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The Cluster of Excellence 2020 "Temporal Communities: Doing Literature in a Global Perspective" aims to create a new theoretical and methodological take on literature in a global perspective. Introducing the notion of ‘temporal communities’, the Cluster investigates the ways in which literature reaches out through space and time, establishing complex temporalities and extensive transcultural and transtemporal networks as it interacts with other arts and media. The Cluster’s research is conducted within five Research Areas: 1. Competing Communities, 2. Travelling Matters, 3. Future Perfect, 4. Literary Currencies, 5. Building Digital Communities.
From 1 October 2024, 5 positions for research associates (50% part-time, limited to 3 years, pay group 13 TV-L FU) are available at the Cluster (www.temporal-communities.de). The research associates will at the same time be doctoral students at the Friedrich Schlegel Graduate School for Literary Studies. They will complete its curriculum and have access to its mentoring and qualification offers. Doctoral students will have access to travel, conference, and workshop funds.
The position advertised here will be filled in the research project “Prizeworthiness: Kinship Beyond Literary Nationalism“ (project lead: Prof. Dr. Caroline Kögler) located in Research Area 4: "Literary Currencies" of EXC 2020. State-funded literary prizes often (re-)produce normative ideas of national community and concomitant notions of literary value (“prizeworthiness”). This project, however, is concerned with cases in which prizeworthiness eludes the boundaries of the 'nation,' thereby producing unexpected 'kinship' relations that unfold transhistorically, transnationally and/or transregionally, such as in the context of immigration debates and/or in postcolonial conditions. The project focuses on Anglophone countries and literary debates, with a thoroughgoing interest in prizeworthiness’s overlaps with other factors of positionality (gender, race, class, queerness etc.).
For further information on the project, please refer to www.temporal-communities.de/research/literary-currencies/projects/prizeworthiness/index.html

Job description:

• Conducting a three-year research project in the framework of the project "Prizeworthiness: Kinship Beyond Literary Nationalism" in the EXC 2020 "Temporal Communities"; a short synopsis of 1–2 pages outlining possible lines of investigation for the research project must be included with the application.
• Completion of the curriculum of the Friedrich Schlegel Graduate School for Literary Studies with the aim of obtaining a doctoral degree
• Participating in regular working meetings and workshops of the Research Area 4, “Literary Currencies,” of the Cluster
• Participating in the organisation and implementation of interdisciplinary, international conferences and workshops and contributing to their resulting publications
• Contributing to the publication of the project's research results in the "Living Handbook of Temporal Communities”

Requirements:
Completed MA-level university degree (Master, Magister, Diplom) in English and/or Anglophone Literary and Cultural Studies and/or Anglophone Book Studies

Desirable:

• Excellent academic track record
• Documented specialisation in Postcolonial Studies and/or Citizenship Studies and/or Migration Studies and/or Indigenous Studies, and/or in a specific anglophone context (such as focus on Australia, Canada, etc.)
• Stay abroad in an English-speaking country
• A thesis (BA and/or MA) written in English
• An interest in intersectionality
• An interest in issues related to book studies/publishing studies
• Very good communication and cooperation skills for working in a small team of researchers
• Very good knowledge of German and/or English (one of the two languages at least on level C1 CEFR, the other at least on level B2 CEFR)

For further information, please contact Frau Izabella Goikhman (apply@fsgs.fu-berlin.de / +49 30 838 65648).

Applications are preferably to be submitted via an online portal no later than November 12th, 2023. Instructions regarding the online portal and the required application documents can be found at: https://www.temporal-communities.de .

Freie Universität Berlin
Exzellenzausschreibungen
Friedrich Schlegel Graduate School of Literary Studies
EXC 2020 Temporal Communities
Frau Izabella Goikhman
Habelschwerdter Allee 45
14195 Berlin (Dahlem)

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Freie Universität Berlin is an equal opportunity employer.