Call for Applications: 3 postdoctoral positions and 2 research assistants

From East to West, and Back Again: Student Travel and Transcultural Knowledge Production in Renaissance Europe (c. 1470- c. 1620)
Principal Investigator: dr hab. Valentina Lepri, prof. IFiS PAN
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ERC Consolidator Grant n. 864542, KnowStudents

CALL FOR 3 FIVE-YEAR POSTDOC FELLOWSHIPS

DEADLINE: August 23, 2020

For informal enquiries, please contact the project’s PI Valentina Lepri (vlepri@ifispan.edu.pl)

http://www.ifispan.pl/application-form-w-projekcie-from-ea…/

The Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences is seeking 3 postdoctoral Research Fellows to join the team of the ERC-funded Consolidator Grant “From East to West, and Back Again: Student Travel and Transcultural Knowledge Production in Renaissance Europe (c. 1470- c. 1620)”, led by Professor Valentina Lepri.

INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROJECT

The project as a whole will run for 5 years from November 2020. Its main aim is to provide a first global study of transcultural knowledge production in the early modern age (c.1470- c.1620), by examining the development of academic disciplines within the international and multicultural environment in which they were taught and studied.
The guiding idea of the project is that the richest and most varied evidence of transcultural knowledge produced during the early modern age was provided by central-eastern European students migrating westwards. The study perspective that traditionally focuses on university
academics will be reversed, concentrating on travelling students seen as knowledge agents. The manuscript anthologies produced by central-eastern European students travelling westwards are unique documentary evidence of the production of transcultural knowledge in the Renaissance
period. The students who produced them were of Slavic, Hungarian and Baltic linguistic backgrounds and their countries bordered with the Latin world on one side and the Russian and Ottoman Empires on the other. Through study trips they received education in a certain disciplinary field, but during their sojourns they also discovered classical Greek and Latin culture, vernacular literature and the artistic expressions of the host country, also experiencing their customs and lifestyles. Their learning was not restricted to a neutral recording of the subjects of study; on the contrary, it was an act of re-elaboration of the new knowledge influenced both by the individuals’ intellectual baggage and the place where they were studying.
The project will involve the interpenetration of intellectual history and the history of central-eastern European student migrations, involving a meticulous analysis of their notebooks. Exploring the students’ contribution to the history of intellectual thought will shed light on a significant historic phase in the formation of European identity.

JOB PURPOSE
The Research Fellows will be appointed for a 60-month period and their principal tasks will be to examine: (1) what sort of materials a student who had grown up in a social, cultural and linguistic context different from that of the universities of central and western Europe chose to transcribe and preserve in his notebooks; (2) how the academic disciplines influenced other readings related to the sphere of customs and habits, and vice versa; (3) in what way the culture of origin entered into contact and mingled with the one the student was exploring.

The Research Fellows will conduct their activity:
- Selecting case studies and producing a systematic study of the contents of students’ notebooks. The first part of the work will be carried out in the archives of a selection of libraries in Poland, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Ukraine and Hungary. A 2-month training period will prepare the post-docs for the application of a method for the material examination of documents. The subsequent selection of case studies will be organised following the disciplines of recorded lessons, preparing the ground for the study planned in the following steps.
- Examining the students’ organisation of documents. Since Renaissance university environments offered multifold cultural inputs, the Research Fellows will consider them in their entirety, evaluating reciprocal influences. The analysis will focus on how social and cultural factors have played a role in the ordering of notebooks, bearing in mind the dual purpose of their compilers, which was both education and leisure.
- Exploring the cultural interaction between East and West. The Research Fellows will compare literary texts, in Latin and in vernacular languages, belonging to humanist literary culture and transcribed by the students. The contents of the annotations will also be evaluated in the framework of the academic debate on the vernacularisation of academic disciplines. Where possible, the Research Fellows will analyse the confessional orientation of the compilers in order to understand its impact on the selection of non-academic documents.

GENERAL REQUIREMENTS AND APPLICATION PROCESS

By the time of appointment (scheduled in November 2020) applicants must have a PhD or equivalent in Classics, History of Philosophy, Intellectual History or another relevant field; an excellent knowledge of English, Latin and one of the languages outlined for each position (see the following section below), and first-hand familiarity with Renaissance philosophy and/or literature and the methods of research in Renaissance intellectual history and/or literature.
Due to the special character of source material, acquaintance with archival material and familiarity with working on early manuscript sources will be essential for all three post-docs.

Applicants must submit:
• Application form (downloaded from the website: http://www.ifispan.pl/application-form-w-projekcie-from-east-to-west-and-back-again-student-travel-and-transcultural-knowledge-production-in-renaissance-europe-c-1470-c-1620/)
• One or two samples of written work in PDF (if possible including one publication in English)
• Two reference letters which should be sent directly by the named referees
• Confirmation of the doctoral degree (e.g. a scan of the doctoral diploma, or confirmation of the planned date of the doctoral degree).
• Scanned letter containing the following signed statement:
Wyrażam zgodę na przetwarzanie moich danych osobowych (w postaci: imienia i nazwiska, nr telefonu, adresu poczty elektronicznej, wizerunku oraz innych informacji zawartych w dokumentach aplikacyjnych) przez Instytut Filozofii i Socjologii PAN, z siedzibą w Warszawie, ul. Nowy Świat 72 w celach rekrutacyjnych.

