Two Postdoc Research Associateships in Early Modern English Literature

University of Geneva – Department of English

Job Description:
Applications are invited for two Postdoc Research Associateships in the English Department at the University of Geneva. The aim of the Associateships is to contribute to a research project, led by Lukas Erne and funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, on early modern German versions of plays by Shakespeare. The plays will be retranslated and edited as part of the research project, so at least a passive knowledge of German is required. Successful candidates will work under the guidance of Professor Erne, to whom informal enquires may be made on lukas.erne@unige.ch. The posts are part-time (ca. 70%), initially for 12 months, renewable once (so two years in all) available from 1 September 2016 or earlier.

Responsibilities:
The postholder will be responsible to Professor Lukas Erne for carrying out work in relation to the research project.

Person Specification:
A PhD in early modern English studies completed after September 2013
A good knowledge of Shakespeare’s plays
The ability to work well and co-operatively with the other project members
Knowledge of German and fluent knowledge of English
Fluent knowledge of French is not a requirement for the position

Salary:
Ca. CHF 56,000 pa (= ca. £ 38,000 / EUR 50,000 / $ 55,000)

Closing Date:
15 March

Interviews:
Interviews are scheduled to take place in late March and April.

To Apply:
By email to lukas.erne@unige.ch, with covering letter and curriculum vitae, including the names and (email) addresses of two referees. A writing sample will be required later in the process from shortlisted candidates.

The positions are advertised online at http://www.unige.ch/lettres/angle/en/emplois/.

CALL FOR PAPERS: The Opportune Moment and the Early Modern Theatre of Politics

An initiative of the Grasping Kairos Research Network

Thursday 12th November 2015, 13.00-20.00, Room 112, 43 Gordon Square, Birkbeck, University of London   Seminar: 13.00-17.30

Keynote: 18.00-19.00 Professor Neil Rhodes, University of St Andrews, followed by a drinks reception

This seminar will be the first meeting of Grasping Kairos, an international research network (graspingkairos.wix.com/network) which investigates the history of the opportune moment (kairos/ occasio) in literature, theory, art, religion and philosophy. This seminar will focus on the uses, and the idea, of the opportune moment in the political theatre / theatrical politics of the European Renaissance.

Although in many ways lost to contemporary conceptualisations of temporality, kairos/occasio was an essential part of the Renaissance world-view. Writers from Machiavelli to Shakespeare reiterated the importance of recognising and properly seizing kairos or ‘occasion’ in order to achieve desired ends – whether personal or political. The need to be attentive to this moment could justify normally immoral actions, and so kairos was associated with moral flexibility, deviousness and cunning, both in the political and theatrical worlds.

We invite papers that explore the concept of kairos/occasio in relation to any aspect of early modern theatre or political thought in the period 1500-1660. Questions that papers might address include:

• How does the concept of the opportune moment shape political and performative spheres in the period?
• How do discourses of kairos/occasio outside politics or theatre impact its representation in those respective worlds?
• What is the relationship between the idea of the opportune moment in political and in theatrical discourses?
• What performative strategies employ concepts of the moment in the early modern period?
• How is kairos/occasio visualised on the early modern stage? 
• In what ways is the concept of the opportune moment used to confirm or destabilise identity? 
• How does the idea or representation of kairos/occasio change across this time period?

To attend the seminar, please send an abstract of max. 300 words, accompanied by a one-page CV by 30th September 2015 to the seminar organisers Dr Joanne Paul, Dr Kristine Johanson, and Dr Sarah Lewis at graspingkairos@gmail.com. We welcome abstracts from both established scholars and postgraduates. If you would like to audit the seminar, please email the network and hopefully we will be able to accommodate you.

To attend the keynote address, please email graspingkairos@gmail.com to be added to the list of attendees.

For more information, please visit the Grasping Kairos website: graspingkairos.wix.com/network

This event is funded by a London Renaissance Seminar Small Prize Internship

Seminar on literature, learning, and the social orders in early modern Europe (various dates, All Souls College)

The following seminars will be given at 2.00 p.m. (ending by 3.30p.m.) on Wednesdays in Hilary Term 2013 in the Wharton Room, All Souls College, Oxford.

Convenor: Dr Neil Kenny

PROFESSOR PETER BURKE, Univ. of Cambridge 16 Jan.: 'The social history of history in early modern Europe'

DR ROWAN TOMLINSON, Bristol Univ. 23 Jan.: 'Method, judgement, and social origin: theories and practices of historia in late Renaissance France'

DR JONATHAN PATTERSON, Univ. of Cambridge 30 Jan.:'Understanding avarice through the social orders in early modern France'

PROFESSOR JANE STEVENSON, Univ. of Aberdeen 6 Feb.: 'Martha Marchina: poetry and social mobility in Baroque Rome'

PROFESSOR HOWARD HOTSON, Univ. of Oxford 13 Feb.: 'Universal education: Comenius' pampaedia and some seventeenth-century critics'

PROFESSOR DAVID NORBROOK, Univ. of Oxford 20 Feb.: 'Gentry and gender: Lucy Hutchinson and the social interpretation of the English Civil War'

DR HELENA SANSON, Univ. of Cambridge 27 Feb.: 'Women, language, and access to learning in early modern Italy: an investigation across social classes'

PROFESSOR STEPHEN MILNER, Univ. of Manchester 6 Mar.: 'Pop go the classics: vernacular humanism and the social world of Renaissance Florence'