One-Year Postdoctoral Fellowship in Affect Studies

The Affect Project at the University of Manitoba is offering one postdoctoral fellowship in any discipline for one year, commencing 1 January 2015. The successful applicant will be expected to live in the Winnipeg area during the tenure of the award. She or he will pursue her/his own research on a project related to affect studies and will participate in the academic and intellectual activities of the Affect Project, including an interdisciplinary conference planned for September, 2015. The successful applicant will have opportunities for interdisciplinary exchange with members of the Project and affiliated departments and institutes (including the University of Manitoba Institute for the Humanities).

The Affect Project: Memory, Aesthetics, and Ethics (affectproject.ca) is envisioned as a multidisciplinary, critical, and timely response to the ubiquity of the affective in contemporary life and culture, as well as the “affective turn” taken by a range of scholarly disciplines. The goal of The Affect Project is to engage academics, community experts, artists and students in discussions and explorations of the social, ethical, political and cultural impact of affect, which we define as the “expression of emotion in the public realm.” In particular, we wish to involve academic and community partners in publicly‐situated conversations, exhibits, and presentations on the power of affect in the realms of politics, policy, justice, and art. Our intention is to build knowledge and understanding from multidisciplinary perspectives, including community‐based research, and to engage in discussion and debate with academic and non‐academic audiences to create and mobilize new knowledge and understanding of affect and its impact on intellectual, cultural, social and political pursuits. The Affect Project is funded by a SSHRC Partnership Development Grant.

We invite applications from qualified candidates who graduated with the PhD after September 1, 2012 or will defend the PhD by November 1, 2014. As part of the application, applicants who have not defended the PhD at the time of application must include a letter from their dissertation chair with the exact date of the scheduled defense. The selected fellow must graduate with the PhD degree by December 31, 2014. The stipend will be $60,000.

Required application materials:

1. A curriculum vitae.
2. A detailed statement of the research project (1,000-3,000 words) that provides a detailed description of what the applicant proposes to do during the fellowship year and how the research relates to affect.
3. One chapter- or article-length writing sample (no longer than 40 pages).
4. Three letters of recommendation.

The University of Manitoba is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace. Applications are encouraged from qualified applicants including members of visible minorities, Aboriginal peoples, people with disabilities, people of all sexual orientations and genders. All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadian citizens and permanent residents will be given priority.

Application materials, including letters of reference, will be handled in accordance with the protection of privacy provisions of “The Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act” (Manitoba). Please note that curriculum vitae may be provided to participating members of the search process.

All application materials should be sent electronically to:

Professor Arlene Young
Department of English, Film, and Theatre University of Manitoba
Email: (arlene.young@umanitoba.ca).

Applications and letters of recommendation (sent directly from referees) must be received by midnight, November 15th, 2014. We expect to announce the award by December 1st, 2014.