Early Modern Notes

From www.jobs.ac.uk

Lecturer A/B in Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature, Department of English, University of Leicester. Starting 10 January 2005. £23,643 to £ 35,883 pa. “Candidates should have substantial teaching and research experience in Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature. Doctorate and sound publications records are essential.” Closing date: 1 October 2004.

Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in History, Sheffield Hallam University. £23,643 to £36,428 pa. “You’ll need a strong record of research and publications and proven teaching ability and will be contributing to undergraduate and Masters courses and a specialist final year module by developing existing areas of socio-political history, imperial history and cultural history, or by developing areas with a new thematic or subject focus. Ideally experienced in innovative teaching and learning strategies, you will be expected to contribute to the RAE.” Closing date: 4 October 2004.

Lecturer in History of Art, University of Birmingham. Fixed-term 3 year post, starting salary £23,643 pa. “Your research interests will be in an area of European Art c.1500 - 1950, or a complementary field. You will have completed your PhD in a related subject, and be able to demonstrate an established commitment to research and publication. Experience of undergraduate and postgraduate teaching is desirable.” Closing date 12 October 2004.

Senior Lecturer in the History of Medicine, Oxford Brookes University. £28,360 - £36,428 pa. “This is an important new appointment in the History of Medicine and is central to the future development of our Wellcome Trust funded Centre for Health, Medicine and Society. The successful applicant will join a large group of established medical historians located in a 5* rated History Department. Applications are invited from those with teaching and research interests in any aspect of British or European medical history in the period 1600-1900.” Closing date: 15 October 2004.

Research Fellowships, National Maritime Museum, London. There are several short- and longer-term fellowships, tenable from October 2005. Closing date: 1 November 2004.

Research Fellowships, funded by the Leverhulme Trust. “Approximately 100 Fellowships are available to enable experienced researchers (but not only members of academia) to undertake a programme of research (but not towards degrees or other qualifications). Fellowships have a maximum value of £22,000 and provide research expenses over and above normal living costs and/or a contribution to replacement teaching costs or loss of earnings. Awards are tenable for between 3 and 24 months and must be started between 1 June 2005 and 1 May 2006. Any subject considered. Applicants must be resident in the UK, over age 30, and be a permanent member of the UK scholarly community.” Closing date: 10 November 2004. Application details not available after 3 November 2004. (I’m not sure what they mean by ‘permanent member of the scholarly community’ if it’s open to those who are not ‘members of academia’… check if interested.)

From C18-L

Newberry Library Fellowships in the Humanities, 2005-06

The Newberry Library, an independent research library in Chicago, Illinois, invites applications for its 2005-06 Fellowships in the Humanities. Newberry Library fellowships support research in residence at the Library. All proposed research must be appropriate to the collections of the Newberry Library… Long-term residential fellowships are available to postdoctoral scholars for periods of six to eleven months. Applicants for postdoctoral awards must hold the Ph.D. at the time of application. The stipend for these fellowships is up to $40,000. Short-term residential fellowships are intended for postdoctoral scholars or Ph.D. candidates from outside of the Chicago area who have a specific need for Newberry collections… The tenure of short-term fellowships varies from one week to two months. The amount of the award is generally $1200 per month. Applications for long-term fellowships are due January 10, 2005; applications for most short-term fellowships are due March 1, 2005. For more information or to download application materials, visit our Web site at http://www.newberry.org/nl/research/L3rfellowships.html …

From H-Atlantic

Fellowships at the International Center for Jefferson Studies

1. Gilder Lehrman Junior Research Fellowship: “open to scholars working on topics directly related to Thomas Jefferson, his times, and legacy. “

2. Short-term residential fellowships, “for periods of up to four months to doctoral candidates and postdoctoral scholars working on Jefferson-related projects.”

3. Travel grants for short-term visits to the Center.

If I’m back at work, that means it’s time for the jobs bulletin again! This time we have some nice opportunities at jobs.ac.uk - not just in the UK, either. I’ll do another north American one at some point. If you know of good academic jobs websites for other regions (not least Australasia), let me know.

Part-time lecturer/senior lecturer in early modern British history, University of Surrey Roehampton. £26,361 to £39,146 pa (pro rata). To start 1 October 2004 or as soon as possible thereafter. “PhD, proven ability in teaching in higher education, and research publications are required". Deadline: Thursday 9 September 2004.

Lecturer/senior lecturer in history, Oxford Brookes University. £23,643 - £36,428 p.a. There are two posts advertised; it’s anticipated that one will be in the period 1500-1800. “The department has particular strengths in the history of poverty and welfare, the history of medicine, the history of law and crime, imperial and colonial history and fascism and right-wing movements. We wish to build on these, but we will also welcome applications from candidates with other specialisms in British, European or American History.” Deadline: 24 September 2004.

