Ph.D. studentships - Extended deadline – 22nd February
Ph.D. studentships - Extended deadline – 22nd February
Ph.D. Studentship, University of York: Thomas Browne’s
library and sources (3 years, from September 2013) – an AHRC-funded studentship
This cross-disciplinary project will create an
intellectual map of the library of Thomas Browne by tracing the relationships
between his books as listed in the unusually detailed 1711 sales catalogue, and
will produce an archaeology of Browne’s thought, with attention to the
influence of classical, medieval, and Renaissance sources. It will map the
holdings of his library onto his own work, and make a detailed case-study of at
least one of his book-clusters (in, e.g., medicine, natural philosophy, travel
literature, biblical scholarship, or patristics). The successful applicant will
not necessarily be expected to have advanced knowledge of Browne’s library and
works, but will be expected to offer a preliminary vision of an approach to
Browne’s work in relation to the history of ideas.
The project will re-establish, in particular, the often-
neglected relationship between Browne’s great encyclopaedic work Pseudodoxia
Epidemica (1646) and the books ‘behind’ it. It will have two broad aims, the
first relating to the library itself, and the second a case study in the
organisation of knowledge. Among the ideas that the first part of the project
might consider are: Renaissance classical reception; the material
reconstruction of the past within libraries; taxonomies of library arrangement;
the conceptualisation of early-modern reading through study of Browne’s
catalogue of error (Pseudodoxia); a catalogue with an intriguing relationship
to sources that are deemed to be unreliable or mistaken; the relationships
between books, and the distributions of knowledge, that inhere in the
structures of libraries and catalogues. How are clusters within Browne’s
library related to the intellectual roots of his encyclopaedic frameworks? How
do his books reveal a broader 17th-century intellectual landscape and his own social,
cultural and political milieu? What can the library teach us about the
acquisition and organisation of knowledge in the period?
The second part of the project will develop from out of
the candidate’s own interests, based on one or more of Browne’s fields of
knowledge. The student will be based at the University of York in the
Department of English and Related Literature, under the supervision of Dr Kevin
Killeen (co-editor of Pseudodoxia within the Browne edition, together with Prof
Will West and Prof Jessica Wolfe) and will come away from the award with
original research that sheds new light on the intellectual history of the era.
As part of the AHRC-funded edition of The Complete Works
of Sir Thomas Browne (8 vols, OUP 2015-2019; general editor, Prof Claire
Preston), the student will interact extensively with the eleven editors, two
post-doctoral researchers, and a second doctoral student in contributing to its
intellectual, analytical, and textual framework. The student may be expected to
contribute, as directed, to background research on the edition of Pseudodoxia
Epidemica.
Enquiries are welcome. Please contact either Dr Kevin
Killeen (kevin.killeen@york.ac.uk)
or Prof Claire Preston (c.e.preston@bham.ac.uk),
specifying ‘PhD1’.
PhD studentship, University of Birmingham: Thomas
Browne’s Correspondence (3 years, from September 2013) – an AHRC-funded
studentship The early-modern letter – its generic codes; the material
circumstances of composition, dispatch, receipt, and circulation; the influence
of epistolary habits of thought on other kinds of writing, and especially
literary writing – is a flourishing field, and the edition of Browne’s
correspondence carefully attends to such issues. His large epistolary corpus –
personal, familial, professional, and natural-philosophical letters by and to
him over a long career – give an unparalleled picture of 17th-century
intellectual exchange, and of the development of his ideas and of his other
works. The PhD based in this rich material will be informed by some of the
following questions: how does Browne’s correspondence inform and/or challenge
our understanding of his major works? how did scientific knowledge develop and
circulate through epistolary exchanges in this period? how did the material
conditions and constraints of the letter condition the genesis and
communication of Browne's ideas? The student will benefit from a sustained
engagement with Browne's correspondence; although contributing to the published
volume of correspondence, and to the edition as a whole, the dissertation will
be independent of them. Its precise topic will be developed by the student with
the supervisors, but will demand the development of the student’s
palaeographical and other textual skills. It will consider, too, of the correspondence
of other key figures of the period – for example, Spenser, Bacon, Boyle, and
Oldenburg. The range of incidents, topics, sources, and correspondents
presented by Browne's letters requires command of antiquarian, medical,
geological, botanical, theological, and other discourses. Advances in archival
description and cataloguing, and improvements in humanities computing, offer in
this dynamic field an auspicious moment for a doctoral project with great
interdisciplinary scope and opportunity to master and exploit the full range of
new publication and dissemination technologies in digital humanities.
Co-supervised by Prof Claire Preston (Birmingham), the
general editor of the AHRC-funded Browne edition, and Dr Andrew Zurcher
(Cambridge), co-editor of Browne’s correspondence, the student will be formally
attached to the Birmingham Department of English, where there is deep editorial
and early-modern expertise across the departments of English and History, and
in the vibrant interdisciplinary Centre for Reformation and Early-Modern
Studies. In addition, the student will have support from the Cambridge Centre
for Material Texts (based at the English Faculty), with its strengths in the
study of medieval and early-modern printed and manuscript materials. As part of
the AHRC-funded edition of The Complete Works of Sir Thomas Browne (8 vols, OUP
2015-2019), the student will interact extensively with the eleven editors, two
post-doctoral researchers, and a second doctoral student in contributing to its
intellectual, analytical, and textual framework. The student may be expected to
contribute, as directed, to background research on the volume of Browne’s
letters that forms part of the edition.
Enquiries are welcome. Please contact either Prof Claire
Preston (c.e.preston@bham.ac.uk) or
Dr Andrew Zurcher (aez20@cam.ac.uk),
specifying ‘PhD2’.
How to apply for either or both studentships:
Applications for these posts should first be made
directly to Professor Preston. The successful candidates will then be asked to
apply formally to the respective universities. If you wish to be considered for
both studentships, you need to send a full application (described below) for
each one. Remember to specify which post your application refers to (PhD1 or
PhD2)
Qualifications: the successful candidate will have a very
good undergraduate degree in English Literature or a closely related subject
such as intellectual history or comparative literature; and normally an MA or
MPhil, preferably in an early-modern literary topic (although relevant cognate
subjects can be considered). If you are already embarked on a PhD we are unable
to consider you for these studentships. Only UK citizens are eligible.
Application materials (2 hard copies and an electronic
copy):
--a cv including information about your undergraduate and
MA/M.Phil educational history with degree and exam results, and any awards;
special skills or experience (eg, language proficiency, relevant undergraduate
dissertation or long essay topics, etc); and publications (if any).
– a covering letter of no more than one A4 side
describing your preparation and qualification for, and interest in, one or both
of these posts.
– two letters of reference, at least one of which should
be from your post-graduate supervisor.
– a sample of academic writing, preferably from your
post-graduate degree, of no more than 3000 words (in other words, a chapter or
section of the MA/MPhil), or a short academic publication.
Submission of material:
The material listed above (hard copies and electronic
copy) is to be sent directly to Professor Preston, Department of English,
University of Birmingham, Edgbaston B15 2TT, and reach her by 15 February,
2013. Candidates should ask their referees to send their letters directly to
that address or to c.e.preston@bham.ac.uk
by the same date. Letters of references will not be sought, so it is your
responsibility to make certain they are sent in time. If you wish, you may send
an SAE with your application so that you can be informed when/whether all your
materials have arrived.
Questions about these posts are welcomed, and can be
directed to Professor Preston by email.