The University of Warwick – English and Comparative Literary Studies – invites applications for a Postdoctoral Researcher to work on a Leverhulme-funded research project:
“World Literature and Commodity Frontiers: The Ecology of the ‘long’ 20th Century.” 

This Postdoctoral Research Fellow position is available for a period of 3 years, and is specifically for scholars interested in working on West Africa.

Role:

The successful applicant will be working at the intersection of world literature and the environmental humanities. They will contribute to the overall development of the project, but will be expected to focus specifically on its West African component, conducting research into the cacao and gold frontiers in Ghana and placing these in a comparative context. They will be expected to produce a monograph based on their research, as well as to contribute to joint publications by the project team. The project will involve research trips to Ghana. 

The post is part of a collaborative project led by Dr. Michael Niblett. The project team also includes Dr. Chris Campbell (University of Exeter) as Co-Investigator.

Project description:

Since the turn of the century, the field of comparative literature has been profoundly impacted by two key developments. One is the resurgence of debate around the concept of world literature, arising from a sense that ‘globalization’ has thrown the received disciplinary protocols of literary studies into question. The other is the continued headway made by ecocritical paradigms, which, in the context of urgent concerns over the planetary biosphere, have pioneered new ways of thinking about the interconnections between global literatures. Situating itself at the intersection of these areas of study, the project will pursue a form of literary comparativism grounded in the ecological changes entailed by the movement of specific commodity frontiers in a select range of locations.

Focusing on the period from 1890 to the present, the project will compare the relationship between literature and the sugar, cacao, coal, tin, gold, and stone frontiers in Brazil, the Caribbean, West Africa, and the UK. It will investigate how fiction and poetry mediate the lived experience of frontier-led ecological change, and how cultural imaginaries have been impacted by or contributed to such change. The project combines a materialist approach to world literature (understood in terms of its relationship to global capitalism) with new approaches to global ecology.

Eligibility:

Candidates must possess a PhD in a literary field. Applicants with a background in one or more of the following are particularly welcome: world literature, postcolonial studies, African Studies, ecocriticism, and the energy humanities. Familiarity with world-systems thinking and world-ecology is advantageous.

If you have not yet been awarded your PhD but are near submission or have recently submitted your PhD, any offers of employment will be made as Research Assistant on level 5 of the University grade structure. Upon successful award of your PhD and evidence of this fact, you will be promoted to Research Fellow on the first point of level 6 of the University grade structure. See Warwick University website for more details.

Closing Date: 11th June 2018

How to Apply: 
Informal enquiries to Dr Michael Niblett (m.niblett@warwick.ac.uk)

Find out more here: https://www.academicgates.com/job/detail/5212cfb4-802c-4bb4-922b-7c41ff459434
 

Categories: And Other Words..., Calls for & opportunities, Research, Studies, Teaching

Tags: Africa, Call for applications, Culture, Ghana, Gold Coast, literature, Research, Studies, Teaching, world literature