Postdoc Position in the WEAVE-SNSF Project The Global Hospital: Reproducing healthcare through entanglements of labour, mobility, and knowledge in Switzerland and Austria (Project Consortium, Dr. Julia Rehsmann, Bern University of Applied Sciences, Prof. Dr. Janina Kehr, University of Vienna, Prof. Dr. Jelena Tosic, University of St.Gallen)
Your tasks
As key pillars of pandemic response, hospitals revealed both the paramount importance of clinical care in treating patients, but also the crisis hospital institutions and their workers face in changing healthcare systems. Hospitals are central nodes of gendered global care chains where more-than-medical labour and diverse knowledge funds intersect in the everyday reproduction of healthcare. Ongoing precarisation of hospital work, an increasing reliance on migrant labour, and the outsourcing of services and maintenance work render healthcare provision fragile. This project offers a novel conceptualisation of hospitals as gendered, more-than medical spaces of entangled labour (care and maintenance work), mobilities (care work migration, diaspora, international recruitment), and knowledge (in/formal knowledge practices and embodied cultural knowledge). The project combines multi-sited with local hospital ethnography and the funds of knowledge approach, as well as participatory design research. Four subprojects will focus comparatively on hospitals in Switzerland and Austria, as well as the Post-Yugoslav region and Colombia.
Your tasks
The Postdoc researcher will be conducting their research within the Subproject C: Dis/entangling routes of labour: Tracing diasporic and recruitment pathways of hospital workers in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Jelena Tosic at the University of St.Gallen, Switzerland (School for Humanities and Social Sciences / Migration Studies). Subproject C zooms in on diasporic and transnational contexts of lives and livelihoods of reproductive hospital workers. The project begins with an initial 4-month-fieldwork phase in Switzerland and Austria, where the Postdoc researcher joins the research teams of subprojects A (Switzerland) and B (Austria). The main multi-sited fieldwork phase (12 months) will employ multi-sited and mobile ethnography to trace diasporic transnational networks, practices, and recruitment pathways of hospital workers to and from their countries of origin – with a particular focus on the post-Yugoslav region (and including a short fieldwork stay in Colombia). This ethnographic focus includes family, friendship, and professional networks (e.g. educational institutions, former hospital workplaces) to reconstruct not only migration regimes and routes of recruitment but also to understand the educational and social resources, funds of knowledge, and culturally informed valuations of care and maintenance labour from diasporic (long-term histories of migration and connection) and transnational (recent labour migration) perspectives. Additionally, subproject C will also look at for-profit labour migration intermediaries (e.g. professional recruitment agencies, temporary staffing firms, and migration brokers) as key drivers of transnational mobility in the healthcare sector.
Subproject C will thereby explore how agencies and hospital workers, institutions and individuals are entangled in various ways (e.g. synergy, competion) as labour and workplace integration brokers. While the postdoctoral researcher will develop their own original research project within Subproject C, led by Prof. Dr. Jelena Tosic, it will be embedded in the pre-defined research framework of the larger collaborative WEAVE-SNSF project. This requires active collaboration with the team and contributions to the overarching research questions and objectives.
Your profile
- The candidate holds a PhD in Social/Cultural anthropology, Ethnology, Sociology, or a closely related field.
- They have demonstrated knowledge and experience in qualitative research and (multi-sited) ethnographic fieldwork, preferably (also) in the post-Yugoslav region.
- Prior engagement with topicsin the field of anthropology of migration – especially with regard to labour and knowledge – is essential, while experience with medical anthropology is considered an asset.
- To facilitate ethnographic fieldwork in the designated regions, proficiency in German and English is required, as well as competence in a post-Yugoslav language. Knowledge of Spanish is an advantage (basic knowledge is acceptable).
- The position is open to candidates of all citizenships/nationalities.
- The position requires residency in St.Gallen, Switzerland (apart from periods of fieldwork and a short guest stay at the University of Vienna), where the Postdoc researcher will actively participate in the work at the Department for Migration Studies.
Feel free to contact Prof. Dr. Jelena Tosic for more informaton!
Inspirational Work Environment
Executive Education
Network
Family & Career
Equal Opportunities
Fit and Healthy
Inspirational Work Environment
At the HSG, as Europe's leading business university, we operate in an entrepreneurial environment where you will meet highly qualified, ambitious experts - both regionally and internationally. For example, you benefit from a modern IT infrastructure and, in our library via HSGswisscovery, from nationwide access to the wealth of scientific information available.
Executive Education
We support internal and external executive education opportunities. Our internal executive education programme offers you a practical, dedicated and didactically mature transfer of knowledge in the form of seminars, e-learning, coaching and collegial advice. We support task-specific external training and executive education financially as well as with regard to the time required.
Network
We promote our culture of cross-functional collaboration and create space for forging valuable relationships - also with external partners. Regular exchanges and internal events help to strengthen these relationships and make them long-lasting.
Family & Career
We provide our employees with flexible work time models with a variable number of hours per week. As a family-friendly employer, we offer part-time positions, 16 weeks of maternity leave and a subsidised crèche, as well as support with childcare during the vacations.
Equal Opportunities
The University enables equal opportunities for all employees and students. This applies to degree courses and work, as well as academic careers, university management positions and the reconciliation of studies, work and private commitments. We are committed to this with various measures in the areas of teaching, research, administration and the Presidency.
Fit and Healthy
We help you stay fit and healthy. In addition to our diverse range of sports activities at the university, most of which are free of charge, and campaign weeks for corporate health management, we also offer you fruit in the workplace. In our canteen you will find a wide selection of freshly prepared meals - from vegetarian to fish dishes - at discounted prices.
Further information on working at the HSG can be found here.
For job-related questions
For questions and information about the position: jelena.tosic@unisg.ch
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Your place of work
University of St.Gallen
«A place where knowledge is created» - As one of Europe's leading universities of economics and business administration, the University of St.Gallen (HSG), Switzerland, is committed to the education of over 9800 students. The HSG is one of the largest employers in the region and provides an attractive and innovative environment for more than 3300 researchers, educators and professional staff.
