The Amsterdam Institute of Social Science Research (AISSR) and the Department of Anthropology at the University of Amsterdam are looking for three PhD candidates who will participate in the ERC funded research project 'Race Matter: The absent presence of race in forensic investigation', directed by Dr. Amade M’charek.

This project examines race in forensic identification by focusing on practices of giving a face to an unknown individual, a suspect or a victim. Although the face is generally viewed as the ultimate individual identifier, in practice individuality cannot be achieved without situating an individual in a population. The question is whether and how population gets translated into race.

The chief objective of this project is to explore a) how technologies of identification rely on and reiterate racial ways of understanding differences; b) how the version of race enacted in the process changes as knowledge travels across forensic sites; and c) which mechanisms contribute to the absent-presentness of race.

The three PhDs will focus on different technologies of identification through in-depth multi-sited ethnographies:
- genetic facial phenotyping (e.g. the inference of facial form, hair, skin and iris colour from DNA);
- craniofacial reconstruction (based on the skull) and
- facial composite through sketching or photofit.

Each of these technologies will be the focus of 1 PhD project. Ethnographies will be conducted throughout the full chain of forensic evidence making from the R&D laboratories to the forensic institutes, police stations and the courtroom. Across these sites the focus is on how knowledge travels and identities get translated. The project will make an original contribution to the anthropology of science and the anthropology of race in particular, by following knowledge around and attending to the ways race gets made and unmade in practices.

Tasks
- Conduct ethnographic field research;
- write and complete a PhD dissertation within four years;
- participate in the AISSR PhD programme;
- participate in conferences, workshops, seminars and other scholarly activities.

Further details:
http://www.academictransfer.com