Student Assistant: Project Global Business Slave Trade

The Project Global Business of Slave Trade studies the main patterns of the Dutch, Portuguese, and Spanish slave trades in the Indian Ocean, Indonesian Archipelago, and the South China Sea. It will do so by examining in detail how and by whom were these commercial flows and operations organized, who gained and lost by being involved in these activities, and what participation in these commercial streams meant for the economies of these European Empires in Asia. The database project Exploring Slave Trade in Asia (ESTA) reconstructs the historical slave trade in the wider Indian Ocean, Indonesian Archipelago and East Asia.

• Student Assistant: Project Global Business Slave Trade
• Scientific/Non-scientific: Academic staff
• Institute: IISH
• Location: Amsterdam
• Minimum hours per week: 15,2
• Maximum salary: 3.288 gross per month for a full-time appointment
• Contract duration: 10 months

What will be the Student Assistant candidate tasks?

The Student Assistant will work as part of the research team to:

• Enter and curate data on slave trade, business, actors, etc. in the ESTA database.
• Collect digital source materials.
• Create ground truth transcriptions and layout for Spanish, Portuguese and English digital colonial archival material (to train handwritten text recognition models).
• Annotate for entity (and event) detection;
• Assist in organizing project events and other tasks.

What are the Projects team looking for in the Student Assistant?

We are looking for a Student Assistant that would like to gain experience of working in an academic environment and learn how to work with traditional as well as more modern historical research methodologies. We are looking for a Student Assistant that is independent, motivated and social. You will work on dedicated tasks (such as data entry and transcription), but in a collaborative team setting.

You will need to have familiarity with early modern archival handwritten sources; and an affinity with social and economic history, Global and Colonial History and/or the History of slave trade and slavery. Experience with working with digital materials, as well as with Excel is a plus. A reasonable command of English alongside Portuguese and/or Spanish. Command of Dutch is a plus.

What does the Project and the IISH offer?

The Student Assistant will be integrated in the Research Department of the IISH. Through the projects, the Student Assistant will be involved with various research projects, including Globalise, Voices of Resistance, Resisting Enslavement and Hub of Global Labour Conflicts.

What do we need from you?

• University student doing a BA in History, or in another discipline relevant for the core research of the projects;
• Knowledge and affinity regarding the history of slave trade and slavery; or with the history of European colonialism (especially in Asia);
• Some experience working with data, digital material handwritten text recognition.
• Independent and social working attitude;
• Good command of English and one or more of the following languages: Portuguese, Spanish or another Latin-based language

About the IISG

The International Institute of Social History (IISG-KNAW) is an Academy research institute. IISG examines how work and labour relations have developed globally over time. To support its research, it collects archives and data from all over the world. The relationship between its research and its data and archive collections contributes substantially to the institute’s unique nature.

Terms of employment

Depending on education and experience the maximum salary is 3.288 gross per month for a full-time appointment (scale SA cao Nederlandse Universiteiten/KNAW). This is exclusive of 8% vacation allowance, 8.3% year-end bonus, travel allowance, internet allowance, home working allowance and pension accrual with ABP.

The KNAW offers its staff an excellent package of secondary benefits. A package that meets the different needs of employees depending on their stage of life, lifestyle or career ambitions. For example, by working an extra two hours a week, it is possible to increase the number of days off from 29 to 41 days a year (with full-time employment).

Applying for a Certificate of Good Conduct can be part of the employment procedure.