Tag: Queen Mary University

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.

Queen Mary U: Chinese Studies and Digital Cultures (UK)

“Job

Lecturer in Chinese Studies and Digital Cultures , School of Languages, Linguistics & Film, Queen Mary University, London, UK. Deadline: 17 February 2023.

The Department of Modern Languages and Cultures, within the School of Languages, Linguistics and Film, is looking to appoint a suitably qualified Lecturer specialising in Chinese Studies and Digital Cultures. Applicants with specialisms in literature, film, visual arts, or culture and the ability to contribute towards our Liberal Arts and/or Global Development programmes would be especially welcome.

Duties will include research and publication, convening and teaching undergraduate modules, contributing to MA provision as appropriate, (co)-supervising PhD students, and undertaking administrative roles as required within the Department. You will be able to develop new modules, and adapt existing ones, in line with their specific research strengths. The ability to teach Chinese language to undergraduate students is essential. Knowledge of main critical theories within digital media and/or knowledge of digital methods with a particular focus on the humanities is also essential. Evidence of high-quality research and publications in renowned journals is also expected.

Applications are invited from specialists with a research background in one or more of the following areas: modern and contemporary Chinese literature, film, and culture; interdisciplinary (text, film, art, stage) or trans-historical work. You will be expected to teach on the following modules during your first year of appointment:

  • Introductory Chinese
  • Deconstructing ‘China’ in the Western Imagination
  • Digital Cultures
  • Contribute to Culture and Revolution: Russia and China

 

Queen Mary U: Partnerships Manager – Latin America Initiatives (UK)

“Job

Partnerships Manager – Latin America Initiatives, Queen Mary University, London, UK. Deadline: 30 January 2023.

Queen Mary University of London is seeking a committed and professional individual with a strong track record delivering complex projects and programmes, to support the development of Queen Mary’s activities in Latin America. This exciting new opportunity will allow the postholder to play a critical role in a key area of expansion for Queen Mary. The Partnership Manager will be responsible for building activity through initiating and managing the full range of collaborative activities including – in the first instance – organising international committees, coordinating high-level visits, and ensuring that appropriate resources and processes are in place to facilitate the smooth-running of existing and new relationships in Latin America.

A collaborative and collegiate approach is essential to the success of the role, with the postholder expected to be comfortable working with a diverse array of internal and external stakeholders, managing a busy workload, and complex network of stakeholders. Experience managing international partnerships within a Higher Education setting is an advantage but not a pre-requisite for success in the role.

Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowships (UK)

PostdocsThe Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Queen Mary University of London welcomes applications from outstanding postdoctoral scholars to the 2019 round of the Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship Scheme. Deadline: 28 November 2018.

Research across the Faculty is focused on the frontiers of disciplinary and inter-disciplinary approaches and debates, and the Faculty contributed strongly to Queen Mary University of London’s overall achievement of a top ten position for research quality in REF 2014 amongst multi-submission and multi-faculty universities in the UK.

Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships provide career development opportunities for those who are at a relatively early stage of their academic careers, and who have a proven record of research excellence. The expectation is that Fellows should undertake a significant piece of publishable work during their tenure and would contribute to the intellectual life and teaching programmes of the host School and the Faculty.

CFP Communication History conference (Italy)

CFP: Bridges and Boundaries – Theories, Concepts and Sources in Communication History
An International Conference in Venice, Italy – September 16-18, 2015

Organizer: Communication History Section of the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA)
Co-Sponsor: Centre for Early Modern Mapping, News and Networks (CEMMN.net) – Queen Mary University of London

Fernand Braudel in his seminal essay “History and the Social Sciences: The Longue Durée” pointed out that many academic disciplines/fields which study different aspects of social life inevitably encroach upon their neighbors, yet often remain in “blissful ignorance” of each other. Braudel and others have repeatedly called for historians and social scientists to overcome their deep ontological and epistemological differences in order to work together.

