The Faculty of Arts is a large, dynamic faculty in the heart of the city of Groningen. It has more than 5000 students and 700 staff members, who are working at the frontiers of knowledge every day. The Faculty offers a wide range of degree programmes: 15 Bachelor’s programmes and over 35 Master’s specializations. Our research, which is internationally widely acclaimed, covers the following fields: Archaeology, Cultural Studies, History, International Relations, Journalism, Language and Literary Studies, and Linguistics.

Job description

Specialty areas: History of Reading; Book History; Medieval Literature; Medieval History

Job description:
Applications are invited for two PhD positions (AIO’s) in the research project « Cities of Readers: Religious Literacies in the Long Fifteenth Century », funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). The research project aims to supply a new phase in the scholarly exploration of the « long fifteenth century » (1400-1550), a period characterized by great cultural, political and religious changes: a stronger urbanization, the development of religious observance movements, a growing social mobility accompanied by a rising literacy and an increasing book production. This pivotal period in Dutch and European history will be approached through the study of the participation of lay people in the production and the transmission of religious knowledge by engaging in textual and performative activities. The project will innovatively approach religious knowledge in terms of dynamics, exchanges and negotiations and will consider both individuals and groups (« communities of interpretation », i.e. formal and informal textual communities sharing texts and knowledge) as objects of research.

The research team will consist of two project leaders, a postdoc and two PhD candidates.

PhD project 1. Reading, Writing, Collecting: Miscellanies and Private Libraries
The project centres on the study of religious and devotional manuscript miscellanies and of the presence of religious texts in private libraries in the late medieval Low Countries. The reconstruction of the dynamics of reading, writing and collecting religious texts and books will take its start from the investigation of the agency of scribes and collectors, who copied and collected religious material for personal use or in the framework of a small « community of interpretation », and of their role as producers, keepers and disseminators of religious knowledge. The research corpus will consist of a selected corpus of vernacular miscellanies with a specific religious connotation, as well as archival sources about late medieval personal libraries and book collections.

PhD project 2. Texts in Action: Performative Reading
The project focuses on the analysis of literary genres and modes that stimulated lay access to religious knowledge through performative reading. Central to this project is the contention that these genres and modes (e.g. allegories, dialogues and partly dialogized texts, miscellanies), through their performativity, increased laypeople’s access to areas of intellectual and practical knowledge and enhanced their ability to achieve a higher level of religious acculturation. The research corpus will consist of texts both in manuscript and print and the analysis will be supported by the study of traces of use, users notes and contextual evidence concerning book ownership and use, as well as insights from four areas that informed and conditioned performative reading: visual arts, preaching, theatre and rhetoric.

The text of the research proposal, with a complete description of the PhD research projects, is available via Dr Sabrina Corbellini.

Qualifications

• ReMa or MA degree in Medieval History, Medieval Dutch Literature, Medieval Studies or equivalent
• good knowledge of Middle Dutch
• good working knowledge of modern languages (German, English and French)
• basic ability to read late medieval and early modern handwriting
• interest in methodological and theoretical discussions in the field of cultural history
• a strong motivation to complete a PhD dissertation in 4 years
• proactive attitude
• ability to work independently whilst also a team player.

Conditions of employment
The University of Groningen offers a salary of € 2,083 gross per month in the first year to € 2,664 gross per month in the fourth year (figures based on full employment, salary scales CAO Dutch Universities). The 1.0 fte appointment is temporary for a specified period of four years. The candidate will first be appointed for 18 months. After the first year, an assessment will take place of the candidate’s results and the progress of the project to decide whether the employment will be continued.
The appointment will be effective from 1 January 2015.

Affiliation
The PhD candidates will be enrolled in the Graduate School for the Humanities, affiliated with the Research Institute for the Study of Culture Groningen (ICOG), and based at the Departments of Dutch and History.

Application

Applications should be in English or Dutch and should contain the following:

• a short statement (c. 1000 words), explaining the preference for one of the two vacancies. The text of the research proposal, with a complete description of the PhD research projects, is available via dr. Sabrina Corbellini
• a curriculum vitae (including date and place of birth, copies of MA-degree and -grades, also – if applicable – titles of publications)
• copy of MA thesis
• copy of passport
• e-mail and postal address of two academic referees.

Please send your entire application in only two pdf-files (one for the MA thesis and one for all other documents) before 29 September 2014 (Dutch local time) by means of the application form (click on « Apply » below the advertisement on the University website).

Acquisition is not appreciated.

Information
For information you can contact:
Dr Sabrina Corbellini (for information about the research project), s.corbellini@rug.nl
Drs. Marijke Wubbolts (for practical information), m.r.b.wubbolts@rug.nl
(please do not use for applications)

Source de l’information : Vlaamse Werkgroep Mediëvistek