Oferty pracy w projektach finansowanych przez NCN

Nazwa jednostki: Department of Cultural Research, University of Lodz – Łódź, Inne oferty z tego miasta »
Nazwa stanowiska: Postdoc
Wymagania:

Requirements:
The candidate should:

- have a doctoral degree in the field of humanities or social sciences (cultural studies, ethnology, sociology, art history, design history, gender studies, philosophy, political studies, war studies etc.) awarded not earlier than 7 years ago (breaks related to the maternity and/or health leave should be added to this period); the candidate should be in possession of doctoral degree before the date of employment; persons whose doctoral diploma was awarded by the University of Lodz are not eligible, however, people who were awarded a doctoral diploma by the University of Lodz and who have later completed a postdoctoral fellowship (min. 10 months) at an academic institution abroad remain eligible; detailed information on the eligibility criteria for candidates for post-doc positions employed under projects funded by the National Science Center are described in the document available at: https://ncn.gov.pl/sites/default/files/pliki/uchwaly-rady/2020/uchwala137_2020-zal1.pdf#page=8 (page 11);

- have a documented scientific track record (including publications in English);

- be fluent in English;

- demonstrate a good knowledge of the research apparatus of cultural studies and the basic ability to apply research methods used in qualitative humanistic and social studies; the ability to conduct individual interviews and work with so collected data; knowledge of methods used in digital ethnography and the ability to work with software used to process qualitative data, including data from social media;

- be fluent in MS Office and show willingness to learn how to use other software for processing qualitative data (experience in this area is welcome);

- have the ability to carry out independent and responsible in research (a large part of the tasks belonging to the candidate's duties will be remote; the work requires independence in establishing contacts with artists, designing interview scenarios, conducting interviews, developing research results, preparing scientific articles, and presentation of results at academic conferences);

- show interest in the topic of the project, i.e. contemporary Syrian and Iraqi, especially those created by artists living in France and Great Britain; studies located at the overlap of politics and artistic production (with a particular focus on the Middle East region); memory politics; the issues of activism/artivism, especially related to political violence; theories of de-colonization and de-orientalization; have knowledge of feminist theories and new materialism, object-oriented theory, issues related to forced migration and refugees; knowledge of contemporary theories in the field of critical war studies, critical/feminist geopolitics will be an additional asset.

Opis zadań:

The objective of the project “The agency of things (that no longer exist): memories of urbicidal violence as articulated in the works of France- and UK-based Iraqi and Syrian artists” is to investigate the memory-work related to experiences of urbicidal violence articulated via initiatives of Syrian and Iraqi artists based in France and the UK. Since the geographies of displacement and intentional destruction continue to structure socio-political relations in Iraq and Syria, the diaspora artists reconsider the meaning and importance of a physical place (and its erasure) for community sustaining processes, encouraging new forms of political witnessing. A place, however, cannot be understood solely as a physical site. Rather, it must be seen as a complex combination of symbolic and material agents and forces, which operate far beyond an immediate physical location. The artists revaluate, through artistic means, the meanings of the “right to the city” (a concept developed by Henri Lefebvre in 1968) and how this can be exerted in the conditions of erasure or devastation of a place, followed by forced displacement. Given the fragile entanglements of places, rights, citizenship, urban space, community, and memory politics, this project adds a new perspective to the scholarship on responses to political violence in general, and the destruction of the built environment in particular.
The project assumes that the artistic practice of the UK and France-based Syrian and Iraqi artists exposes the fact, that people experience memory in spatial, often place-based, manners. Therefore, this research reveals the absolutely crucial role of the place for community-building processes, regardless of whether this place is real or imagined. Drawing on the concept of agency of things (that no longer exist), this study exposes the entwinement of political agendas and cultural production. It proposes a transdisciplinary approach bridging the cultural studies of art and political science. In line with current tendencies in cultural studies of politics to focus on war as practice and experience, it aims to reveal how the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Syria are lived through and remembered in the diasporic circumstances. This consists of an analysis of political issues (the legacy of political violence) through research strategies stemming from cultural studies of art and activism, and with employment of theories and concepts originating within the field of memory studies. In methodological terms, the project takes a new materialist perspective, which acknowledges the material-semiotic dimension of destruction. As such, it triggers reflection on the ways humans encounter, are affected by, respond to, destroy, relay upon, and are generally imbricated with matter. It also explores the agency of things, or how they affect us, and how this agency is entangled with, co-constituted by, and co-constitutive of cultural production (such as artistic practice). A new materialist approach to art acknowledges that the experience of art consists in the entanglement of matter and meaning. Not only does such an account of art revalue art’s material dimension, but it also underlines its generative qualities. Such an understanding will guide this study in the examination of the material-semiotic process of emergence of the work of art, the entanglement of the artistic process and the lived experience of the artist/artivist, as well as the study of the reception of the work of art by local audiences. This double conceptual move connected to the new materialist orientation of the project: the agency of things that no longer exist (lost houses, cities, communities, objects) and the rendition of art in agential terms (the work of art) testifies to the innovative methodological nature of this research. Operationally, the project makes use of archival research, semi-structured interviews, (digital) ethnographies, new materialist art analysis, and self-reflexive autoethnography.

The winning candidate’s tasks will include conducting qualitative research based on individual interviews with selected artists and analyzing the content of their social media; developing results based on the use of feminist/new materialist theories related to cultural geography, urban studies, artistic activism, critical geopolitics, memory studies etc. The candidate will participate in the production of project results (such as scientific articles, conference presentations) individually and in cooperation with the PI.

The PI of the project: dr hab. Dorota Golańska, prof. UŁ

Typ konkursu NCN: OPUS – HS
Termin składania ofert: 25 listopada 2024, 00:00
Forma składania ofert: email
Warunki zatrudnienia:

The successful candidate will be offered a full-time research position, for a period of 1 year.
The annual budget allocated to the remuneration of a person employed as a post-doc under this project is PLN 120 000 (including the employer’s costs). The successful candidate will be employed as an Assistant Professor (full-time research) and will be eligible for employee benefits available at the University of Lodz.
Residence in Lodz area is not required; however, the successful candidate will be asked to regularly participate in project meetings held at the University of Lodz. Starting date of the contract: January/February 2025.

Required documents:
The candidate should submit the following documents:
- a copy of the PhD diploma;
- cover letter containing a description of scientific interests and achievements, as well as a justification of the intention to undertake scientific work under the research project;
- curriculum vitae containing the history of previous education and employment as well as a list of publications and other scientific achievements;
- copies of up to three relevant academic articles;
- at least one recommendation letter (if available) and/or names and contact information of three referees;
- the following statement: “I consent to the processing of my personal data for the purposes of the recruitment process (in accordance with the Personal Data Protection Act of August 29, 1997, Journal of Laws No. 133, item 883).”

Dodatkowe informacje:

Please send your application to dorota.golanska@uni.lodz.pl by 25 November 2024 with the message subject “POST-DOC OPUS.”

Incomplete applications will be rejected. The selection board will evaluate the applications, the selected candidates will be invited to an interview, which will be held in English, via the selected internet platform, after which the chairman of the selection board will prepare a protocol containing the name of the candidate recommended for the work in the research project. In additional questions occur, the commission will contact the selected persons via phone or e-mail. The person selected for the position will be informed by e-mail.

Data dodania ogłoszenia: 2024-10-25 14:50:21