PhD in Heritage and Tourism: Witch Hunts as a Gendered Traumascape, Erasmus Rotterdam

Erasmus University Rotterdam is recruiting a PhD candidate for a four-year project examining how the history of early modern witch persecutions in the Netherlands takes shape today in heritage and tourism. The project sits within the broader research programme Traumascapes, which explores how societies engage with difficult or traumatic histories in landscapes, heritage practices, and tourism.

The project focuses on how memories of witch persecutions circulate today through heritage practices and tourism contexts: museums, walking routes, local storytelling initiatives, digital platforms, and contemporary witch-identifying or pagan communities. It approaches these as a gendered traumascape, paying particular attention to gender, heritage practices, and processes of value formation.

Methodologically, the candidate will use qualitative approaches such as discourse analysis, site-based observation, and interviews with relevant actors in heritage, tourism, and civil society. Beyond the Dutch case, the work will develop thematic comparisons with other case studies in the Traumascapes programme, contributing to a broader analytical framework for studying gendered traumascapes.

The role also includes participation in the Traumascapes consortium, knowledge exchange with societal partners, and a 15% teaching contribution to the Arts and Culture department.