The University of Luxembourg invites applications for the following vacancy
in its Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C²DH)
Doctoral candidate (PhD student) in the field of contemporary
history/history of technology (M/F)
    • Ref. OTP R-AGR-3499-10-C, Acronym: REPAIR
    • 14 months fixed-term contract, renewable up to 4 years, full-time
(40h/week)
    • Student and employee status (48 months studies programme)
The PhD student will be a member of the Public History research unit within
the C²DH at the University of Luxembourg. He/she will work under
supervision of Dr. Stefan Krebs in the FNR funded research project
“Repairing Technology – Fixing Society? History of Maintenance and
Repair in Luxembourg (1918-1990)” (C15/SC/12547405). The REPAIR project
will be the first systematic historical study of repair practices, networks
and infrastructures in the short 20th century (c. 1918-1990). Within the
context of this emerging topic in the field of the history of technology,
the project will analyse the changes and continuities in the history of
maintenance and repair, using Luxembourg as a key example of a Western
consumer society. REPAIR questions the prevailing master narrative of the
emergence of a consumer society and concomitant decline of repair, helping
to better understand when and how people care for the technologies they
routinely use and thereby highlighting the hidden importance of maintenance
and repair. REPAIR encompasses three research strands: the first
investigates the maintenance and repair of one of the quintessential 20th
century consumer technologies: the telephone; the second traces the decline
of professional repair services in Luxembourg, using Luxembourg City and
Esch-sur-Alzette as case studies; and the third focuses on the development
of post-war self-repair practices, situated between leisure activity and
political activism. Analysing the maintenance of technical infrastructures,
urban repair offers and cultures of self-repair will advance our historical
knowledge of the large material, organisational, knowledge and discursive
investments needed to keep technologies functioning. By revealing when, why
and how technical objects were maintained, repaired or scrapped, the
project will provide crucial insights into the historical and political
contexts of the emergence of consumer identities, the hidden societal and
environmental dimensions of repair, and the quest for more sustainable
consumption practices.
Activities 
    • Write a thesis on “Infrastructures of Repair: Maintaining the
Telephone System in Luxembourg”
    • Contribute to research in the field of contemporary history,
history of technology and environmental history
For further information please contact: 
stefan.krebs@uni.lu
Profile 
    • Master’s degree or diploma in history, history of technology or
related field
    • Experience in qualitative research methods
    • Good command of the following languages: English, French and/or
German
Offer 
    • Personal work space at the University 
    • Dynamic and multicultural environment
Candidates should submit the following documents: 
    • Motivation letter
    • Curriculum vitae
    • Copies of diplomas
    • List of publications (if applicable)
Please send your application online by 13 January 2019 to stefan.krebs@uni.lu

The University of Luxembourg is an equal opportunity employer.