PhD position Netherlands’ Global Entangled History of Ores and Metals (4 years, 1.0 FTE)

The project incorporates the question of how can we explain the developments of the Netherlands’ immense effects in global sustainability trade-offs? The huge Dutch imports of raw materials and goods have been causing profound impacts in economic, social, and ecological developments elsewhere on the planet. These trade-offs have historical origins. In this PhD project you will study how from the nineteenth century onwards, scientific knowledge, colonial developments and industrial modernization contributed to the development of transnational production chains of ores and metals.

At Utrecht University your project connects to ongoing research on Deep Transitions in the Netherlands and the activities of Utrecht Center for Global Challenges . You can benefit from the expertise and networks of researchers at the sections History of International Relations and Social and Economic History. You will participate in workshops and seminars.  Your research is embedded in a larger research programme Sustainability Trade-offs in the Netherlands’ Entangled Modernisation (STONEM), 1900-2020 at Utrecht University and Eindhoven University of Technology (TUe), in connection with Wageningen University and Research, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) and other societal partners. You will be part of a research team consisting of a fellow PhD and a Postdoc researcher at TUe with whom you will jointly work.

The STONEM research programme will investigate the historical developments of Dutch trade-flows with a mixed method approach combining quantitative data in trend analysis and sustainability monitors with qualitative historical and ethnographic analyses. Together with our societal partners, results of your research will become visible in (inter)national policy realms on international trade and sustainable developments. More about the research approaches, concepts and context of the programme can be found on the STONEM webpage .