KING’S COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE Stipendiary Research Fellowship on the theme of Fabrication
King’s College Cambridge invites applications for a Research Fellowship from those working on the theme of Fabrication. Creativity – making something never made before or coming up with new scholarly or scientific insights – is fundamental to human life; misrepresentation – making up claims about past or present – undermines human relationships, whether to other humans or to the non-human world. Yet the relationship between creativity and deception is rarely put under scrutiny. We are looking for research proposals that examine the act of fabrication, the conscious creation of something new and different, in good faith or in bad, so as better to understand what makes some sorts of ‘making it up’ the life-blood of artistic, literary, or scientific progress, and other sorts a destructive blight on a shared sense of what is real and societal cohesion.
Applications are welcome from all those working on this topic within any area of the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and who wish to undertake a major project over the course of the four years of this Fellowship. The brief is deliberately wide to encompass innovative thinking about the topic which has distinctive conceptualisations in different research traditions. Creative and innovative thinking is encouraged. While applications are welcome from within specific academic disciplines, proposals that link or combine different disciplines are also strongly encouraged. Applicants should not feel obliged to focus on a traditionally identified paradigm.
The ideal candidate for this Research Fellowship will have a strong background in a relevant area of work and be completing or have completed recently an outstanding doctoral thesis. It is not a requirement that the candidate’s doctoral studies or the work that they submit in support of their application should have concerned this topic specifically, but candidates will be expected to show in their applications how their plans for their future work relate to the work that they have already done. The successful candidate will be expected to engage broadly with the whole college community.
It is the aim of King’s Research Fellowships to develop important fields of study that are currently too narrowly restricted in their practitioners and/or their objects of analysis. For this reason, candidates are encouraged to propose creative and innovative projects which will not only make an important contribution to the specific area of interest but also strengthen the intellectual framework of the humanities as a whole.
The successful candidate will join a lively research community which includes Research Fellows and College Research Associates as well as Fellows who hold University posts. This includes a number of Fellows working in Anthropology, Linguistics, Literature, Music and Psychology which will potentially align with the successful candidate’s project, and a wide range of other subjects which will provide both challenge to and stimulus for novel ways of approaching it. Research Fellows also engage with colleagues from the Collegiate University as a whole in the pursuit of their project.
A Research Fellowship is a postdoctoral position tenable for up to four years. Applications are welcome from graduates of any university. Candidates will usually have completed their PhD or equivalent qualification but must not have undertaken more than 2 years postdoctoral work or work outside of academia by 1 October 2026 (i.e., an applicant’s PhD cannot have been granted before 30 September 2024). Candidates who do not fulfil these criteria are unlikely to be considered.
Research Fellows are members of the Governing Body, with the full privileges of all Fellows. These include all meals, a degree of financial support for expenses associated with research, and the possibility of an office and accommodation in College properties. Currently, the stipend of a Research Fellow is £24,729 prior to the award of doctorate, or £27,477 after award of doctorate, rising each year to a maximum of £30,912 (to be revised). An accommodation allowance of £3,690 is paid to all Stipendiary Research Fellows, and an additional living-out allowance of up to £4,180 depending on income, is available to those Fellows not living in college-owned accommodation. Research Fellows may claim research expenses of up to £1,500 in any academic year.
In addition to pursuing research, a Research Fellow is required to live in Cambridge or close by and to participate in College life and activity. Although these are research posts, Research Fellows are encouraged to take advantage of opportunities to undertake a small amount of University or College teaching, or tutorial duties. Such activity is remunerated separately and can make an important contribution to the development of an academic career. During the course of the Fellowship, a Research Fellow may be granted an intermission for one or two years to take up a temporary position either in Cambridge or elsewhere provided that doing so would be consistent with the Research Fellow’s career development.
The closing date for applications, including references, is 9 a.m. on Monday 15 September 2025. Further information about the College may be obtained from the College website.
Eligibility
Graduates of any university are eligible. Candidates will usually have completed their PhD but must not have undertaken more than 2 years of postdoctoral work by 1 October 2026 (i.e. your PhD cannot have been granted before 30 September 2024). Candidates who do not fulfil these criteria are unlikely to be considered.
The College has a responsibility to ensure that all employees are eligible to live and work in the UK. If you do not have the right to work in the UK already, any offer we make will be conditional upon you gaining it. The College will give informal advice and assistance but ultimately it will be the responsibility of the candidate to fulfil the necessary visa requirements and obtain a visa.
Dates
- The closing date for application is 9 a.m. (UK time) on Monday 15 September 2025. Applications received after this date and time will not be considered.
- Long-listed candidates will be notified in late-September and will be expected to provide within 5-days a writing sample which they believe best represent their talents. This should be no more than 20,000 words and may include and can include thesis chapters or publications.
- Short-listed candidates will be notified in early December and will be invited for an interview on Thursday 15th or Friday 16th January 2026. Please keep these dates free and ensure that you are able to attend this interview in person.
- The Fellowship will begin on 1 October 2026.
Application
To apply use the following link to go to the FAS website and create an application:
Before the closing date, applicants must complete all sections of the online Fellowship Application and upload onto the website (PDF only) the following:
- A curriculum vitae (of no more than three A4 sides) including details of higher education, degrees awarded, positions held and publications.
- A document of no more than 1,200 words in length, excluding bibliography, references, footnotes, endnotes, describing your current research and the research you propose to undertake during the Fellowship.
Applicants must also arrange for three letters of recommendation to be uploaded onto the site in PDF format by the closing date of the competition, 9 am (UK local time) on Monday 15 September 2025.
- In the letter of recommendation, suggestions for impartial expert readers, to whom work might be sent if the candidate is long listed, would be very welcome. Please make your referees aware of this.
- It is the duty of the candidate to ensure that the referees submit the references before the closing date.
Your referees will need to provide their references through the FAS website. They will be sent an email containing a link to do this. Referees unable to submit references electronically via the FAS website may e-mail reserach@kings.cam.ac.uk the competition administrator.
Please note that all application materials must be in English.
The application will not be considered in the competition until it has been submitted, and all references have been received. An email will be sent once this has occurred.
Further questions
If you have any further questions, please e-mail research@kings.cam.ac.uk
King’s College follows an equal opportunities policy.
Closing Date:
15 Sep 2025
