About the Project
Successful candidates will become members of the prestigious ERC-funded TIDE project (www.tideproject.uk) which is based within the Department of English. They will undertake their PhD research while undertaking research- and training-related activities on a part-time basis (0.2 FTE or 7 hours per week) under the supervision of the project director, Professor Nandini Das.
Applications are invited from candidates with a strong background in early modern literary studies. The proposed PhD project should explore responses to and practice of transculturality in early modern English literature and culture within the period from 1550-1700. Illustrative topics include:
• Translations and translators operating across English and other languages and cultures.
• Lexicography and language teaching and its influence on literary texts;
• Renaissance multilingualism and its influence on particular literary genres;
• Issues of race, ethnicity and belonging in early modern English theatre (focus on institutional drama, court masques, and the work of city-dramatists such as Dekker, Deloney and Middleton particularly welcome);
• Responses to cross-cultural exchange and contact in early modern popular literature;
• representations of ethnicity, nationality, and identity in travel accounts (focus on Richard Hakluyt’s Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation particularly welcome);
• Representation of particular figures of mediation and mobility, such as sailors, ambassadors, or spies.
• Religious cultures of difference in England and beyond (including polemicist literature, tolerance or awareness of global religions on the stage).
The proposal may focus on a single author, a set of authors, one or more genres, and one or more race, ethnicity, or non-English nation. Research projects able to contextualise literary texts within the broader political and intellectual history of British and European cross-cultural encounters, both within Europe and beyond, are encouraged. Interdisciplinary projects are welcomed.
Please note that relevant interdisciplinary projects situated at the interface of literary and language studies (e.g. historical pragmatics, corpus linguistics) are also welcome. Potential areas for investigation in this domain include:
• Philological approaches to the study of contemporaneous cultural concepts (e.g. clusters of terms or general lexical and semantic fields having to do with travel and identity in early modern England).
• Linguistic representation and/or construction of particular discourses within and across early Modern English text-types (e.g. fiction, travelogue, polemics, sermons, legal documents, drama, personal letters etc).
Eligibility requirements:
• A proven track record of excellence at undergraduate and postgraduate level, and potential to be an outstanding academic researcher.
• First class or upper second class undergraduate degree or an equivalent overseas qualification in a relevant subject;
• A good Masters degree in a relevant subject;
• Research experience is desirable
• Proficiency in a second language is desirable, but not essential.
Candidates are requested to submit the following:
• A cover letter which explains how they meet the selection criteria for the post (max. 2 pages)
• Curriculum vitae (max. 2 pages)
• Research proposal (1200 words)
• One piece of sample work, ideally an assessed essay on early modern literature from a previous course (up to 3000 words)
• Candidates are required to arrange for references by two independent academic referees to be sent by the deadline. It is suggested that references are requested from people both of whom are familiar with the candidate’s recent work.
Shortlisted candidates may be contacted for an interview in person or skype.
Informal enquiries about project ideas are welcome and should be directed by email to Professor Nandini Das ([Email Address Removed]). For more general enquiries about the contact the TIDE administrator at [Email Address Removed].
To apply for this vacancy please send a full application with the documents noted above to: [Email Address Removed]
Start date: October 2017
Funding Notes
The studentships are open to UK/EU and international students. However, prospective international candidates should note that funding for the studentships will include an annual maintenance stipend and tuition fees at UK/EU rates only.