Stipendiary Isaiah Berlin Junior Research Fellowship

Application are invited for an Isaiah Berlin Junior Research Fellowship for three years at Wolfson College, a graduate College of the University of Oxford.

To celebrate its Founding President, Wolfson College in 2022 established a new stipendiary Junior Research Fellowship. The elected Fellow will, like Isaiah Berlin, have a broad interest in the global history of ideas, and philosophy. They will be expected to undertake independent research and play a full and active part in the life of the College. They will be given access to office space in College from which to work. The post brings with it no teaching obligations. Candidates should have received a doctorate as a condition of taking up the position, and should normally not have received their doctorate more than 5 years before appointment.

Candidates are not required to have a formal position in the University, but the College encourages them to build a strong partnership with relevant departments. Details of the opportunities available to postdocs in Oxford are available at the Researcher Hub here: https://www.ox.ac.uk/research/support-researchers/researcher-hub.

There are 39 self-governing and independent colleges at Oxford, giving both academic staff and students the benefits of belonging to a small, interdisciplinary community as well as to a large, internationally-renowned institution. The collegiate system fosters a strong sense of community, bringing together leading academics and students across subjects, and from different cultures and countries.

Founded in 1966, Wolfson is one of the University’s largest graduate colleges and distinctive in its academic scope and international reach. Its original purpose was to offer a home to those conducting research in new disciplines like computer science which other colleges were slower to welcome. Wolfson has grown and evolved over the past 50 years, retaining Isaiah Berlin’s egalitarian ethos of being ‘new, untrammeled and unpyramided’. The College provides academic, living, social and pastoral support for over 600 students, studying for both master’s degrees and doctorates, and around 110 research fellows, and is renowned internationally for its high standards of support. The College motto is ‘Humani nil alienum’ – nothing human is foreign to me’; it is international, interdisciplinary, and secular.

Wolfson is housed in architecturally outstanding buildings, which are set in beautiful gardens beside the River Cherwell in North Oxford. A new and impressive academic wing and auditorium were added in recent years. It has a strong egalitarian and democratic ethos and is increasingly known as one of the most energetic, innovative, and welcoming scholarly communities in Oxford. There is a single Common Room for all members of College, with shared dining facilities and an extremely family-friendly environment and an on-site nursery. Total membership of the College is around 1800. The Governing Body (GB) consists of around 60 Fellows. The College is the most biodiverse in Oxford and a leader in decarbonization, reducing its estate carbon emissions by 75% over the course of 2021/22 alone.

The College offers a stipend of £35,000 per annum and provides access to an office for the duration of the Fellowship.

The appointment is subject to producing satisfactory evidence of your right to work in the UK, obtaining satisfactory references, satisfactory completion of a medical questionnaire and signing a contract of employment.

The Fellowship will carry full membership of College and Common Table rights (i.e. an allowance currently up to £49.84 a week for own meals taken in the College Hall). The Fellowship will be tenable from 1 January 2023 for a period of three years.

Applications are particularly welcome from women, black and minority ethnic candidates who are under-represented in academic posts in Oxford. Preference will be given to candidates who have not already held a Fellowship at the same level with another College.

References

References will be requested after the shortlisting stage for interview candidates who should themselves contact their two referees, asking them without further request to send a confidential reference to the President’s Office before the interview date. References should be emailed (as a pdf) to the President’s Office on presidents.office@wolfson.ox.ac.uk

Applications

Application should include:

A completed application form and a curriculum vitae (no more than two pages).

Please email your complete application to arrive by the closing date to presidents.office@wolfson.ox.ac.uk Please send as ONE pdf file (excluding the optional Recruitment Monitoring form which should be sent separately as it does not constitute part of the application.)

OPTIONAL – if you wish to complete and return the optional Recruitment Monitoring Form, please send as a separate pdf. It does not form part of the application.

CLOSING DATE: Sunday 6 November 2022

INTERVIEW DATE: Tuesday 29 November 2022 No alternative interview date will be offered

UK Border Agency legislation on the Right to Work in the UK

Successful candidates will be required to provide satisfactory evidence of their Right to Work in the UK. This is a requirement for ‘unpaid’ positions as well as paid employment.