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Faculty of Humanities
University of Amsterdam

Faculty of Humanities
University of Amsterdam

PhD opportunities

How to obtain a PhD position with us

There are several ways of obtaining a PhD position with us:

Regular PhD positions financed by HHP

The HHP Centre offers two regular PhD positions. As a rule, both positions will become vacant every four years, at which point there will be a formal call for applications. The latest call for applications has closed in August 2022 and we don’t expect to have new vacancies during the next four years. You can regularly check our homepage and the “ News and events” section for announcements of new vacancies.

Positions financed by the Amsterdam School of Historical Studies (ASH)

The Amsterdam School of Historical Studies (ASH) is the research school to which the HHP Centre is affiliated. Once a year they announce open rounds for PhD positions, which can be awarded in any discipline in the humanities, including study of Western esotericism at the HHP Centre. These positions typically start in September, and may be announced as early as December the year before. Keep an open eye for announcements at the ASH website. If you see opportunities for yourself here, make sure to get in touch with us as early as possible. This is imperative because ASH will not consider your application without written confirmation by a potential supervisor (in the Dutch academic system “promotor”). At this moment, the members of the HHP Centre who can act as supervisors of a PhD project are Dr. Marco Pasi, and Prof. Dr. Wouter J. Hanegraaff. You should approach either of them before you apply and make sure that at least one of the two is willing to act as your PhD supervisor in case your application is successful. They, in turn, can consider your request only on the basis of a formal written research proposal that contains at least (1) a project title, (2) one or more central research questions, (3) a detailed description of the project, (4) a bibliography, (5) a preliminary time schedule, and (6) a CV. To have a chance of success, your personal qualifications and your research proposal must be of excellent quality, and you must have taken action early enough. Please don’t surprise us with a request one week before the application deadline!

Positions financed through external funding

If you have an excellent research proposal in the field of Western esotericism and believe you will be able to acquire funding from an external source (for instance the Dutch Research Council or another national or international research foundation), please get in touch with us. To have a chance at being considered, here too you will need to submit a formal written proposal that contains at least (1) a project title, (2) one or more central research questions, (3) a detailed description of the project, (4) a bibliography, (5) a preliminary time schedule, and (6) a CV. Again, make sure to approach us not right before the application deadline but as early as possible.

Positions as a self-funded PhD student

A self-funded PhD student is a person who works on a PhD dissertation in his/her own time but does not have access to funding from a university or research organization (please note that no entrance fee is required to pursue doctoral research in the Netherlands). Examples are students who do their research parttime in the evenings and weekends, who can benefit from the income of their partner, who are retired, or who are financially independent. Although theoretically possible, the HHP Centre takes this option into consideration only in exceptional cases. Please note the following: (1) in order to be considered, you will be asked to submit a formal written proposal as described under the two previous sections above, (2) your personal qualifications as a researcher and the quality of your proposal must be excellent in all respects, and (3) we are forced to give priority to candidates who actually need a PhD title in view of pursuing an academic career. 

Do you have any questions about studying at the HHP Centre?

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