Junior Researcher & Lecturer (Assistenz) (60 %)
ISEK - Ethnographic Museum, University of Zurich
Start of employment : September 1, 2025
Application deadline: May 15, 2025
The Ethnographic Museum at the University of Zurich is recruiting one junior researcher and lecturer to undertake a doctoral project on the transnational trajectories of colonial heritage held in Switzerland. This project contributes to emerging debates about contested collections, the role of museums and restitution.
The Ethnographic Museum is embedded within the department of Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies. The Social and Cultural Anthropology section consists of four chairs covering a broad spectrum of research areas and places strong emphasis on practice-oriented education with a solid empirical base. In August 2025 Dr. Alice Hertzog will join the department as Assistant Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology with tenure-track and Director of the Ethnographic Museum at the University of Zurich.
Your responsibilities
As a junior researcher and lecturer (“Assistenz” in the Swiss system) you will develop and undertake a doctoral project on the circulation of contested colonial collections. In addition to dealing with its own collections, the Ethnographic Museum is also a point of contact for local families who have colonial collections in their private possession. Based on selected case-studies, you will research the social biographies of these collections, the ethical conundrums they raise for their current owners and affordances they might hold for other communities. Your research will contribute to emerging scholarship on restitution and returns. More widely, it will question the multiple roles ethnographic museums might play in the re-circulation of colonial cultural heritage, as well as the challenges and limits of such brokerage. With support from the museum research team, you will select comparative case-studies and conduct multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork in the museum, in Switzerland and in the places of origin of these collections. As a junior researcher and lecturer 50% of your time will be reserved for your own doctoral research, and you will be expected to:
- Read and engage in social theory and ethnography in relation to museums, cultural heritage and restitution.
- Design and conduct fieldwork both in Switzerland and in the place of origin of the collections in question.
- Participate in the various research offers within the department including the Social Anthropology Colloquium Series and doctoral training.
- Present your work at international workshops and conferences.
- Write a PhD dissertation in Social and Cultural Anthropology.
Other tasks include teaching, supervision of student work and additional fields of activity:
- Teaching two classes per year (2 SWS per semester).
- Coordination of literature acquisition in the relevant area of specialization is expected.
- Supporting the chair in academic, museum and administrative tasks.
- Participation in University committees and commissions.