American Culture Studies Postdoctoral Fellowship

This programme is not currently accepting applications

The Program in American Culture Studies at Washington University (AMCS) invites applications for our Postdoctoral Fellowship in Digital Cultures, renewable annually for up to two years contingent upon satisfactory performance; expected start date is July 1, 2018. AMCS is an endowed program in Arts & Sciences that fosters cross-disciplinary intellectual exchange and transformative scholarship at the intersections of the humanities and social sciences. It offers an undergraduate major, a Ph.D. certificate program, a Master's program, and a wide array of collaborative research and teaching activities, seeking to build community among students of American culture from many fields.

This postdoctoral fellowship supports the Fellow's intellectual development through productive academic exchange and collaboration. In addition to teaching two foundational courses in the program per year, the Fellow will advise and mentor undergraduate majors and actively contribute to the intellectual life of AMCS (accordingly, the Fellow is expected to be in residence during the fellowship period apart from research-related travel). The program stages many events in which the Fellow may participate, including workshops, lectures, book discussions and events associated with Faculty Program Initiatives, and a monthly Americanist Dinner Forum. It also hosts amcs.wustl, a site of cross-disciplinary exchange that features podcasts, archives, digital exhibits, etc.

We are particularly interested in applicants, academics and/or practitioners, whose research, teaching, and practice

• (1) have a strong theoretical awareness, but at the same time deeply engage ethnographic, material, and/or historical particulars;
• (2) center on an historically-informed study of digital cultures, broadly defined, especially as they pertain to media as a site of cultural production;
• (3) engage the digital transformation of media and the public sphere, as it pertains to the history of political economy and power, and matters of identity, membership, and exclusion.

We prefer applicants who engage digital cultures as a subject of study, and not only as a research or presentation methodology.

We anticipate opportunities for involvement in established faculty program initiatives: applicants may see connections to their practice, research and teaching in current initiatives on "The Material World of Modern Segregation"; "Visual and Material Cultures"; and "Sports and Society: Culture, Power, and Identity." In addition, AMCS has relationships with the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts; Washington University Libraries (including the Film and Media Archive and the Douglas B. Dowd Modern Graphic History Library); and other institutional and community partners.

The AMCS Postdoctoral Fellow in Digital Cultures will receive a salary of $55,000 per year, plus benefits and a $3,000 annual research/travel stipend, which may be supplemented in cases of demonstrated need. To be considered, candidates must have received the Ph.D. since July 1, 2014, or be scheduled to defend the dissertation before July 1, 2018. Applicants should submit a cover letter, CV, three letters of recommendation, a writing sample (no more than 25 pages), a copy of their graduate school transcript, and a statement of research and teaching interests that references the kinds of courses they might teach which would be suited to the program's undergraduate curriculum, which includes a concentration in Visual, Material, and Digital Cultures. That statement should specify how the applicant could serve as an effective mentor to student projects that engage digital media as both a subject of analysis and as a methodology/mode of presentation. It should also include a description of a course based in American Culture Studies on the history of digital media and media cultures.

How to Apply

All applicants to Washington University in St. Louis must go through our online application portal. Please go to jobs.wustl.edu and select "Search Jobs."

In the Keyword field, Enter Job ID #38406. Complete the online form and upload all your supporting materials (all materials must be submitted as a .pdf file -- please see FAQ for specific instructions).

All Applications and supporting materials (including letters of recommendation) must be submitted/received by 11:59 PM Central Time on Monday, January 1, 2018.