Senior lecturer in the history of art, Oxford Brookes University. £28,360 - £36,428 p.a. “The Department of Art History is seeking to appoint a scholar with teaching and research expertise in 18th and 19th century European art. The successful candidate will have a strong research and publication profile.” Deadline: 24 September 2004.

Lecturer/senior lecturer in early modern European history, University of Western Australia. Tenurable appointment commencing 1 January 2005. A$57,144 - A$67,860 p.a/A$70,001 - A$80,717 p.a. “Applicants must have a PhD with research specialisation in Early Modern European History (16th – 18th centuries, including the British Isles) and demonstrated commitment as a university teacher with the ability to teach and develop undergraduate units at all levels on Early Modern European History and on their research specialisation in particular.”

Wanted: a professional gossip

An ear-wigging, tongue-wagging, tittle-tattler is sought by The Complete Working Historic Estate of Shugborough.

Excellence in the fields of small talk, prattle and gibbering is essential while skills in artful snooping and grapevine development are desirable.

A small stipend and a gallon of small beer a day will be paid in return.

The advert got a report in today’s print Guardian (but I’m damned if I can find it in the online version). So I’m going to have to type it out.

Apparently, the successful candidate, dressed as a maid or footman, will be warned off idle chatter of goings-on in the gift shop and tea room, and confine her- or himself to the Anson family, ancestors of the present Lord Lichfield…

“This estate thrived for centuries on gossip", said Richard Kemp, Shugborough’s general manager. “We want to bring that back to life and celebrate the role of the wittering scandal-monger. If it weren’t for gossip, much of our nation’s history might have been lost.”

The same estate appointed a live-in hermit a couple of years ago.

I couldn’t find anything new at jobs.ac.uk this week (although there are a few non-specific history posts for which early modernists could apply). So, for a change, I visited the H-Net Jobs Guide, which has mainly US and Canadian adverts, and tried out a keyword search (now, if we were medievalists, it would be so much easier; they have their own category). I have not listed every post that came up; think of this as a sample of what you get if you look for “early modern".

Tenured associate or tenure-track assistant professor, Texas A & M University, “beginning in September 2005 in the history of the early modern or modern Mediterranean World. Preference will be given to candidates whose work is comparative and crosses geographical or cultural borders, who use gender as a form of analysis, and/or who complement existing strengths in the department". Deadline: 5 November 2004. (Student population of 45,000? Over here, half that size would be considered pretty huge. I think Aber’s student body is around 7000…)

Assistant professor, early modern Europe, Assumption College, Massachusetts. “This tenure-track position begins August 2005. Ph.D. required by fall 2005 and ability to teach intermediate and upper-level courses in early modern European history as well as introductory world history survey. Assumption College is a Catholic liberal arts college and seeks candidates who understand and support its mission". Deadline: 1 November 2004.

Assistant professor, early modern continental European social or cultural history, McMaster University, Ontario. A tenure-track post. “We are seeking a candidate who may engage with one or more of the cross-faculty fields and cooperative endeavors at the university, which include globalization, communication studies, cultural studies, multimedia, and the history of medicine". Commencing July 2005. “Applications received by 1 November 2004 will be assured of consideration.”

Assistant professor, early modern British history, Mercer University, Georgia. Tenure-track position, commencing August 2005. “The position requires a Ph.D. in history, scholarly achievement or potential, and a willingness to teach in an interdisciplinary program. Teaching duties in History include an introductory Western Civilization sequence, courses in Renaissance-Reformation Europe, British history, and (eventually) research and methods, plus a course in a non-Western or thematically important field in which the candidate is qualified (excluding ancient and medieval Europe, Africa, Russia, and France).” Deadline 1 December 2004.

It’s striking how much further ahead job ads in American universities are advertised than here in the UK. Advertising now (with deadlines this autumn) for appointments in summer/autumn 2005? The only situation I can think of in which that happens here is some college-based research fellowships (and only a handful of those will be advertised much before Christmas). That’s why things are fairly quiet at jobs.ac.uk right now; it’s getting too late to advertise for September/October starts, so there are few lecturing posts. Still, I’ve never really looked at the American academic job market before; perhaps these are in fact unusually early too, and there will be many more during the course of the year. Of course, I’m not used to the scale of things in the US university system, and not just in terms of university size (but then, only a couple of years ago I wouldn’t have known what was meant by ‘tenure’ and ‘tenure track’ either). But for any British historians thinking of a move to north America - or anywhere else - it’s a reminder of how higher education systems can vary nationally, and the need to do your homework…

A good week for early modernists at jobs.ac.uk. (Deadlines in under a week are highlighted in bold.)

