PhD Studentship on Consuming Nature: Early Modernity, Popular Culture, and the Natural World in Japan, 1600-1900, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain. Deadline: 20 April 2026.
Applications are invited for a salaried, full-time, 3 year PhD position (with the possibility of extension for a 4th year) as part of the Consuming Nature project at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. The working language of the project is English.
The successful candidate will undertake their PhD as a member of a team of international researchers in the context of an innovative project within the prestigious European Research Council framework. They will be provided with a working space at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona in a shared office with other members of the project, and will be expected to be regularly present in the office to collaborate with other members of the team. This position does not allow for remote working, other than during periods of pre-approved fieldwork.
Topic: The successful candidate will write his or her dissertation on nature, early modernity, and women in Japan and will address the research questions of the “Consuming Nature” project. Examples of the kinds of questions the dissertation could use as a departure point include:
- In what ways did women consume and participate in nature-related activities within early modern Japanese popular culture?
- Was women’s experience of the natural world in Japan changed by the developments of the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries that are associated with Tokugawa “early modernity” and/or Meiji “modernity”?
- Was their experience different to men, and how did experiences differ between women of different status groups?
Center for Intercultural Dialogue 