Despite much progress in this regard, communication history remains one of the fields where profitable interdisciplinary dialogue can still take place. Being aware of this need, the Communication History Section of ECREA invites researchers who focus on various aspects of the history of communication, media, networks and technologies (broadly defined), to come together with two main aims: 1) to explore the bridges and boundaries between disciplines; 2) to exchange ideas about how communication history is being done and how it might be done, while emphasizing theories, concepts and sources beneficial to their research, as well as emerging trends and themes.

A three-day conference will take place in Venice, one of the great hubs of early modern communication, at Warwick University’s seat in Palazzo Pesaro Papafava. The opening keynote address will be delivered by Professor Mario Infelise, a leading scholar of early modern print and journalism and the head of the graduate program in the Humanities at the University of Venice Ca’ Foscari. Instead of traditional panels and papers, the conference aims to foster dialogue among scholars of various disciplines through topically organized round-tables, master classes, and countless opportunities for informal discussions.

The organizing committee invites scholars to submit abstracts (max. 400 words) in which they address one of the main themes listed below and outline a short intervention that they might contribute to a round table on that theme. Such interventions should focus mainly on theoretical or methodological approaches, issues and experiences that the speaker has engaged with in his/her research. Historical case studies can be presented only so far as they contain a high degree of historiographical/theoretical significance. Interdisciplinary roundtable sessions will be organized in which participating scholars will also discuss questions raised by a chair and the audience, based on these proposals.

The deadline for abstract submission is January 10, 2015. The conference registration fee will be 140 euro and participants will be asked to cover their own travel expenses. Abstracts should be submitted through the conference website.

Main Themes:
(1) Theories and Models
Grand theories or meta-narratives often have at their core information networks and communication technologies. To what extent are theoretical premises advocated by scholars such as Braudel, Innis, McLuhan, Habermas, Luhmann, Benedict Anderson, Lefevbre – and more recently by Hallin and Mancini, Castells, Gitelman, Simonson, Mosco, Hendy, Hesmondalgh, F. Kittler, Fickers – applicable in historical inquiry? How has your own research in communication history been inspired by such concepts and theories?

(2) Space and Place
Communication networks and information technologies are always embedded in a material setting that can foster or hinder certain communication practices, call into being new forms of exchange, and drive technological development. What is the place of the geographical imagination in current communication history research? How valuable are the ideas of ‘place’ and ‘space’ in historical research? What are the current trends within the field of historical geography that can advance our understanding of communication history?

(3) News and Networks
How valuable is the idea of ‘the network’? What were the technologies that historically mediated the spread of information through networks? Who participated in networks used in advancing what Bourdieu later called cultural capital? To what extend did such networks contribute to the rise of public opinion and the public sphere? Can we talk about historical continuities between the early modern republic of letters and what Castells later popularized as the network society?

(4) Alternative Media
In order to understand communication history as a long-term, inclusive process, which alternative media or communication technologies (besides the familiar ‘mass media’ of the 20th century) need to be considered, and how? Possibilities might include migration flows, civic and religious ceremonies, theatre, preaching, fashion, the visual arts or architecture. What kinds of methodological or theoretical implications does their consideration carry?

(5) Sources and Methods
The progressive digitization of archives and libraries is opening access to primary sources for increasingly wider circles of scholars. What are the advantages and challenges raised by this development? To what extent do issues of materiality matter particularly to the realm of media and human communication research? What are the most relevant sources that you use for your own research?

(6) ‘New’ Media
At one time, even the oldest communication technologies were looked upon as suspicious novelties. Socrates famously condemned writing; the introduction of print may have been hailed by some as a ‘revolutionary’ enterprise – a term now often applied also to the digital age. What are the lessons that scholars can learn from studying critical periods during which one dominant technology is replaced by a new mode of communication? How do such lessons serve our understanding of the phenomenon called new media?

Organizing Committee:
Dr. Rosa Salzberg, University of Warwick, United Kingdom
Dr. Gabriele Balbi, Università della Svizzera italiana, Switzerland
Dr. Juraj Kittler, St. Lawrence University, USA

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