Research Assistant in European History, London area? “Two established academics” are looking for a “postdoctoral research assistant with an interest in early modern and/or modern European History and some acquaintance with London archives", and ideally “a reading knowledge of German and French". One year from October ‘04; ’stipend’ at London University scales. No deadline stated.

Senior Lecturer in European Intellectual History, University of Birmingham. “You will have a strong research record in a central area of European intellectual history and culture. You will be responsible for developing courses in this area both at undergraduate and postgraduate level… play a key role in developing collaborative research networks and in promoting activity related to the pursuit of external research funding…. contribute to our top-grade research profile". £37,558 - £42,573 pa. Deadline: 9 August 2004.

Research Fellow, History, University of Warwick. “You will catalogue and analyse in database format a set of eighteenth-century French visual sources; analyse the material within a wider study of French eighteenth-century advertising culture and its connections with the fine and decorative arts; and present your findings in papers and articles.” Fixed contract to September ‘07, £21,640 pa. Deadline: 12 August 2004.

Lecturer in History of Crime, University College Northampton. “You will be involved in the teaching and administration of a second year module on the History of Crime in Britain 1640-1945, and also a special subject in the History of Crime and Order at year three level. In addition it is expected that you will make a contribution to history skills teaching and the history of war at first year level.” Two years from 1 October 2004. Part-time, 0.7 fte; £23,643 - 29,479 pa, pro rata. Deadline: 20 August 2004.

Archivist, Borthwick Institute of Historical Research, York. The Borthwick has smart new buildings on the University of York campus, and money sloshing around for new posts. It also has extensive medieval and early modern holdings (including church court records, yum), and may well welcome applicants with early modern interests. “Duties will include cataloguing new archives, contributing to the publications programme, assisting with research enquiries, teaching in and outside the University, sharing supervision of evening opening, and responsibility for creating and managing preservation strategy.” £22,507-£29,128 pa. Deadline: 25 August 2004.

Visiting Lecturer in Renaissance History, Roehampton University of Surrey. Required to teach the module ‘Impact of the Classical World on the Middle Ages and Renaissance’, “third-year module for students of History, Classical Civilisation and Art History, with strong focus on primary sources, content negotiable” . 12 weeks from September (total of 42 hours teaching + extra marking etc time). Fixed hourly rate of pay of £33.14. Deadline: 1 September 2004.

Academic Fellow, Early Modern Urban Studies, Oxford Brookes University. “The School of Arts and Humanities has been awarded one of the 200 new national Academic Fellowships established by the research councils to provide a route into an academic career for the most promising researchers. The fellowships are awarded for five years during which the successful candidate will develop and carry through one or more research projects and begin to undertake teaching duties. At the end of this period the fellow will be appointed to a permanent lecturing post in the School. The School invites applications from candidates of post-doctoral standing who wish to contribute to a large-scale collaborative research project on the history, culture, language, art and politics of early modern urban Europe .” (Wow.) Starting salary £23,643. Deadline: 3 September 2004.

Also of interest: Editorial Controller, British History Online, Institute of Historical Research, London. To work on “the digitisation of a range of historical sources"; need to “understand browser and platform compatibility issues"; have “at least one year’s editorial, bibliographic or research experience"; “good IT and excellent documentation skills". Initially two-year contract, £24,949 pa incl. London weighting. Deadline: 23 August 2004.

From H-Atlantic, news of some fellowships in the US:

Dissertation and Post-Doctoral Fellowships, Program in Early American Economy and Society at the Library Company of Philadelphia, 2005-2006. Stipends: dissertation-level fellowship, of $17,500 for the full year or two half-year fellowships of $8,750 each; post-doctoral fellowship, $40,000 for the full year or two half-year fellowships of $20,000 each. The Program will also award four one-month research fellowships carrying stipends of $1,800. Deadlines: post-doctoral fellowship, 1 November 2004; one-month and dissertation-level fellowships, 1 March 2005.

NEH Post-doctoral Fellowships, Library Company of Philadelphia. Very similar application details to the post-doc fellowship outlined above.

Visiting Fellowships, Library Company of Philadelphia and Historical Society of Pennsylvania. About 30 one-month fellowships to be awarded for 2005-6. Stipend of $1,800; also two Barra Foundation International Fellowships, each for $2,000 plus travel expenses, reserved for foreign national scholars resident outside the U. S. Deadline: 1 March 2005.