Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship in Energy Humanities at Rice University
The Humanities Research Center, in collaboration with the Center for Energy and Environmental Research in the Human Sciences (CENHS), will host a two-year residential postdoctoral fellowship at Rice University for outstanding junior scholars in the emergent field of energy humanities. The program is designed to encourage interdisciplinary teaching and research, facilitate new research communities at Rice, and prepare junior scholars for future faculty positions.
Since hosting the 2011-12 John E. Sawyer Seminar on the Comparative Study of Cultures on “Cultures of Energy: Global Economics and Local Communities,” Rice has emerged as an international center of humanistic inquiry into questions of energy transition, bringing the insights and expertise of the humanities into debates over how to address the profound energy challenges facing the planet and its environments in the 21st century.
The position is for July 1, 2016 through June 30, 2018. The Fellow will receive a $50,000 salary, benefits eligibility, and an allowance for research and relocation to Houston. Primary obligations include taking part in faculty research groups, helping to organize a campus-wide speakers series, and participating in Rice’s annual Cultures of Energy Spring Research Symposium. In addition, the Fellow will develop or continue his/her own research project as well as design and teach two semester-long undergraduate courses, one will be an introductory course on energy and environmental humanities and the other on a topic in the Fellow’s home discipline, to be determined in consultation with the HRC and/or appropriate department.
Eligibility
We seek excellent scholars whose research and teaching interests focus on energy and energy transitions or on the environmental impacts of current patterns and magnitudes of energy use such as climate change, sea level rise, or species extinction. We welcome applicants from any discipline or interdiscipline in the human sciences including, but not limited to, anthropology, art history, history, literary studies, philosophy, religious studies, sociology, visual studies and the arts. Applicants must have received a PhD between July 1, 2012 and June 30, 2016. Rice University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity employer. Scholars who are members of traditionally under-represented groups are encouraged to apply. There is no citizenship requirement or restriction for this fellowship. Non-U.S. nationals are welcome to apply.