The complete application must be sent via email to konkurs@ifispan.waw.pl by August 23, 2020. Title subject of the email will be following: “Postdoc 1 [or 2, or 3] w projekcie ERC Consolidator Grant KnowStudents”.
By September 4, selected candidates will be formally invited to the final interview in Warsaw at the IfiS PAN. In the light of the COVID-19 health emergency, remote interviews will also be allowed. Interviews will be held, in the English language, from 7 to 11 September, the results will be announced on 30 September.

PROFILE AND COMMITMENT OF EACH CANDIDATE

Post Doc P1 (Finno-Ugric area) (60% workload for five years)

Education and skills
- PhD in the cultural or intellectual history of early modernity including the history of science (15th-17th centuries) focused on one or more regions within the Kingdom of Hungary
- Thorough experience of working with early modern archival and codicological materials
- Fluency in English and Hungarian or Romanian
- Soft skills: Independence, initiative, determination, team work, curiosity

Commitment
• Research Activities
• Study missions (first 2 years of project only, at least 5 missions per year) to Hungarian and Austrian libraries in order to identify source materials for the project and to prepare case studies
• Attendance at two 1-month training sessions in Warsaw (November 2020, January 2021)
• Participation in team activities, more specifically at least 3 meetings per year to be held in Warsaw and 3 via Skype/Zoom. The duration of each meeting will be 3 days (2 team meetings and one individual consultation with the PI). The meeting agenda will include: (1) description of the case studies and archives examined, (2) discussion of emerging problems, (3) presentation of contents of the secondary literature written in languages other than English to the research team
• Attending at least 2 conferences per year ( first 3 years of project only)
• Submitting at least 2 scientific articles per year in English to peer-reviewed Open Access journals (after the first year of the fellowship)
• Submitting two applications for national or international grants based in the institute within the 5 years
• Compiling annual reports on the research activity carried out and the related findings
• Collaboration in the dissemination of research products: (1) Data management, (2) Submission process coordination [contacts with authors and reviewers], (3) Copy editing.

Post Doc P2 (Slavic area) (60% workload for five years)
Education and skills
- PhD in the cultural or intellectual history of early modernity (15th-17th centuries), focused on one or more of the Slavic countries
- Thorough experience of working with early modern archival and codicological materials, including the history of science
- Fluency in English and one of the Slavic languages
- Soft skills: Independence, initiative, determination, team work, curiosity

Commitment
• Research Activities
• Study missions ( first 2 years of project only, at least 5 missions per year) to Polish, Czech, and Ukrainian libraries for the identification of case studies
• Attendance at two 1-month training sessions in Warsaw (November 2020, January 2021)
• Participation in team activities, more specifically at least 3 meetings per year to be held in Warsaw and 3 via Skype/Zoom. The duration of each meeting will be 3 days (2 team meetings and one individual consultation with the PI).The meeting agenda will include: (1) description of the case studies and archives examined, (2) discussion of emerging problems, (3) presentation of contents of the secondary literature written in languages other than English to the research team
• Attending at least 2 conferences per year (first 3 years of project only)
• Submitting at least 2 scientific articles per year in English to peer-reviewed Open Access journals (after the first year of the fellowship)
• Submitting two applications for national or international grants based in the institute within the 5 years
• Compiling annual reports on the research activity carried out and the related findings
• Collaboration in the dissemination of research products: (1) Data management, (2) Submission process coordination [contacts with authors and reviewers], (3) Copy editing.

Post Doc P3 (Baltic area) (60% workload for five years)
Education and skills
- PhD in the cultural or intellectual history of early modernity (15th-17th centuries), focused on one or more of the Baltic countries
- Thorough experience of working with early modern archival and codicological materials, including the history of science
- Fluency in English and one of the Baltic languages
- Soft skills: Independence, initiative, determination, team work, curiosity

Commitment
• Research Activities
• Study missions (first 2 years of project only, at least 5 missions per year) in Lithuanian, Estonian and Latvian libraries for the identification of case studies
• Attendance at two 1-month training sessions in Warsaw (November 2020, January 2021)
• Participation in team activities, more specifically at least 3 meetings per year to be held in Warsaw and 3 via Skype/Zoom. The duration of each meeting will be 3 days (2 team meetings and one individual consultation with the PI). The meeting agenda will include: (1) description of the case studies and archives examined, (2) discussion of emerging problems, (3) presentation of contents of the secondary literature written in languages other than English to the research team
• Attending at least 2 conferences per year (first 3 years of project only)
• Submitting at least 2 scientific articles per year in English to peer-reviewed Open Access journals (after the first year of the fellowship)
• Submitting two applications for national or international grants based in the institute within the 5 years
• Compiling annual reports on the research activity carried out and the related findings
• Collaboration in the dissemination of research products: (1) Data management, (2) Submission process coordination [contacts with authors and reviewers], (3) Copy editing.

What will be offered:
 5-year contract (Part-time, 60%)
 International, young and stimulating working environment
 Opportunity to work in a prestigious scientific institute, with the highest category in Poland (A+);
 Tailored training throughout the duration of the project
 Financial coverage of study missions (travel and accommodation)
 Conference budget (first 3 years of project only)
 Coverage of publication costs
The complete application must be sent via email to konkurs@ifispan.waw.pl by August 23, 2020. Title subject of the email will be following: “Postdoc 1 [or 2, or 3] w projekcie ERC Consolidator Grant KnowStudents”.
By September 4, selected candidates will be formally invited to the final interview in Warsaw at the IfiS PAN. In the light of the COVID-19 health emergency, remote interviews will also be allowed.
Interviews will be held, in the English language, from 7 to 11 September, the results will be announced on 30 September.