Postdoctoral researcher within the ERC project Worlding America

Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS) invites applications for a
Postdoctoral researcher within the ERC project Worlding America: How Play Shaped the United States from New Media to Politics, 1503-2028 (0.8fte, 2.5 years – with possibility of additional teaching)

The postdoctoral researcher will be working within the ERC Starting Grant research project How Play Shaped the United States from New Media to Politics: Worlding America,1503-2028, funded by the European Research Council for five years (2025-2029), and directed by Sara Polak (University lecturer at Leiden University).

The project
We are looking for an excellent, highly motivated, enterprising and enthusiastic postdoc to join the project team. WORLDING AMERICA researches how play has been a key force in the past and present process of creating America as a coherent and hegemonic world, from 1503 to the present. ‘Play’ is an activity linked to change, serious even when frivolous, potentially transgressive even when rule-bound. Play intersects with the process of worlding (bringing a new world into existence) in liminal moments when new media forms develop in conjunction with political developments. WORLDING AMERICA seeks out historical moments of disruptive play, when new visual media were introduced that contributed directly to tangible political change. It examines four paradigmatic cases: Worlding Colonial America through Engravings, 1590-1861; Worlding the Nation through Newspaper Cartoons, 1865-1924; Worlding the Body Politic through Television, 1972-2016; Worlding Colonial Mars through X, 2006-2028. Tracing specific elements of play, including imagination, invitation, participation, and improvisation across cases, WORLDING AMERICA seeks to demonstrate how forms of play have been essential to American worlding in ever evolving mediascapes.

Subproject:

Worlding Colonial America through Travelogue and Speculative Fiction: Playful Cannibalism in De Bry’s America and Its Afterlives, 1590-1861

The postdoctoral researcher will analyze play in imagining, and then shaping the New World, both by Europeans at the time of exploration and conquest and later by U.S. Americans. Through cultural and art-historical analysis, research project will aim to pinpoint the mechanics of play in Theodor De Bry’s America collection of engravings as well as in its later remediations and other travelogues and relevant source material portraying ‘Indians’ and the colonization of America. How has De Bry’s work initiated a visual tradition of representing Native Americans and their supposed cannibalism that helped to establish ludic reception in a wide range of popular culture? How have De Bry’s engravings of cannibalism and Native American bodies carved out a mythology driven by inversion, playful engagement, and exploration in the New World? The project will offer a longitudinal overview of America’s playful afterlives in the American cultural imagination. The aim is for the postdoctoral researcher to write a cultural historical monograph on the role of play in imagining the New World. The postdoctoral scholar will need to have ample experience in and knowledge of the existing historiographic traditions about this era and these themes, but will also have to have or gain a firm grasp on play studies and playful methods.

‘America’ has aggressively been ‘worlded’ through colonization, early migration drives from Europe, spreading disease among the indigenous, cattle wars, terraforming. The postdoc will approach that well-known history from the perspective of play. This project investigates how the rules and norms of the American world were played with in the first centuries of its existence, through then-new media, including engravings, travelogues, roleplay and revolutions. In doing so, it may focus on the trope of cannibalism (scalping, emasculating, cooking), as portrayed in De Bry’s America and elsewhere. De Bry uses playful, titillating horror fantasy, that simultaneously projects the ‘Indians’ as cannibals and imaginatively reifies them, informing what would later become classic staples of “cowboys-and-Indians” imagination (e.g., the American revolutionaries at the Boston Tea Party in 1773 dressed up as Indians). The postdoc will analyze sources and case studies in the context of play studies and media theory. Many of these sources have already been studied considerably, but not through the lens of play. On a secondary level, this work package maps the canonization of archetypal figures such as the pioneer, the cowboy, the Indian, and the gold digger and their worldings of play spaces in the context of later playful imaginations, movies, (children’s) literature and games. Candidates are invited to submit a research proposal containing the design of one concrete case study (source, title, research question, historical context, theoretical/methodological reflection, analysis) around the subproject’s research questions. In their proposal, they should outline their suggested approach, main research question, and expected original contribution to the field.

The postdoctoral researcher may – depending on the demand of the programmes – also teach one or two courses each year in the field of (contemporary) American Studies and/or supervise BA or MA theses, together with or under supervision of the project’s PI. The researcher will receive a temporary increase in their contract hours in case of teaching. Thus, it is important that the candidate has teaching experience and affinity with cultural and literary studies within a later period in American Studies also.

