River valleys in the Anthropocene: A long-term geomorphic and historic analysis of human-environment interactions and legacies

This position is part of an interdisciplinary project combining expertise from the Interfaculty Centre for Agrarian History (ICAG) and the Division of Geography and Tourism at the Department of Earth and Environmental Siences (KU Leuven). The Interfaculty Centre for Agrarian History is a research centre founded in 2001. Its aim is to support, stimulate and launch ongoing and new scientific research on agricultural and rural development and the food system in Belgium, in its national and international context. As a meeting point of specialists from multiple scientific disciplines, the ICAG gives priority to comparative multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research that sheds new light on history, heritage and current transformations in the agricultural sector, the food system and the countryside as a result of the interaction between soil, landscape, spatial planning, agricultural science and technology, demography, economy, government policy, public opinion, ideologies, social movements, etc. ICAG works closely together with the heritage expertise Centre for Agrarian History (CAG).
Research at the Division of Geography and Tourism of Earth and Environmental Sciences focuses on spatial patterns of physical and human-induced phenomena at the earth’s surface and on the interactions between society and the environment. This research group has longstanding expertise in soil erosion and biogeochemistry studies at various spatial and temporal scales, including the quantification of sediment and carbon fluxes at Holocene timescales.

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Project

This is one of two interdisciplinary PhD positions within a project that aims at providing a long-term reconstruction of human-environment interactions in floodplains in Flanders. The Anthropocene is often considered to be a new geological period in which humans have altered the landscape significantly. Whilst global assessments on how important humans have been as geomorphic agents do exist, these are very crude and based on limited data. Furthermore, little is known about the beginnings and evolution of humans as landscape architects at regional and local scales, making it impossible to understand how anthropogenic current landscapes are. This research project aims to unravel, analyze and improve our understanding of the long-term landscape development of two contrasting regions and their floodplains in particular (Dijle and Grote Nete), representative for the European Loess and Coversand Belts. Both were shaped profoundly by human impact but at different times, at different rates and with different outcomes. This project combines geomorphological and landscape-historical analyses, quantifying soil mobilization over 10,000 years and examining human-environment relations since the eighteenth century. The project's outcomes are expected to inform governmental and non-governmental organizations involved in rural and floodplain management, while also exploring the potential contribution of cultural heritage to sustainable landscape management. 

This PhD position will focus on the early modern and modern period, with a special focus on the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. The PhD-researcher will make use of a wide range of written sources, produced and formed by several actors, and includes among others census data, historical maps, images, official and private archival records, but also oral histories recorded through depth-interviews.

The interdisciplinary PhD in History & Geography will collaborate with an interdisciplinary PhD in Geography & History, under the supervision of both promoters of the project (Yves Segers, History and Gert Verstraeten, Geography).

Profile

Applicants are expected to have the following qualifications and attitudes:

• An MA in History or MSc in Geography, with demonstrable interest for and/or experience in the other discipline.
• Collaborative attitude; ability to work independently; ability to contribute creatively to the project.
• Experience with GIS is a plus, but not necessary
• Skilled in academic writing, oral communication of research results, present research in international conferences and intermediate publications, strong analytical skills.

Offer

We offer:

• A full-time PhD position for a period of 1 year. that can be extended to 4 years after positive evaluations.
• A doctoral scholarship with a net salary equal to that of an assistant (for more info, see https://www.kuleuven.be/personeel/jobsite/en/phd/phd-information#working-conditions)
• S/he will receive all regular provisions for PhD fellows at KU Leuven, allocated office space, a PC or laptop and additional funding for research activities like attending conferences abroad.

The successful candidate may be asked to provide (limited) assistance with teaching, student supervision and data management.

Interested?

For more information please contact Prof. dr. Yves Segers, tel.: +32 16 32 35 43, mail: yves.segers@kuleuven.be or Prof. dr. Gert Verstraeten, tel.: +32 16 32 64 11, mail: gert.verstraeten@kuleuven.be.

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