Tag: Eastern Europe

PHD Studentship: Reframing Postcolonial Discourse in East European Studies (UK)

“Studentships“PHD Studentship in Reframing Postcolonial Discourse in Eastern Europe, Queen Mary University of London and British Library, London, UK. Deadline: 8 May 2023.

Queen Mary University of London and the British Library are pleased to announce the availability of a fully funded Collaborative Doctoral Studentship from 1 October 2023 under the AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership Scheme. This doctoral project seeks to advance postcolonial discourse in East European studies by focusing on the British Library’s unique Belarusian collection, the history of its development during the Cold War, and the collection’s evolution in response to Belarus’ ‘decolonising moment’ as it broke out of the Soviet fold in 1991. This project will be jointly supervised by Dr Natalya Chernyshova (School of History) and Prof Jeremy Hicks (Department of Modern Languages and Cultures) at Queen Mary University of London and by Dr Katie McElvanney, Dr Katya Rogatchevskaia, and Dr Olga Topol at the British Library. The student will spend time with both QMUL and the British Library and will become part of the wider cohort of AHRC CDP funded PhD students across the UK. QMUL and the British Library are keen to encourage applications from the widest range of candidates and particularly welcome those currently underrepresented in doctoral student cohorts.

Project Overview: Slavonic and Eastern European collections at the British Library are one of its strengths. However, despite the diversity of the collections, the British Library co-supervisors have identified postcolonial research and its application to curatorial practices as a priority approach to these collections, likely to reveal many meaningful gaps and contested interpretations. The project will explore the British Library’s Belarusian resources, i.e., resources relating to Belarus and its diasporas, as a case study through which to develop an analytical framework that could be subsequently applied by future scholars and information professionals to the entire Slavonic and East European collection. The project will investigate how the establishment of independent Belarus in 1991 affected the British Library’s policy and approach towards collecting, describing, and interpreting its Belarusian material. The challenges here are many, from navigating the politically charged waters of choosing the right spelling for transcription in the resources’ metadata to finding ways of bringing into dialogue two parallel depositories of Belarusian culture: Soviet-based and diaspora-based, the latter represented by the considerable collection of material at the Francis Skaryna Belarusian Library in London. The research will seek to identify what further work needs to be undertaken to lead the decolonisation of discourse on Belarus and will develop recommendations on how such work can be carried out.

History of Technology Fellowship

The Karen Johnson Freeze Fellowship Fund invites young and early career scholars in the field of history of technology in Central, Southeastern, and Eastern Europe to apply for funding. The fund is an initiative of the Foundation for the History of Technology (SHT) and the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT).

The Karen Johnson Freeze Fellowship Fund seeks to encourage scientific research and facilitate active participation of early career scholars in Central, Southeastern, and Eastern Europe, in particular in Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, the Ukraine, and Turkey.

The fund was established in memory of Karen Johnson Freeze, who broadened the perspective of the history of technology through the inclusion of Eastern, Central, and South Eastern Europe. She was responsible for the early contacts with young scholars in the region and pointed out existing preconceptions and biases, while bridging the scholarly divisions created as a result of Cold War politics. Through her efforts, the history of technology has begun to develop as a field in Central and Eastern Europe. Within Society for the History of Technology (SHOT), she served as a very active chair of the International Outreach Committee.

Who Should Apply? The Karen Johnson Freeze Fellowship Fund supports early career scholars preferably working in Central, Southeastern, and Eastern Europe in their pursuit of either pre- or postdoctoral research in the field of history of technology. The award may be used for travel and/or small stipends to provide a basic income for a few months. Through the fund, early career scholars will be allowed to attend international conferences or visit distant archives.

How to Apply? Send an application to the Foundation for the History of Technology. In your application you should include:
a research statement about your ongoing or future research (2-3 pages)
a description of how you plan to use the Karen Johnson Freeze Fellowship within the context of your work (1 page)
your curriculum vitae
a reference letter of someone knowledgeable about your work
Please, send your application by regular mail or e-mail to:
Foundation for the History of Technology
Dr. Jan Korsten, Business Director
C/o Eindhoven University of Technology
IPO-Building 2.31
P.O. Box 513
5600 MB Eindhoven
The Netherlands

Application Deadline: Two fellowships will be awarded annually. The next application deadline is July 31, 2012. The 2012 fellows will be announced during the Tensions of Europe / SHOT meeting in Copenhagen, October 3-7, 2012.

Selection Committee: Fellows are selected by a committee consisting of Prof. Dr. Luda Klusakova (Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic), Prof.Dr. Ruth Oldenziel (Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands), Dr. Dobrinka Parusheva (University of Plovdiv, Bulgaria) and Prof. Dr. Steve Usselman (Georgia Institute of Technology, USA).

What are the conditions? A Karen Johnson Freeze Fellow will be granted an award of a maximum of €2,000.–. The expenses will be paid directly to the fellow after submission of a statement of expenses and the original receipts. In emergency cases, an advance payment may be available. Expenses are refunded in accordance with the regulations of the Foundation for the History of Technology.

Fellows are required to publish a report/article in the Tensions of Europe Newsletter and the SHOT Newsletter. Additionally, the Fellows will be offered the opportunity to publish their report in the Tensions of Europe Working Paper series.