Applications are invited for a postdoctoral research fellow to be based in the Department of American and Canadian Studies (ACS). The successful applicant will join a collaborative academic project, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council under its ‘Care for the Future’ theme and with a value of £1.84 millon, entitled ‘The Antislavery Usable Past’. It will unearth the details of past antislavery strategies (including 18th/19th-century American and British) and translate their lessons and legacies for today’s movement against contemporary global slavery and human trafficking. It includes professors at Nottingham, Hull, and Queen’s Belfast, a second postdoctoral fellow at Hull, three PhD students and a project administrator.

The post holder will be based at the University of Nottingham (UoN), though the project will offer the opportunity of travel both within the United Kingdom and internationally, and work under the supervision of Professor Zoe Trodd. She/he will support the work of the project, build partnerships with museums and antislavery organisations, assist in the design and development of a large digital archive of antislavery images and narratives, help design and deliver external workshops and resources, and help develop an open educational resource about past and present antislavery.

The research fellow will be offered the opportunity to contribute chapters to the grant’s books, and articles to its journal issues, deliver papers at the grant’s conferences and colloquiums, help lead the grant’s ECR network and workshops, deliver a talk as part of the American Studies public lecture series at UoN, teach a module in ACS that makes use of the grant’s research and resources, and supervise undergraduate and MA dissertations. The fellowship includes an additional budget (£3000) for the fellow to attend conferences and conduct his/her own research.

Applicants should have a PhD in a relevant subject area with a dissertation topic about slavery and antislavery and/or the legacies of slavery and antislavery. The ability to creatively apply relevant research approaches, models, techniques and methods is also essential, as is the ability to build relationships and collaborate with others, both internally and externally. A research background in visual culture, and/or historical memory, and/or Black Studies is desirable, as is experience of developing new approaches, models, techniques or methods in the research area of slavery/antislavery.

This full time appointment is tenable from 1 February 2015, or as soon as possible thereafter, and will last for a period of 3 years and 8 months or until August 31 2018.
Salary: £28695 to £37394 per annum, depending on skills and experience. Salary progression beyond this scale is subject to performance.

Informal enquiries about the post should be addressed to zoe.trodd@nottingham.ac.uk.

Closing Date: Thursday, 5th February 2015

For more information and to apply, see http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/jobs/currentvacancies/ref/ARTS388714