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Gothenburg University meets society's challenges with versatile knowledge. With 58,000 students and 6,800 employees, the university is a large and inspiring workplace. Strong research and attractive education attract researchers and students from around the world. With new knowledge and new perspectives, Gothenburg University contributes to a better future.

The Faculty of Fine, Applied and Performing Arts consists of the departments HDK-Valand – University of Gothenburg School of Arts, Crafts and Design and the Academy of Music and Drama. As a combined faculty for art and learning, we are an independent, visionary, and critical force in the necessary work of creating a more sustainable and open society.

The Academy of Music and Drama is now seeking a Postdoctoral Researcher whose main task is to coordinate and communicate research regarding Stein and Pleyel sub-studies within the EU research project REM@KE. You will become part of the Classical Music and Church Music unit, one of four units within the department. For more information about the Academy of Music and Drama, see: http://www.gu.se/scen-musik (http://www.gu.se/scen-musik)

About the project

REM@KE is a six-year interdisciplinary programme funded by the Synergy platform of the European Research Council, starting on 1 September 2025. Within the project, we will seek new bridges between artistic research (Gothenburg), organology (Pavia), and cognitive sciences (York) by using a microhistorical method to study specific historical keyboard instruments and their broader contexts.

The beauty of artifacts built by craftsmen before the Industrial Revolution lies in the fact that each object is unique. It is difficult to explore aspects of affordances in specific instruments from historical periods because we have such limited access to functioning historical instruments in their original form. Furthermore, time has altered both their materiality and sound. We will attempt to use microhistorical studies of four specific keyboard instruments from the Renaissance to the Romantic era to create new models for documentation, performance, and communication. The project involves senior researchers, doctoral students, museum staff, musicians, builders, and the public. The researchers responsible for the project are Principal Investigators Joel Speerstra (Gothenburg), Massimiliano Guido (Pavia), and Andrea Schiavio (York). For more information about the project, see: remake.unipv.it (https://remake.unipv.it)

Responsibilities

The project is seeking a Postdoctoral Researcher with proven competence in research documentation as a conceptual framework. The Postdoctoral Researcher will be responsible for coordinating research groups, instrument builders, and museums, as well as guiding and documenting the research process. The person will also coordinate the construction of copies of two of REM@KE project's instruments: Johann Andreas Stein's clavicylinder from 1781 in Gothenburg and a Pleyel piano from the 1840s.

You will travel with instrument builders and their teams to museums for data collection and contribute to disseminating the generated knowledge.

You are expected to actively participate in communication regarding the documentation process within museum contexts, as well as build and maintain relationships with relevant instrument builders and experts.

You will also:

• Coordinate research and documentation teams, museums, and instrument builders.
• Work together with the research group in Gothenburg and the City Museum to develop further research projects related to the Stein project.
• Document both the research and building processes concerning the two identified microecologies.
• Coordinate work with the research group in York and facilitate cognitive science research together with the participating instrument builders.
• Develop your own research profile within the project, focusing on intellectual history and/or ethnographic studies of instrument-making practices.

Qualifications

The following qualifications are required:

• A master's degree in a relevant field, such as organology, musicology, or museology.
• Documented professional experience in process documentation, primarily related to musical instrument making or instrument manufacturing.
• Documented experience in academic editing and publishing.

The following are also considered meritorious:

• Experience in instrument development and/or experience in documentation related to instrument development.
• Experience presenting at international conferences.
• Experience working in large-scale projects involving researchers from various fields.
• Experience in developing documentation of research studies from a microhistorical perspective and/or an intellectual history framework.
• Competence in the project's languages (English, Swedish, German, or French).

In addition to these requirements and meritorious qualifications, it is important that you have good organizational skills, are responsible, take initiative, and work independently. We are looking for a person who is meticulous, structured, and creative, and who possesses good social skills and is flexible in their work.

We will primarily consider the candidate who, after a holistic assessment of competence, skill, and documented merits, is judged to have the best prerequisites for carrying out the current tasks and contributing to a positive development of the operations.

You apply via https://www.gu.se/om-universitetet/jobba-hos-oss/lediga-anstallningar (https://www.gu.se/om-universitetet/jobba-hos-oss/lediga-anstallningar)

The University actively works for a working environment with equal conditions and values the qualities that diversity brings to the operations. The University applies individual salary setting. According to the National Archives' regulations, the University is required to keep application documents for two years after the appointment decision. If you, as an applicant for a position, specifically request your documents back, they will be returned when the two years have elapsed; otherwise, they will be destroyed. To staffing and recruitment agencies and to you who are sales representatives: Gothenburg University uses a procured advertising agency in connection with the recruitment of staff. We kindly but firmly decline direct contact with staffing and recruitment agencies as well as sellers of job advertisements.