A Masters degree with very good grades in a discipline within the critical social sciences and/or humanities with an interest in multimodal ethnographic, archival and digital approaches;
• Strong motivation and commitment towards pursuing a PhD;
• Proven knowledge and experience in one or more relevant fields or approaches, including anthropology and/or sociology, environmental history, archaeology, maritime and critical ocean studies, critical heritage studies, or related fields.
• Proven knowledge in and experience with research methodologies crosscutting the social sciences and humanities;
• Applicants must have demonstrable research or work experience relevant to the proposed PhD project in a Global South/majority-world context or in a region shaped by colonial histories and/or post-socialist transformation;
• Strong writing, communication, and organisational skills, along with an interest in science communication, storytelling, diverse forms of cultural production, and co-creative practice;
• Fluent command of written and spoken English; where available, this may be evidenced by an IELTS Academic, TOEFL iBT, or equivalent score. Knowledge of German is an asset.
• Willingness and aptness to travel abroad, including countries with a tropical climate (“Tropical suitability required“).

We offer:

• Flexible working hours with a weekly working time of 65%, 25,35 hours/week;
• Possibility of mobile working (within Germany in consultation with dissertation supervisors, up to 60% per week);
• Participation in research projects within the BCDSS Research Areas A: “Transitions and Transformations and D: “Cultural Heritage and Memory Culture” (including others of the candidate´s choice), while being embedded within IDOS´ Knowledge Cooperation and Training Department;
• Possibility to use a subsidized Deutschland-Job-Ticket and good access to public transportation;
• Special annual payment in accordance with TVoeD Bund “Collective agreement of the federal government”;
• Up to 30 days annual vacation plus 6 days company vacation;
• Trainings for further professional development;
• Employer's contribution to the company pension scheme at VBLU;
• Many more social and monetary benefits.

To apply:

Applications should reference the position number2026-A2-01 with detailed documents:

• Cover letter, outlining motivation for applying;
• Curriculum vitae, including all relevant academic certificates;
• A research proposal of no more than 2,000 words (including references), setting out the proposed research topic and its explicit relevance to Strong Asymmetrical Dependencies (SADs), the key research questions, conceptual and methodological approaches, and a provisional work plan;
• Two letters of reference, preferably included with the application. Where this is not possible, shortlisted candidates may submit them at a later stage.
• You can attach amaximum of 4 filesexclusively inPDFformat.Please note the permitted file size of amaximum of 10 MB per file.

Applications must be submitted exclusively via application portal by 17 May 2026 at 23:59 CET. Interviews are expected to take place within the first three weeks of June 2026.

For data protection reasons, we would like to point out that the selection committee will consist of employees of IDOS as well as employees of the “Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies, University of Bonn” (BCDSS).Please note that by submitting your application, you are giving your consent under data protection law for us to process your application data including any attachments, with the committee members. For more information on the legal basis and use of your data, please refer to the information sheet on the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).