New PhD position at CFS
The PhD position is part of a 5-year Advanced Grant that is financed by the European Research Council (ERC) and is lead by Professor Dan Zahavi. Applicants are asked to situate and develop their research plan within the framework of the larger Who are we? project.
The larger project entitled Who are We? investigates what it means to feel, think, and act as part of a we. Its guiding hypothesis is that a systematic account of the we must be embedded in a more comprehensive investigation of selfhood and social cognition. The project will systematically develop this hypothesis by combining cross-disciplinary theorizing with historical scholarship. In particular, it will draw on seminal contributions from classical phenomenology. In addition to philosophers, the project will also involve social scientists (from social anthropology, sociology, social psychology and political theory).
The PhD project should focus on examining the constitution of enduring we-identities. Which factors must be in place to allow for diachronically robust we-formations? What role do narrative practices, collective memory, collective imagination and/or shared rituals play? What is the function of self- and other-stereotyping or typification? Most importantly, what is the role of the third and of processes of exclusion and demarcation of ‘us’ vis-à-vis a ‘they’ or outgroup? In addressing these issues, the PhD project should engage with social phenomenology, recent philosophical literature on collective intentionality and relevant work from sociology and/or social psychology.
The successful candidate will be working in close cooperation with philosophers and other social scientists and is expected to partake in the activities of CFS on a daily basis.
Deadline 15 November, 2021.