Cultures of Knowledge: An Intellectual Geography of the Seventeenth-Century Republic of Letters

Applications are invited for TWO AHRC Collaborative PhD studentships, commencing in autumn 2012, on the theme of Reconnecting Sloane: Texts, Images, Objects:

• Collecting and Correspondence: Sloane’s Papers and Scientific Networks (Supervised by Dr Arnold Hunt, British Library and Dr Anne Goldgar, King’s College London)

• Putting Nature in a Box: Sloane’s Vegetable Substances (Supervised by Dr Charlie Jarvis, Natural History Museum, and Professor Miles Ogborn, Queen Mary University of London)

• A third Doctoral studentship in the programme, Visualizing Natural Knowledge: Sloane’s Albums of Natural History Drawings (Supervised by Dr Kim Sloan, British Museum, and Dr Elizabeth Eger, King’s College London) has already been allocated to a named student.

Further particulars are available here (doc). Applicants can apply for both studentships, but must complete separate applications for each as outlined below.

These studentships will focus on the collections of Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753), which are now divided between the British Museum, the Natural History Museum and the British Library. The research projects will explore various aspects of Sloane’s collections in order to understand how his collecting practices were involved in the making of Enlightenment knowledge. The successful applicants will be expected to work closely with the partner institutions, and each other, in order to draw out the intellectual and material connections between the different parts of Sloane’s collections. They will also participate in the development of new finding-aids for the collections, leading to innovative forms of public engagement.

The award pays fees and an annual maintenance grant (currently £15,590 per year) and the partner institution will contribute up to £1000 pa research costs. The usual AHRC eligibility rules (pdf) apply to these studentships, including having an appropriate master’s degree by October 2012 and AHRC’s residential requirements.

For both studentships the closing date is 29 June 2012. Interviews will be held in London on 19 July 2012. Applicants will need to include a CV, two references, an academic transcript, and a 1000-word statement of purpose.

• For Collecting and Correspondence: Sloane’s Papers and Scientific Networks further details (doc) are available on the Department of History, King’s College London website. Informal inquiries should be made to Dr Anne Goldgar (anne.goldgar(at)kcl.ac.uk) and applications should be made to Kings College London.
• For Putting Nature in a Box: Sloane’s Vegetable Substances further details (doc) on the project and how to apply are available on the School of Geography, Queen Mary University of London, website. Informal inquiries should be made to Professor Miles Ogborn (m.j.ogborn(at)qmul.ac.uk) and applications should be made to Queen Mary University of London.

As part of their recent strategic alliance with Queen Mary, University of London, the Centre for the Study of the Renaissance at the University of Warwick has announced two Postdoctoral Research Fellowships, one based at Queen Mary and one at Warwick, on the theme of ‘Networks and Information Technologies, 1300-1800’. To form part of the collaborative project ‘Rewiring the Renaissance: Cultural Networks and Information Technologies’, the Fellows will explore modes of communication and networking in the Renaissance period, from letter writing to orality, and develop IT-led modern mechanisms which can capture and analyse the Renaissance communities that were constructed. Projects that explore cultural transmission in any media or European language are welcome; in addition, the Queen Mary Postdoctoral Research Fellow will be expected to have the skills that will allow for an interrogation of the ways in which we communicate historical information in a digital world.

The deadline for applications is Friday, 11 May 2012. For background information on the collaboration, further details about the two posts, and to apply, please visit the project webpage. Please send informal enquiries to Dr Penny Roberts.

It’s an exciting time for friends and colleagues at Dublin’s Edward Worth Library – a collection of 4,500 books, left to Dr Steevens’ Hospital by Edward Worth (1678-1733), an early eighteenth-century Dublin physician – who have contacted us with two reminders:

A conference on The Reception of Newton will be held at the Library on 12–13 July 2012. In recent years, considerable attention has been devoted to the elucidation of the precise nature and scope of Newton’s influence on eighteenth-century science in particular, and on Enlightenment culture more generally. The Library is uniquely positioned to contribute to this ongoing reassessment, as its holdings bear unique witness to the spread of Newtonianism in Ireland. Worth’s collection reminds us of the range and depth of Newton’s intellectual impact on Europe and the crucial role played by second generation Newtonians in clarifying, classifying and re-presenting his ideas. The deadline for 300 word abstracts is 1 March 2012; for further details, see the conference website.

The Library is also offering a single one-month fellowship to be held in 2012, to encourage research relevant to its holdings. The collection is particularly strong in three areas: early modern medicine, early modern history of science, and, given that Worth was a connoisseur book collector interested in fine bindings and rare printing, the history of the book. Research does not, however, have to be restricted to these three key areas. Further information about the collection and its catalogues may be found on the library website. The closing date for applications is 30 March 2012. For further details and application procedures please contact: Dr Elizabethanne Boran, Librarian, The Edward Worth Library, Dr Steevens’ Hospital, Dublin 8, Ireland (elizabethanne.boran[at]hse.ie).

Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical, and medical information products and services, and the Scaliger Institute of Leiden University Libraries have announced the founding of a three-year fellowship program to enable international rare books scholars to study century scientific scholarship and publishing in the early modern period. The program will support two scholars to work with the extensive Leiden University Special Collections and the Elsevier Heritage Collection – recently catalogued online – for a period of one to three months annually. They will also be invited to share their research through public lectures and publications. The closing date for applications is 1 March 2012. For further information and the application form please visit the websites of Elsevier or the Scaliger Institute. Please address queries to scaliger@library(at)leidenuniv.nl.

The Scaliger Institute and Brill publishers invite scholars and researchers to submit proposals for the 2012 Brill Fellowship at the Scaliger Institute of Leiden University Library. Brill, the oldest scholarly publishing house in The Netherlands based in Leiden since 1683, is sponsoring the Scaliger Institute from the year 2006 onwards. This contribution provides an opportunity for one or two fellows to come to Leiden University Library each year in order to carry out research in the library’s rich Special Collections. The Brill fellowship is intended for a minimum period of three months and for a maximum period of six months. The allowance, which is intended to cover the costs of accommodation and research, is €1,000 per month. Applications can be submitted by mail and post to the board of the Brill fellowship. The prospective fellow must be involved in one of Brill’s main subject areas: Middle East and Islamic Studies; Asian Studies; Medieval and Early Modern History; Biblical and Religious Studies; Ancient Near East and Egypt and Classical Studies. The Brill fellow is expected to contribute to the activities of the Scaliger Institute and to give a public lecture. When the occasion arises, the lecture will be published by Brill in association with the Scaliger Institute. The closing date for applications is 31 January 2012. For further details and application instructions, please visit the Fellowship webpage.

The Humanities Division of the University of Oxford is currently advertising a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship in Digital Humanities (£29,099 – £30,870). This is a two-year research and teaching appointment in Digital Humanities from October 2011 for an outstanding academic at an early stage of his or her career. The fellowships are funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation as part of a wider Oxford University initiative which is designed: to provide an intensive and supported career development opportunity for outstanding academics at an early stage of their career; and to promote equality of opportunity by helping to create a more diverse pool of potential candidates for future academic posts at Oxford.

Applicants must have obtained their doctorates by 1 October 2011, and should not normally have completed it earlier than 1 October 2007. Applications are welcome from all whose research is in the digital humanities, involving the innovative and productive application of digital tools or resources to research questions in any subject under the Humanities Division. The Fellow will be employed by the Faculty closest to his/her academic interests. A college association will be arranged for this post, and he/she will also become a Research Associate at the OeRC. For further details, information about how to apply and an application form, please visit the university jobsite. Applications must be received by noon on Wednesday 23 March 2011.