Key responsibilities

• Execution of the research project described above, leading to a scholarly monograph;
• Depending on demand: Teaching of one or two courses per year in contemporary American Studies/Literature;
• Depending on demand: Supervision of BA and MA theses within the BA English and MA North American Studies;
• Co-organization of interdisciplinary workshops and international conferences, and co-authoring and co-editing the output based on these events (with PI);
• Participation in meetings of the project research group(s) and events organized by the research group;
• Participation in knowledge utilization activities;
• Presentation of intermediate research results at workshops and conferences;
• Participation in staff meetings of North American Studies and Modern English Literature and the intellectual life of the department, the LUCAS community;

Your profile

• You hold a recent (< 4 years) PhD in American Studies, (American) history, Art history, or Literary/Media Studies awarded by the time of appointment, on a topic related to the project as outlined above;
• You have demonstrable experience of teaching literature courses at the BA/MA level and are willing to develop yourself professionally in the field of teaching, e.g. by taking didactic courses;
• You bring strong fieldwork experience and a proven track of community engagement;
• You have affinity with the conceptual ideas current in the interdisciplinary field of play studies, and are willing to engage with these ideas in an interdisciplinary manner;
• You possess analytical skills, and a clear and persuasive style of writing;
• You have full professional working proficiency in English; fluency in Dutch is appreciated but not required;
• You have proven time-management skills;
• You are an independent thinker and team player;
• You have an affinity with the institute’s aims, values and strategy;
• You possess the following competences: conceptual capacity, environment orientation, presenting, result orientation, teamwork / collaboration and organisational sensitivity;

International candidates are encouraged to apply but must be willing to relocate to the Netherlands for the duration of the project.

The organisation
The Faculty of Humanities at Leiden University is a unique international centre for the advanced study of languages, cultures, arts, and societies worldwide, in their historical contexts from prehistory to the present. Our faculty is home to more than 6,000 students and 800 staff members. For more information see: https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/.

Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS) is one of the seven Academic Institutes of the Faculty of Humanities. The institute hosts a range of academic disciplines, clustered around a key research theme: the relationships between the arts and society. Our members study cultural production over the course of two millennia, from classical antiquity to our contemporary world, and teach in programmes ranging from Classics and Book History to Modern Literature, International Studies and Art History. Strengthened by our diversity,

LUCAS members are uniquely placed to study the broad concept of the arts, with its rapidly changing ideas, aesthetics, and theories of cultural production. Through research, teaching and outreach, the Institute aims to deepen our understanding, both inside and outside academia, of the cognitive, historical, cultural, creative, and social aspects of human life.
As an academic community, we strive to create an open and welcoming atmosphere, stimulating everyone to get involved and contribute, and connecting scholars from different fields and backgrounds.

Terms and conditions
We offer a 0.8 fte position as postdoctoral researcher for 2.5 years. You will get an initial contract for one year, with a further extension of 1.5 years after positive evaluation. Depending on demand, teaching tasks may be added; you will then receive a temporary increase in contract hours on top of the 0.8 fte.

The appointment will start 1 March 2025. Depending on qualifications, the appointee may start at the appropriate step in scale 10 until they fully meet the requirements for scale 11 as specified by the Faculty of Humanities, particularly with regard to the number of years of relevant work experience. The salary is in accordance with the collective salary agreement of the Association of Dutch Universities (CAO) and depending on qualifications and experience. The gross monthly salary is € 3.345,- (scale 10) to €4.812,- (scale 11.2) for a full working week.

Leiden University offers an attractive benefits package with additional holiday (8%) and end-of-year bonuses (8.3%), training and career development. Our individual choices model gives you some freedom to assemble your own set of terms and conditions. Candidates from outside the Netherlands may be eligible for a substantial tax break. For more information, see https://www.workingat.leiden.edu/.

Diversity & inclusion
Fostering an inclusive community is a central element of the values and vision of Leiden University. Leiden University is committed to becoming an inclusive community which enables all students and staff to feel valued and respected and to develop their full potential. Diversity in experiences and perspectives enriches our teaching and strengthens our research. High quality teaching and research is inclusive.

Information
Enquiries can be made to the PI of the project, Sara Polak (s.a.polak@hum.leidenuniv.nl). Questions about the procedure can be directed to Jennifer Dijkman (im-lucas@hum.leidenuniv.nl). Information about LUCAS can be found at https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/geesteswetenschappen/centre-for-the-arts-in-society and about Leiden University at https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en.

Applications
Please submit your application via the online recruitment system, via the blue button at the top of this page, latest November 8, 23:59 CET. Applications received via e-mail will not be taken into consideration. Your application should include:

• Cover letter;
• Research proposal of 1500 words in which you unpack one case study. This does not include the bibliography;
• Short (2-page) CV, listing education and employment history, teaching experience and any other academic achievements (conference presentations, publications, organization of events, etc.);
• Major writing sample (preferably of a published article, book chapter or monograph);
• Names, positions and contact information for two referees (no reference letters; N.B. please list these in your PDF rather than entering them into the system);
• Copy of PhD diploma.

Interviews will take place in the second half of November.

Enquiries from agencies are not appreciated.