A fixed-term 100 % position is available at the University of Agder, Faculty of Humanities and Education as a Post-doctoral Research Fellow in European Languages in Post-Colonial Africa: Historical Perspectives (1950-1990), affiliated to the Department of Religion, Philosophy and History, for a period of 3 years. The position is located at Campus Kristiansand. The preferred starting date is the beginning of 2027.

Applicants are invited to suggest an empirically and theoretically sound research project which conceptualizes language, and specifically the role of European languages, as an historical object, heuristic device, and analytical lens for understanding African decolonization as a historical process. Their research project might, for example, address

• the role language played for anticolonial mobilization or post-colonial nation- and state-building processes;
• the late- or post-colonial connections between language, education, and development;
• the role language played for inter- and transnational collaboration and institutions;
• language in relation to African subjectivities, collective identities, and social distinction.

Ideally, gender should be a central analytical category rather than an add-on variable in the research project. If convincingly conceptualized, any geographic or linguistic area within Africa and its diaspora is pertinent. Projects that place their research topic in a comparative and connective context and converse with discussions in global history will be particularly relevant.

Application deadline: 15 September 2026