Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS) invites applications for a
PhD position within the project Leveraging Language, Proclaiming Power: Linguistic Politics in Early Colonial North America(10 fte, 4 years)
The PhD candidate will be working within the research project ‘Leveraging Language, Proclaiming Power’,funded by the Dutch Research Council’s Vidi scheme, and directed by dr. Alisa van de Haar(university lecturer in historical French literature at Leiden University).Prof. Michiel van Groesen (professor of maritime historyat Leiden University) will be the co-supervisor of the PhD candidate.
This project examines the interplay between communication choices and power dynamics in early colonial North America (1604–1664). Seventeenth-century North America was a crossroads of intercultural contact, where European colonizers, Indigenous peoples, and—through enslavement—African individuals converged, creating a complex multilingual environment. To navigate this linguistic landscape, settlers and Indigenous communities developed diverse communication strategies. These practices were not neutral: every language choice (from using interpreters to imposing a specific language) carried power implications, determining who held control in an encounter. During the early decades of European settlement in what Europeans called New Netherland, New France, Virginia, and New England, a continuous dynamic developed between language practices and shifting power balances. This site of tricontinental linguistic interaction presents a valuable opportunity to improve our understanding of how language and communication reflect and shape power dynamics in multilingual societies.
This project investigates five key multilingual interactions: among settlers; between competing colonies; between colonists and Indigenous communities; between colonists and enslaved individuals; and in communication with European leadership. The research team consists of comprising the Principal Investigator (Alisa van de Haar), the PhD, and a Postdoctoral researcher who will join the project in September 2027. Through comparative analyses, this team will improve our understanding of intercontinental interactions, multilingual practices, and the broader mechanisms of power structures through the lens of language.
This doctoral research project will examine how communicative practices in seventeenth-century New Netherland, New France, New England, and Virginia reflected and shaped power dynamics. It will examine which choices were made with regard to communication and language in encounters within individual settlements (including enslaved inhabitants), between settlements and colonies, and in interactions with Indigenous populations. For each of these communications choices, its power implications will then be assessed. The research will focus on a multilingual corpus including handwritten and printed materials covering the period 1604 to 1664. Rather than a linguistic study, the PhD project entails a historical analysis of the social implications of language choices. The final dissertation will offer new insights into the interplay between language strategies and power structures in French, Dutch, and English colonies.
International candidates are encouraged to apply if they have full proficiency in Dutch but must be willing to relocate to the Netherlands for the duration of the project.
The Faculty of Humanities at Leiden University is a unique international centre for the advanced study of languages, cultures, arts, and societies worldwide, in their historical contexts from prehistory to the present. Our faculty is home to more than 6,000 students and 800 staff members. For more information see: http://www.universiteitleiden.nl/
Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS) is one of the seven Academic Institutes of the Faculty of Humanities. The institute hosts a range of academic disciplines, clustered around a key research theme: the relationships between the arts and society. Our members study cultural production over the course of two millennia, from classical antiquity to our contemporary world, and teach in programmes ranging from Classics and Book History to Modern Literature, International Studies and Art History. Strengthened by our diversity, LUCAS members are uniquely placed to study the broad concept of the arts, with its rapidly changing ideas, aesthetics, and theories of cultural production. Through research, teaching and outreach, the Institute aims to deepen our understanding, both inside and outside academia, of the cognitive, historical, cultural, creative, and social aspects of human life.
As an academic community, we strive to create an open and welcoming atmosphere, stimulating everyone to get involved and contribute, and connecting scholars from different fields and backgrounds.
PhD project, 4 years (1.0 FTE, 38 hrs per week; alternatively, the position can be 0.8 FTE for 5 years), starting date 1 January 2027 Initially the employee will receive a 14-month contract, with extension for the following 34 months on condition of a positive evaluation. The appointment must lead to the completion of a PhD thesis. Salary range from € 3.089 gross per month in the first year for a fulltime appointment – € 3.881 in the fourth year (pay scale for PhDs, in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities).
Leiden University offers an attractive benefits package with additional holiday (8%) and end-of-year bonuses (8.3%), training and career development. Our individual choices model gives you some freedom to assemble your own set of terms and conditions. Candidates from outside the Netherlands may be eligible for a substantial tax break. For more information, seehttp://www.workingat.leiden.edu/
Fostering an inclusive community is a central element of the values and vision of Leiden University. Leiden University is committed to becoming an inclusive community which enables all students and staff to feel valued and respected and to develop their full potential. Diversity in experiences and perspectives enriches our teaching and strengthens our research. High quality teaching and research is inclusive.
Enquiries can be made to the PI of the project, dr. Alisa van de Haar (a.d.m.van.de.haar@hum.leidenuniv.nl).Information about LUCAS can be found at http://www.universiteitleiden.nl/geesteswetenschappen/centre-for-the-arts-in-society and about Leiden University at http://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en
Please submit your application via the online recruitment system, via the blue button at the top of this page, latest 1 September 2026. Applications received via e-mail will not be taken into consideration. Your application should include:
(Online) interviews will take place in the second half of September.
Enquiries from agencies are not appreciated.
