Call for Applications: 2021-2022 Digital Humanities Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of Toronto, Canada

by Samrach · Published November 15, 2020 · Updated November 16, 2020

Deadline for applications: November 30, 2020

The Jackman Humanities Institute (JHI) at the University of Toronto, with support from the Council of Library and Information Resources (CLIR), offers a twelve-month Postdoctoral Fellowship in Digital Humanities, with a project that fits the JHI’s annual theme, “Pleasure”

2021-2022 Annual Theme: Pleasure

Whether understood as light amusement or passionate pursuit, as pure enjoyment, sensual gratification, bliss or hedonism, pleasure may be the most agreeable motivator. Yet pleasure has been described as “curious and appalling,” one of modern civilization’s most deadly poisons. Through its diverse manifestations – as intellectual satisfaction and the pleasures of knowledge, across studies of media audiences, addiction, virtual sex – when, and how, has pleasure become divorced from ideology, politics, and power? Uneasiness concerning pleasure resonates readily with humanists’ tendencies to formulate our subjects of study as constellations of problems, but is there space in our discourses for unironic joy?

The Digital Humanities Network

The Digital Humanities Network builds research and teaching strengths at the University of Toronto through programming, mentorship, and advocacy. We define digital humanities broadly, to include both critical praxis and the analysis of digitality. As of 2020 our primary focus is on critical digital humanities, a version of DH that places anti-racist, decolonial, feminist, and queer/trans/non-binary work at its core, and which understands our current historic shift in digital technology as an opportunity for social and political transformation. At the University of Toronto, Critical Digital Humanities foregrounds creative praxis, co-creation, public engagement, and community-based research.

The JHI DH Postdoctoral Fellow will have an established track record in their own discipline and/or the digital humanities. They will pursue their own research while at the University of Toronto, while working to foster the JHI’s DH Network at the University of Toronto. They will receive training, research, and networking opportunities through CLIR.

Responsibilities

The JHI DH Postdoctoral Fellow will be supported to attend the CLIR’s Postdoctoral Fellowship program’s mandatory week-long seminar in early August 2021 at Bryn Mawr College and other CLIR events. The JHI DH Postdoctoral Fellow will draw upon their disciplinary expertise and upon training provided by CLIR, the JHI, and UofT Libraries to connect and strengthen DH projects across the tricampus university. Specifically, depending on their own skill set and research interests, the JHI DH Postdoctoral Fellow will spend 15 hours per week as a member of the DHN Executive Team, where they will:

establish and maintain online spaces where members of the DH Network can share information about their research and discuss matters of common interest;
run regular roundtables and workshops at the JHI and with UofT Libraries on digital humanities topics;
organize, facilitate, and participate in other tricampus DH training initiatives;
facilitate introductions and connections between researchers within the DH Network;
in consultation with digital librarians, provide one-on-one and group consultancy to humanities researchers seeking to make use of infrastructure for digital scholarship in and beyond the University of Toronto; and
participate in planning the future shape and directions of the DHN.

While working with the DHN, the Fellow will also be part of the JHI scholarly community and will participate in weekly JHI fellows lunches every Thursday from the beginning of September to the first week of May.

The JHI DH Postdoctoral Fellowship is a twelve-month position, from 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2022, supervised by Professor Elspeth Brown (Director of the DHN and Professor of Historical Studies) and Alison Keith (Director of the Jackman Humanities Institute and Professor of Classics and Women’s Studies). The JHI DH Postdoctoral Fellow may seek additional research supervision from within UofT according to their own interests. They will have access to equipment and collaborative digital working space at JHI. This fellowship award provides an annual stipend of $54,636 (CAD) plus benefits. The incumbent is welcome to seek up to two one-semester courses as a sessional instructor with the appropriate unit(s) at the University of Toronto. The JHI DH Postdoctoral Fellow will be expected to pursue their own research relevant to the JHI’s annual theme, Pleasure.

Eligibility and Attributes

Applicants must have completed their doctorate within five years of the beginning of the fellowship on 1 July 2021. Applicants who will defend their thesis before the end of May 2021 are eligible, but a letter from their supervisor or Chair may be requested. Any award will be conditional on a successful defence. Applicants who received their Ph.D. prior to 1 July 2016 are ineligible. Applicants who are graduates of doctoral programs at the University of Toronto are eligible. This position is not open to those who hold a tenure-track position.

The successful candidate will be able to demonstrate excellence in teaching and research and have an established track record in the digital humanities. They will understand the history, development, and current state of the field; be able to assess institutional processes and policies; be willing to work with a range of scholars in and outside of their own field; desire to learn and pursue research in an interdisciplinary, collaborative environment; and be committed to open source development and open access scholarship.

The JHI Postdoctoral Fellowship in Digital Humanities is open to citizens of all countries. The University of Toronto is strongly committed to diversity within its community and especially welcomes applications from racialized persons / persons of colour, women, Indigenous persons, persons with disabilities, LGBTQ+ persons, and others who may contribute to the further diversification of ideas. Engagement as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto is covered by the terms of the CUPE 3902 Unit 5 Collective Agreement.

Procedure

You will be asked to upload the following documents in your application:

Letter of Application
Curriculum vitae
Project proposal
Statement of Digital Humanities Research Interest
Research Sample

You will also be asked to provide the names and email addresses of two referees, whom we will contact to request confidential letters of reference.

For more information about the application process, including an FAQ, please see the application instructions on the JHI website.

Deadline

All applications must be made online at www.humanities.utoronto.ca by 30 November 2020 at 11:59 p.m. (EDT). Faxed, emailed, and paper applications will not be considered.

Source / More information: Official Website.