University of Leeds – Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Italian Studies
Oral culture, manuscript and print in early modern Italy, 1450-1700

Fixed term for 15 months, available from 1 March 2014, to cover for a period of maternity leave.

The School invites applications for a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship within a project funded by the European Research Council. The project website is http://arts.leeds.ac.uk/italianvoices

The project, whose Principal Investigator is Professor Brian Richardson, started work in June 2011 and ends in May 2015. It is investigating how oral culture in early modern Italy related to written culture and how far it was independent of writing. It focuses on four areas: social performance, politics, religion, and linguistic usage. Research encompasses spaces such as courts, council chambers, churches, academies, towns, the countryside, and households; men and women of all social classes; and contexts including ceremonial and ritual events, oratory, public and private performance, and scripted and improvised entertainments. It also studies the cultural functions of the exceptionally wide spectrum of languages used throughout the peninsula.

Four Postdoctoral Research Fellows have already been appointed and are carrying out research on: the performance of texts (including those related to politics) in non-elite culture by professional performers and others; the oral diffusion of orthodox and reformed religious thought; the functions and status of the varieties of language used in Italian oral culture. You will be expected to work on any aspect of the use of orality that is relevant to the project and complements research being carried out already.

With a PhD with specialisation in an aspect of Italian studies (preferably already obtained; otherwise to be obtained before the start date of the post), the applicant will also have experience of studying Renaissance/early modern Italian culture and/or history.

For full details and to apply, please visit: http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/AIF701/postdoctoral-research-fellowship-in-italian-studies

Closing Date: 6 March 2014