Ph.D. studentships - Extended deadline - 15th February
Ph.D. Studentship, University of York: Thomas
Browne’s library and sources (3 years, from September 2013) – an AHRC-funded
studentship
This cross-disciplinary project will create an intellectual
map of the library of Thomas Browne by tracing the relationships between his
books as listed in the unusually detailed 1711 sales catalogue, and will
produce an archaeology of Browne’s thought, with attention to the influence of
classical, medieval, and Renaissance sources. It will map the holdings of his
library onto his own work, and make a detailed case-study of at least one of
his book-clusters (in, e.g., medicine, natural philosophy, travel literature,
biblical scholarship, or patristics). The successful applicant will not
necessarily be expected to have advanced knowledge of Browne’s library and
works, but will be expected to offer a preliminary vision of an approach to
Browne’s work in relation to the history of ideas.
The project will re-establish, in
particular, the often- neglected relationship between Browne’s great
encyclopaedic work Pseudodoxia Epidemica (1646) and the books ‘behind’
it. It will have two broad aims, the first relating to the library itself, and
the second a case study in the organisation of knowledge.
Among the ideas that the first
part of the project might consider are: Renaissance classical reception; the
material reconstruction of the past within libraries; taxonomies of library
arrangement; the conceptualisation of early-modern reading through study of
Browne’s catalogue of error (Pseudodoxia); a catalogue with an
intriguing relationship to sources that are deemed to be unreliable or mistaken;
the relationships between books, and the distributions of knowledge, that
inhere in the structures of libraries and catalogues. How are clusters within
Browne’s library related to the intellectual roots of his encyclopaedic
frameworks? How do his books reveal a broader 17th-century
intellectual landscape and his own social, cultural and political milieu? What
can the library teach us about the acquisition and organisation of knowledge in
the period?
The second part of the project
will develop from out of the candidate’s own interests, based on one or more of
Browne’s fields of knowledge. The student will be based at the University
of York in the Department of English and Related Literature, under the
supervision of Dr Kevin Killeen (co-editor of Pseudodoxia within the
Browne edition, together with Prof Will West and Prof Jessica Wolfe) and will
come away from the award with original research that sheds new light on the
intellectual history of the era.
As part of the AHRC-funded edition
of The Complete Works of Sir Thomas Browne (8 vols, OUP 2015-2019;
general editor, Prof Claire Preston), the student will interact extensively
with the eleven editors, two post-doctoral researchers, and a second doctoral
student in contributing to its intellectual, analytical, and textual
framework. The student may be expected to contribute, as directed, to
background research on the edition of Pseudodoxia Epidemica.
PhD studentship, University of Birmingham: Thomas
Browne’s Correspondence (3 years, from September 2013) – an AHRC-funded
studentship
The early-modern letter – its generic codes; the material
circumstances of composition, dispatch, receipt, and circulation; the influence
of epistolary habits of thought on other kinds of writing, and especially
literary writing – is a flourishing field, and the edition of Browne’s
correspondence carefully attends to such issues. His large epistolary corpus –
personal, familial, professional, and natural-philosophical letters by and to
him over a long career – give an unparalleled picture of 17th-century
intellectual exchange, and of the development of his ideas and of his other
works. The PhD based in this rich material will be informed by some of the
following questions: how does Browne’s correspondence inform and/or challenge
our understanding of his major works? how did scientific knowledge develop and
circulate through epistolary exchanges in this period? how did the material
conditions and constraints of the letter condition the genesis and
communication of Browne's ideas? The student will benefit from a sustained
engagement with Browne's correspondence; although contributing to the published
volume of correspondence, and to the edition as a whole, the dissertation will
be independent of them. Its precise topic will be developed by the student with
the supervisors, but will demand the development of the student’s
palaeographical and other textual skills. It will consider, too, of the
correspondence of other key figures of the period – for example, Spenser,
Bacon, Boyle, and Oldenburg. The range of incidents, topics, sources, and
correspondents presented by Browne's letters requires command of antiquarian,
medical, geological, botanical, theological, and other discourses. Advances in
archival description and cataloguing, and improvements in humanities computing,
offer in this dynamic field an auspicious moment for a doctoral project with
great interdisciplinary scope and opportunity to master and exploit the full
range of new publication and dissemination technologies in digital humanities.
Co-supervised by Prof Claire
Preston (Birmingham), the general editor of the AHRC-funded Browne edition, and
Dr Andrew Zurcher (Cambridge), co-editor of Browne’s correspondence, the
student will be formally attached to the Birmingham Department of English,
where there is deep editorial and early-modern expertise across the departments
of English and History, and in the vibrant interdisciplinary Centre for
Reformation and Early-Modern Studies. In addition, the student will have
support from the Cambridge Centre for Material Texts (based at the English
Faculty), with its strengths in the study of medieval and early-modern printed
and manuscript materials. As part of the AHRC-funded edition of The Complete
Works of Sir Thomas Browne (8 vols, OUP 2015-2019), the student will
interact extensively with the eleven editors, two post-doctoral researchers,
and a second doctoral student in contributing to its intellectual, analytical,
and textual framework. The student may be expected to contribute, as directed,
to background research on the volume of Browne’s letters that forms part of the
edition.
How to apply for either or both studentships:
Applications for these posts should first be made
directly to Professor Preston. The successful candidates will then be asked to
apply formally to the respective universities. If you wish to be considered for
both studentships, you need to send a full application (described below) for
each one. Remember to specify which post your application refers to (PhD1 or
PhD2)
Qualifications: the successful candidate will have a
very good undergraduate degree in English Literature or a closely related
subject such as intellectual history or comparative literature; and normally an
MA or MPhil, preferably in an early-modern literary topic (although relevant
cognate subjects can be considered). If you are already embarked on a PhD we
are unable to consider you for these studentships. Only UK citizens are
eligible.
Application materials (2 hard copies and an electronic
copy):
-- a cv including information about your
undergraduate and MA/M.Phil educational history with degree and exam results,
and any awards; special skills or experience (eg, language proficiency,
relevant undergraduate dissertation or long essay topics, etc); and
publications (if any).
– a covering letter of no more than one A4 side
describing your preparation and qualification for, and interest in, one or both
of these posts.
– two letters of reference, at least one of which should be
from your post-graduate supervisor.
– a sample of academic writing, preferably from your
post-graduate degree, of no more than 3000 words (in other words, a chapter or
section of the MA/MPhil), or a short academic publication.
Submission of material:
The material listed above (hard copies and electronic copy)
is to be sent directly to Professor Preston, Department of English, University
of Birmingham, Edgbaston B15 2TT, and reach her by
15 February, 2013. Candidates
should ask their referees to send their letters directly to that address or to
c.e.preston@bham.ac.uk
by the same date. Letters of references will
not be sought, so it is
your responsibility to make certain they are sent in time. If you wish, you may
send an SAE with your application so that you can be informed when/whether all
your materials have arrived.
Interviews will be conducted Thursday 28 February in
Edgbaston.
Questions about these posts are welcomed, and can be
directed to Professor Preston by email.
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