SNSF Consolidator Grant project "The Battle of Materials: Commodity ’Research and Propaganda’ and the Road to Immoderate Consumption, 1900-1980"

The Europainstitut / Institute for European Global Studies of the University of Basel, founded in 1993, analyses the relationships of Switzerland and Europe in a globally connected world through research and teaching. As an interdisciplinary institution, it combines expertise from political science, economics, philosophy, history and law. The University of Basel has an international reputation of outstanding achievements in research and teaching. Founded in 1460, the University of Basel is the oldest university in Switzerland and has a history of success going back over 550 years.

The institute invites applications for a PhD position as part of the SNSF Consolidator Grant project "The Battle of Materials: Commodity ’Research and Propaganda’ and the Road to Immoderate Consumption, 1900-1980", led by incoming Prof. Dr. Moritz von Brescius (Principal Investigator, PI). The project is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). Project start is on September 1, 2025 or by mutual agreement.

The Consolidator Grant project examines the key processes, actors and cultural accommodations that drove unprecedented levels of natural resource consumption in industrial societies in the 20th century. Offering an innovative new material history of tropical and synthetic rubber and other industrial materials, the project explores the transformative practices that industrial research & development brought to the twentieth-century marketplace and the world economy as a whole. The team will address various aspects of resource overuse and the ways in which consumer expectations and material path dependencies have evolved as a key part of the "Great Acceleration" of human impacts on the global environment.

Your position

The PhD position relates to work package 1 of the project: "20th-Century Commodity Marketing and Propaganda, with a regional focus on western Europe and its colonial possessions". The work package uses heuristic methods (textual analysis, visual history, material culture studies) and insights from modern-day marketing to explore in depth how commodities such as rubber, (early) plastics, and other materials became entrenched as modern industrial commodities and came to fulfil a wide range of every-day functions in the fabric of modernity. The project will focus on the different people and practices employed by companies, producer organizations and resource institutes to research, lobby and market novel organic and/or synthetic materials for a wide range of applications, including the specific cultural connotations of materials that "nature forgot to make" and the consumerist lifestyles they have made possible. The focus will be on different media (film, exhibitions, posters, magazine advertisements, radio and television broadcasts) and may also include the increasing targeting of consumers in the countries of the so-called "Global South" in the period c. 1900-1980.

The candidate is expected to conduct independent archival research and complete the PhD project within the funding period of 4 years (1 plus 3 years); to help with administrative tasks, conference organization, communication tasks, and webpage content management; and to actively participate in advancing the project’s overall research goals by collaborating closely with all team members. The candidate will devote themselves full-time to the goals of the Consolidator Grant project to help achieve the project milestones and planned scholarly output.

Your profile

• It is expected that the candidate holds a Master’s degree (or equivalent) in History or a related discipline with a more-than-average grade at the start of the position.
• The candidate must be fluent in English, the team’s working language, while additional language proficiencies relevant to the research, notably French and/or German, are welcome.
• The candidate must take residence in Switzerland during the entire project period due to regular in-person team meetings (Jour Fixe) and be able to travel for archival research abroad.
• The candidate should have some experience in archival work and be familiar with the historiography of modern commodities, consumption, gender, marketing and cultural history.
• She/he should be keen to learn new skills, be open to collaborative work, and be eager to actively participate in the team efforts and long-term goals. These include the conceptualization and preparation of a public museum exhibition that will build on the research results of the Consolidator project.

We offer you

• We offer a fully funded doctoral position (100%, for 1 plus 3 years) at the Europainstitut / Institute for European Global Studies of the University of Basel, Switzerland.
• The candidate will work in a motivated, international team that will help them pursue their ambitious scholarly ideas, research, and career in a stimulating, welcoming and multicultural environment.
• The candidate will pursue their PhD project within a collaborative framework, as a formal member of the Basel Graduate School of History (BGSH).
• The salary and social benefits will be provided according to the rules of the University of Basel.
• All team members can rely on already secured travel grants to conduct their research internationally.

Application / Contact

Please submit your complete application documents including a letter of motivation (max. 2 pp), CV, publication list (if existent), copies of relevant diplomas and transcripts, sample of writing (max. 10 pages), a research sketch that outlines your interests in the Consolidator Grant project (max. 2 pp), and contact details of two referees.

Please apply via the online portal by May 16, 2025.

Interviews will be conducted in person or via Zoom in late May 2025 / mid-June 2025. The expected starting date is September 1, 2025 (or by mutual agreement).

The University of Basel is an equal opportunity employer and it values diversity. We do not discriminate on the basis of age, marital status, disability status, race, national origin, color, gender, sexual orientation or religion.
For further information about the position, please contact the Principal Investigator Dr. Moritz von Brescius ( moritz.vonbrescius@ unibe.ch ).
For more information on the Europainstitut / Institute for European Global Studies of the University of Basel see https://europa.unibas.ch/en/') .

www.unibas.ch')