Postdoctoral Fellowship in Urban Humanities at McGill
Stipend: $40,000CDN plus research support
Duration: 1 July 2014 to 30 June 2015, possibility of renewal
Number of positions available in 2014-15: One
Deadline for Applications: 07 April 2014
The Institute for the Public Life of Arts and Ideas seeks one postdoctoral fellow in urban humanities with appropriate expertise in one or several of the following areas: cultural studies; media studies; architectural history & theory;urban geography & design. Familiarity or expertise with digital media applications such as 3D-modeling, animation, imaging, GIS, and/or graphic design applications is a plus. The candidate must have a demonstrable research interest in one of the primary research axes listed below and exhibit project management skills and interest.
The Fellow will join an interdisciplinary research project entitled, “Arts and Ideas in Motion (AIM): Parkour Project” developed in collaboration with the Facility for Architectural Research in Media and Mediation (FARMM) in the School of Architecture at McGill. AIM is structured along three research axes that are unified through shared project-based activity in collaboration with community stakeholders and artists. The AIM research program brings together team members in the humanities and artists, performers, and architects to propose alternative disciplinary practices that engages the movement of art and ideas within the urban context. Through the concerted entwining of design, artistic production, and multi-modal intellectual inquiries, methodologies, and expertise, AIM will: 1) investigate how and why ideas move among people and places, how that movement creates new public spaces for collective creation, discussion, and action, and how it makes new communities, often across barriers of language, class, race, sex, age, and nationality; 2) propose, through active participation in artistic creation, an original and active mode of scholarship for the humanities distinct from and complementary to traditional modes of scholarship; 3) make an original contribution to knowledge concerning the way in which artistic practices and works generate ideas that have specific political, social, and epistemological currency. The binding research-creation component around which all scholarly activity will occur is the urban, installation-based Mobile Urban Stage (MUSe) project. MUSe entails the creation of an interactive, multimedia, expandable and reconfigurable structure upon which performances are carried out in the city, publicly. It is through such performative and community-based activity that AIM will engage directly with a diverse audience that will push the work of the three research axes beyond the academy.
Candidates will have a PhD in a field consonant with “urban humanities” and a research program relevant to the central interests of the project. The Fellow will work on his or her own research program, collaborate with colleagues in an interdisciplinary context, and may have the opportunity to teach in his or her areas of specialty. The Fellow will also take part in the development of the project’s program of public outreach, dissemination, events,take a leadership role in project administration, and serve on the project’s Management Committee (approximately 25% time commitment). The Fellowship stipend will be approximately $40,000CDN per annum, plus travel and research support. Applications, consisting of a description of research program, writing sample, CV, and any relevant graphic material (optional; 5MB maximum) must be sent by email (.pdf attachments only) on or before April 07, 2014 to Michael Jemtrud, Associate Professor of Architecture, McGill University at aim.iplai@mcgill.ca. Please also arrange for three confidential letters of reference to be sent to the same email address by the April 07 deadline. Candidates should ask referees to include the candidate’s name on the subject line of the email.
For more information:
Facility for Architectural Research in Media and Mediation (FARMM): http://farmmresearch.com/farmm.org/
Laboratory for Urban Culture: http://quartierinnovationmontreal.com/en/portfolio/lab-urban-culture/