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The postdoctoral position provides an opportunity to conduct an independent research project that makes a substantial contribution to the research agenda of the cluster. The project should address the questions and topics of Research Area (RA) 3, "Future Perfect" and link them to the research agendas of at least one other Research Area, preferably RA 2, “Travelling Matters”. The project thus has a bridging function in linking the research areas of the cluster.

Research Area 3 explorse literature’s ability to construct complex temporalities of its own, shaping temporal communities potentially over long expanses of time. RA3 will focus on literature’s involvement in imagining as well as participating in diverse, often multiple temporalities. It studies how literary texts project their own reception in the future and forge temporal communities for themselves, how they constitute themselves within networks of intertextual relations and with reference to multiple traditions. How do cultural practices such as philology construct temporalities, e.g. by establishing chronologies or freezing textual objects in zones of radical synchronicity? How is literary history constituted through teleological narratives?


Further information in the job advertisements of Freie Universität Berlin from 21 March 2021 under the reference code: EXC 2020 RT_B Postdoc RA 3 2021 (PDF)

Job description:

• Development and implementation of a research project of their own within Research Area 3, "Future Perfect" and at least one other Research Area, preferably RA 2 “Travelling Matters”, with the aim of completing a monograph

• Organising research cooperation within Research Area 3 and participating in the work of the second Research Area which the research project relates to
• Contributing to the Living Handbook of Temporal Communities in close cooperation with the Editorial Board

• A substantial contribution to the further development of the cluster’s concepts and methodology and of its international networks

• Conceiving and organising international, interdisciplinary workshops and conferences
• Mentoring the doctoral students of Research Area 3
• Liaising with the Research Area’s international fellows

• Coordinating joint activities between RA 3 and, preferably, RA 2 dedicated to questions of form and materiality

Requirements:

Doctoral thesis in a humanities discipline with a literary studies expertise

Desirable:

• Documented experience in the fields of social theory and aesthetics
• Documented experience in the fields of social philosophy and literary sociology with a special emphasis on textual critique and the theory of critique
• Expertise in literary theory and literary studies as well as the history of philosophy

• Research foci in the fields of the philosophy of time and the philosophy of history
• Documented experience in the fields of the history of ideas
• Knowledge of current debates on issues of materiality, aesthetic forms of representation and the categories of ‘style’ and ‘form’ - Willingness to develop methodological concepts in the areas of the literary experience of time and the literary constitution of temporalities in the context of community building
• An excellent doctoral thesis
• Very good knowledge of both German and English (with a minimum competence in one of these languages at the level of C1 GER and the other at the level of B2 GER)

• Good knowledge of French and a documented knowledge of an ancient language (preferably Latin or Greek)

Further information

Applications containing the usual documents (CV, credentials, list of publications) as well as a maximum 5-page synopsis of the planned research project may be submitted either in English or in German. The synopsis should make explicit the concrete contribution to the research agenda of the cluster and explain how the planned research project combines aspects of two or more Research Areas. Applications should contain the reference code and be sent no later than April 12th, 2021 by e-mail to Professor Andrew James Johnston as one PDF file: ra3@temporal-communities.de.

If you plan to apply, please consult the following sites:

• Job Offers at Freie Universität Berlin (21 March, 2021)
• FAQs about the application process