The Department of Anthropology at the University of Amsterdam is currently seeking three PhD candidates for the project ‘Activist Techtopias: Crafting Alternate Infrastructures of Resistance in Asia’ (‘AlterTech’), led by Dr Yatun Sastramidjaja. This project is funded by a European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant.
The Department of Anthropology is one of the departments at the University of Amsterdam (UvA), Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences (FMG). The PhD track is part of the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR), and these three positions are embedded in the programme group Moving Matters: People, Goods, Power and Ideas.
The Project Descriptions
AlterTech is an ethnographic study of how rights and grassroots movements across Asia navigate deepening digital repression by experimenting with new practices and uses of technologies, both to dodge the repression and to disrupt the infrastructures that enable it. It examines how political and technological action intersect and how movement infrastructures are reconfigured in a context where state surveillance and surveillance capitalism coalesce. By decentring the digital in our concept of technology, and exploring how technologies are crafted and infrastructures are reassembled bottom-up, we aim to uncover how a novel type of technopolitics and utopian imaginaries evolve in practices of resistance and everyday struggle.
Inspired by decolonial epistemology and using a multi-modal collaborative methodology, AlterTech seeks not only to analyse these processes but also to engage in them. We therefore seek to form a team of dedicated researchers who are committed to exploring the generative possibilities of engaged scholarship. The research team – consisting of three PhD candidates, one postdoctoral researcher, and the Principal Investigator (PI) – will conduct ethnographic research at different scales. While the PI will examine hemispheric entanglements among transnational NGOs, and the postdoctoral researcher will study dissident infrastructures among diaspora in Europe, the PhD candidates will develop ethnographic case studies in specific settings in Asia.
For the PhD projects, suggested cases include technologies and infrastructures of activism among youth activists in Papua, Indonesia; among grassroots groups in India; and among Myanmar activists-in-exile in Thailand. However, PhD candidates with strong proposals on different case studies in Asia are welcome to apply. The project overall is a collective effort, emphasizing joint analysis and knowledge production, therefore close teamwork is an essential part of the job.
Your tasks
- Your main task as PhD candidate will be to develop your own PhD project within the framework of the overall project.
- You will follow mandatory and optional coursework as part of the PhD programme of the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR), and participate in pre- and post-fieldwork PhD groups at the Department of Anthropology.
- Next to working on and managing your own research, you will contribute to collaborative aspects of the project. This will include collecting data for jointly written publication(s) and lending respective expertise to team members.
- You are expected to conduct 12-months of ethnographic fieldwork in the country of your case study.
- You are expected to live in the Amsterdam area and take active part in team meetings and the research environment at the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR).
- Teaching (up to 10% of your time) and organisational support for the project leader will be part of your job responsibilities. These tasks will allow you to gain valuable professional experience next to working towards your PhD.
Requirements
- a master’s degree or equivalent with a relevant specialization within the social sciences or humanities, preferably in social and cultural anthropology. The degree must have been obtained before the employment starting date;
- excellent oral and written communication skills in English;
- good oral and written communication skills in the country where you will conduct fieldwork;
- good command of ethnographic research methods and the ability and willingness to conduct challenging fieldwork on a sensitive topic;
- independent thinking and critical analytical skills;
- good collaboration skills and the ability to join interdisciplinary academic communities;
- the skills needed to finish the PhD thesis in four years; i.e., independent and pro-active work attitude, good planning and academic writing skills.
You preferably have:
- previous research experience with ethnography of activism;
- affinity with current debates in anthropology of infrastructure, technology and activism;
- affinity with decolonial and engaged anthropology and commitment to exploring multi-modal, visual, and co-creative methodological approaches.
Application & Contact
If this vacancy speaks to you, but you are uncertain whether you meet all requirements, please do get in touch with us or apply. In light of our department’s commitment to a diverse and inclusive working environment, we strongly encourage applications from qualified candidates who come from groups historically disenfranchised by and underrepresented in Dutch academia.
You may apply online by using the link below. Applications in one .pdf should be submitted no later than 9 March 2026, and should include:
- your application letter describing your qualifications and motivation. Please specify which aspects of the project you are interested in and tell us what brought you to your present focus of intellectual and scholarly interests. Also briefly describe the case study you would like to explore (2 pages max.);
- your Curriculum Vitae;
- a scan of your master’s diploma;
- contact information for two academic references (no letters of recommendation at this stage);
- an example of writing (max. 25 pages) that reflects your qualifications for this position.
Shortlisted candidates will be invited for an interview. Interviews will be held online in the first week of April 2026.
Do you have any questions, or do you require additional information? Please contact: Yatun Sastramidjaja, Associate Professor in Anthropology and Principal Investigator of ‘AlterTech’, Y.Sastramidjaja@uva.nl
No agencies please
For detailed information, visit the link here
