PhD Position: Women Building

Organisation/Company:
Radboud University

Research Field:
Anthropology – Cultural anthropology, Social anthropology;
Geography – Human geography, Social geography.

Researcher Profile:
First Stage Researcher (R1)

Final date to receive applications: 12 Apr 2026 – 21:59 UTC

Country:
Netherlands

Type of

Contract:

Temporary

Hours Per Week: 36.0

Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Not funded by a EU programme

Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No

As a PhD Candidate, you will investigate how women in peripheral communities in Latin America transform their urban environments to become more liveable, sustainable, safe and democratic.

The Department of Anthropology and Development Studies (ADS) at Radboud University invites applications for a fully salaried PhD position within the NWO-funded project ‘Women building cities:
Overcoming violence and transforming the city with communities of care’ (WECARE). WECARE is a comparative participatory and co-production research project led by Dr Sonja Marzi, Assistant Professor at the Department of Anthropology and Development Studies.

You will investigate how marginalised communities in Latin America transform their urban environments to become more liveable, sustainable, safe and democratic. In particular, you will focus on women’s everyday grassroots place‑making, local leadership and their right to the city, examining how they create alternative urban spaces and governance systems. The project aims to deepen understanding of how forms of alternative urbanism and city‑making are rooted in reciprocal practices of care and how these (predominantly informal) communities are created, function on an everyday basis, and why they thrive.

The project explores how women’s urbanism and city‑making contribute to making these spaces more liveable, safe and sustainable. The research compares four case studies across cities in Colombia and one other Latin American country, potentially Peru, using a qualitative participatory and co‑production research approach.

The research will be conducted by you and the Principal Investigator (PI), Dr Marzi. Together, you will further develop and refine the PhD case studies, the research approach and the various work packages, as well as analyse data, participate in conferences and author publications. Dr Marzi will conduct fieldwork in Colombia, and you will do the same in Peru, and an additional case study in another Latin American context may also be considered.

You will be based at Radboud University and conduct several months of in-depth fieldwork in low‑income neighbourhoods in Lima, Peru (and potentially another city in Latin America). Your research will focus on how women residents overcome different forms of violence through place‑making and local leadership, and how they create more safe, sustainable and liveable communities through self‑organised, alternative forms of urbanism and governance.

The specific focus will depend on the selected case study, but it will involve working with communities that often consist of migrants and displaced people who develop networks and collective practices to improve their living conditions, largely independent of the state. You will analyse how relationships are formed and sustained, how life histories shape these networks, how leadership emerges, and what enables these communities to thrive in contexts of violence and limited state support.

To address these questions, you will study everyday practices and perspectives using a participatory research approach, including audio‑visual participatory methods, in order to co‑produce knowledge together with women in these communities. Training in these advanced methods will be provided by the principal investigator. Strong knowledge of qualitative research methodologies and familiarity with participatory research approaches are required.

Your duties and responsibilities include:

• Setting up and carrying out in-depth and independent participatory fieldwork.
• Setting up and completing a PhD dissertation within four years.
• Authoring and co‑authoring publications with other team members.
• Partici…