2x PhD candidates "History of Migrant Women's Labour in Postwar Europe"

Maastricht University

von 01.03.2026

The Department of History at Maastricht University is looking for two PhD candidates to undertake archival and oral history research on women’s migration and work. You will be part of a new European Research Council-funded project entitled FeMMiWork: Women Migrants from the Northern Mediterranean and Work in Postwar Northwestern Europe. Using a transnational lens that takes migrants’ countries both of origin and residence into account, FeMMiWork investigates the experiences of women who migrated from Italy, Yugoslavia, and Turkey to France and Germany in the 1950s-1970s and who engaged in paid work. In spite of their large numbers, their labour has been largely erased by policymakers and forgotten by researchers who focused on male labour migration.  Drawing on archival sources and oral history, the project aims to understand what role paid work played in migrant women’s life trajectories, and in shaping relations with their communities of origin and destination. The project also aims to make the histories of these women visible by creating a ‘counter-archive’ using documents, oral histories, and creative writing.

Application Deadline: 30. November 2025

Further Information can be found here.