Stipendiary Junior Research Fellowship in Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences 2019–2023
Immateriality
King’s College Cambridge invites applications for a four-year Junior Research Fellowship from those who are completing or have recently completed a doctorate and who intend to pursue a research project on some aspect of the study of immateriality.
Materialism has long been an important theme in both historical studies (Marx etc.) and in philosophy. In the last few years the theme of materiality, the way the physical properties of an object have cultural consequences, has inspired a vast body of research, giving rise to talk of a ‘material turn’ in literary and historical studies. But even properly to understand the role of material, we badly need to explore materiality’s converse, immateriality. What is the immaterial, if indeed it ‘is’ anything at all? This call for applications is open to investigations of immateriality in its own right, for example as a concept in the history of philosophy; it is also open to projects concerned with the relation between the material (artefactual, biological, geological, etc.) and the immaterial. The latter might include, for example, research on intimations of immateriality, such as hauntings or symbolism perceived in material objects; analysis of the intellectual means by which the material is ordered, such as ‘form’, ‘scheduling’, ‘discipline’ or ‘evolution’; study of the digital imagination as it relates to technological and human constraints; the building of ideology into the design of objects or infrastructure, such as ‘anti-homeless architecture’; or research on immaterial aspects of the human body in the context of biological reductionism.
This post-doctoral Fellowship is intended to encourage such research by enabling the successful candidate to complete a substantial research project on some aspect of immateriality in the context of recent advances in any of the following range of disciplines: philosophy, history, archaeology, classics, anthropology, psychology, architecture, literature, art and music studies, psychology.
The ideal candidate for this Junior Research Fellowship will have a strong background in one or more disciplines within the Arts, Humanities, or Social Sciences and have completed an outstanding doctoral thesis. It is not a requirement that the candidate’s doctoral studies or the work that they submit in support of their application should have concerned questions of immateriality, but candidates will be expected to show in their applications both how their future work relates to the work that they have already done, and to explain clearly how their proposed project relates to existing studies on their chosen theme. The successful candidate will be expected to engage broadly with the whole college community and to organise academic activities in the form of seminars/workshops/conferences (for which the College will provide modest funding).
The Junior Research Fellows are members of the Governing Body, with full privileges of Fellows. In addition to pursuing research, a Junior Research Fellow is required to live in Cambridge or close by and to participate in College life and activity. Privileges include all meals, limited financial support for expenses associated with research, the possibility of an office and accommodation in College properties. Although these are research posts, teaching is likely to be made available if desired.
The stipend attached to all Junior Research Fellowships is £21,290 (pre award of doctorate) rising each year to a maximum of £27,401, according to age and academic qualification. Additional payment is made for teaching. A living-out allowance of £4,000 is made to those not living in college. Further information about the College may be obtained from the College website (www.kings.cam.ac.uk).
Eligibility
Graduates of any university are eligible. Candidates will usually have completed their PhD and must not have undertaken more than 2 years of postdoctoral work by 1st October 2019 (i.e. your PhD cannot have been granted before 30th September 2017).
Dates
The closing date for application is 9 am on Thursday, 6th September 2018. Applications received after this date and time will not be considered. Short-listed candidates will be invited for interview on either Wednesday, 16th January 2019 or Thursday, 17th January 2019. Please ensure that you will be available for interview on these dates, as it is not possible to arrange other times for interviews. The Fellowship will begin on 1st October 2019 and will run until 30th September 2023.
Application
To apply use the following link to go to the FAS website and create an application:
Before the closing date, applicants must complete all sections of the online Fellowship Application and upload onto the website (PDF only) the following:
A curriculum vitae (of no more than three A4 sides) including details of higher education, degrees awarded, positions held and a list of publications.
A document (of no more than 1200 words in length) containing descriptions of your current research and of the research you propose to undertake during the Fellowship.
Applicants must also arrange for three letters of recommendation to be uploaded onto the site in PDF format. Each referee will be asked to provide the names of two further readers, not in the candidate’s institution, to whom work might be sent if the candidate is long-listed. It is the duty of the candidate to ensure that the referees submit the references and the names of two readers before the closing date.
Your referees will need to provide their references through the FAS website. They will be sent an email containing a link to do this. Referees unable to submit references electronically via the FAS website may e-mail provosts-pa@kings.cam.ac.uk to send them directly to the competition administrator.
Please note that all application materials must be in the English language.
The application will not be considered in the competition until it has been submitted and all references and the names of additional readers have been received. An email will be sent once this has occurred.
After the closing date, the College will contact selected applicants by email to ask for samples of written work, up to 20,000 words (either published papers or chapters of a doctoral thesis).
Travel expenses
A successful candidate travelling from outside the UK to take up a Fellowship may claim travel and removal expenses up to a level agreed in advance with the Bursar of the College.
Further questions
If you have any further questions regarding any aspect of the competition, please e-mail provosts-pa@kings.cam.ac.uk to reach the competition administrator.
King’s College follows an equal opportunities policy.
This opportunity has expired. It was originally published here:
http://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/research/junior-research-fellowships.html