The project, ‘Futuring Heritage: Conservation, Community and Contestation in the Eastern Himalayas’, led by Dr. Erik de Maaker, funded by a grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO), is looking for a PhD candidate for research in Sikkim (India). The project is hosted by Leiden University’s Institute of Cultural Anthropology & Development Sociology, with Ashoka University in Delhi-NCR as its prime academic partner. The PhD will be jointly supervised by Dr. Erik de Maaker (Leiden) and Dr. Swargajyoti Gohain (Ashoka). The Futuring Heritage project consortium encompasses international organisations, Indian governmental agencies, several NGOs as well as a tourism operator active in the eastern Himalayas.

Qualifications 

• Completed a Master degree in Anthropology, Sociology, Social Geography or any other relevant discipline in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Excellent skills in ethnographic research, as demonstrated by an outstanding Master thesis and/or long research papers.
• Familiarity with India.
• Enthusiasm, passion, and commitment for long-term fieldwork in India
• Speaking and reading skills in Nepali, Lepcha and/or Bhutia.
• Interest in geospatial and multi-modal research methods
• Excellent command of English (speaking and writing)
• Teamwork and organisational skills