Daily Archives: 27 March 2018

PhD Research Fellowship, University of Bergen

There is a vacancy for a PhD position at the Department of Foreign Languages, University of Bergen, within the research project “The English Cult of St. Birgitta of Sweden: Reception and Influence, 1380-1530”. The position is for a fixed-term period of 4 years starting 1 August 2018 or as agreed, at an annual salary of US$56,000/ £36,000 .

The Department of Foreign Languages spans nine different languages, and teaching and research are conducted in the disciplines language/linguistics, literature, cultural studies and didactics (http://www.uib.no/en/fremmedsprak). The Department has around 50 permanent academic staff members, along with four post-docs, around twenty PhD candidates and twelve administrative members of staff.

The position is associated with the research project The English Cult of St. Birgitta of Sweden: Reception and Influence, 1380-1530, directed by principal investigator Associate Professor Laura Saetveit Miles. This project explores how Birgitta’s Revelations and other Birgittine texts came to have a profound effect on the literary and religious cultures of late-medieval England, reflecting complex ideas of gender, authority, and authorship. To enable this new analysis, Latin and Middle English translations of texts related to Birgitta will be tracked using an innovative database and network graphing tool, in conjunction with producing digital and print editions of unedited texts. 

Within the parameters of the larger project, the candidate should propose their own preliminary project topic (the “project proposal” listed in the application materials). The topic and project will then be developed further as the first task after hiring, in close collaboration with the PI, Associate Professor Miles.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Manuscript circulation / early print production of Birgittine texts
  • Translation-based / literary analysis of the Revelations and its adaptations
  • Birgitta in relation to other visionary women / women readers
  • Monastic / lay interest in Birgitta
  • Scholastic / political interest in Birgitta
  • Any relevant combination of the above topics

For further information on the fellowship and how to apply: https://www.jobbnorge.no/en/available-jobs/job/150040/phd-research-fellowship-within-the-research-project-the-english-cult-of-st-birgitta-of-sweden-reception-and-influence-1380-1530

Application deadline: 30 April

Prof Kimberley Reynolds, Institute of Advanced Studies UWA Free Public Lecture

“Reading for Little Rebels: internationalism and radical writing for children”

A public lecture by Kimberley Reynolds, Professor of Children’s Literature, School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics, Newcastle University and 2018 Institute of Advanced Studies Visiting Fellow.

Date: Tuesday 3rd April, 2018
Time: 6:00pm-7:30pm
Venue: Fox Lecture Theatre, Arts Building, The University of Western Australia
RSVP: http://www.ias.uwa.edu.au/lectures/kimberleyreynolds.

In our current turbulent times, International Children’s Book Day (ICBD) is a good moment to reflect on the ways that children’s literature has attempted to spread the values of peace, understanding and mutual respect between countries, the need to share resources, and the importance of thinking globally rather than nationalistically. These were also the aims of the radical children’s books published in the first half of the last century in an attempt to encourage children to work to build a progressive, egalitarian, peaceful and sustainable modern world. Many of these books were either first published in the Soviet Union or were concerned with events there, so it is fitting that in 2017, the centenary of the Russian Revolution, Russia is the section of IBBY (the International Board on Books for Young People) that is sponsoring ICBD. Growing up in Melbourne in the 1940s and 1950s, the noted Soviet cultural historian, Sheila Fitzpatrick, recalls reading some of these books and thinking “what fun people seemed to have there…how totally unlike anything in Melbourne”. She was particularly struck by the ways these books offered a collective expectation of a better future.

This talk will present a selection of radical works from the first half of the last century and consider whether current writing for children similarly cultivates visions and skills that will help the rising generation believe in and build a better future.

Kimberley Reynolds is the Professor of Children’s Literature in the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics at Newcastle University in the UK. In 2013 she received the International Brothers Grimm Award for her contributions to the field of children’s literature research. She conceived and was the first Director of the National Centre for Research in Children’s Literature and was involved in founding the UK’s Children’s Laureate and setting up Seven Stories: the National Centre for Children’s Books. She is a Past President of the International Research Society for Children’s Literature and was the first Senior Honorary Fellow of the ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions at The University of Western Australia. Currently she is Senior Editor of International Research in Children’s Literature and editing, with Michael Rosen and Jane Rosen, an anthology of left-wing writing for children in Britain from 1900-1963 titled Reading and Rebellion (forthcoming spring 2018). Recent publications include Children’s Literature in the Oxford University series of Very Short Introductions (2012) and Left Out: The Forgotten Tradition of Radical Publishing for Children in Britain, 1910-1949 (2016).