University of Lincoln Graduate Teaching Fellowships - Transcending Boundaries in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages

Background

Building upon our recent success in the national Research Excellence Framework (REF 2021), the School of Humanities and Heritage at the University of Lincoln is offering three fully-funded Graduate Teaching Fellow positions in Medieval Studies (comprising a PhD fee waiver, plus the equivalent of a UKRI stipend, for four years full-time). We invite talented individuals to submit applications for these fellowships, which combine PhD study with limited teaching duties at the University of Lincoln. We are particularly interested in interdisciplinary and comparative doctoral projects that link to our overarching theme of ‘Transcending Boundaries in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages’ and draw upon our staff’s expertise in archaeology, archives, art history, history, linguistics, and literature.

Medieval Studies is an area of research excellence in the University that attracts scholars from around the world who work on Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Successful applicants will be supervised in undertaking their doctoral research, and will simultaneously be provided with a graduated introduction to teaching, involving mentorship, training, and support for attaining HEA Associate Fellow status. Teaching contact hours will build gradually up to a maximum of no more than 8 hours per week during term time over the course of the Graduate Teaching Fellowship.

Aims

The late antique and medieval world (300-1500) was one of blurred edges, where politics, societies, religions, and cultures mapped onto space and time in constantly shifting patterns. Yet modern scholarship tends to describe the period in rigid categories of race and denomination reflecting and supporting contemporary agendas of nationhood and state-building, and to reconstruct it with sets of tools determined by the divisions of modern university departments and disciplines. To encourage innovative, comparative, and intersectional approaches to examining Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, we invite applications for our Graduate Teaching Fellowships that employ intersectional methodologies to studying Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Applications should be for doctoral projects that align with one of the following themes:

1. Languages, communities, and beliefs: a proposal for a doctoral project that explores multilingual, intercultural, or inter-religious contacts, martyrs, and saints, and/or networks and networking in the Iberian Peninsula.
2. Gender, identities, aristocracies, and power: a proposal for a doctoral project that reconceptualises women’s roles and/or explores new ways of understanding lordship and elites across different regions.
3. Archives, heritage, and medievalism: a proposal for a doctoral project that uses, recovers, and/or reconstructs neglected collections, works, or sites, preferably in/around Lincoln and with digital approaches.

Research Environment

The successful applicants will join the University’s thriving Medieval Studies Research Group, which enjoys an international reputation for its publications and projects. Situated within the beautiful cathedral city of Lincoln, the Group has strong links to civic partners, including Lincoln Cathedral with its peerless holdings of medieval manuscripts, the Collection Museum with its repository of ancient and medieval finds, Lincoln Castle, and Lincolnshire Archives, one of the UK’s largest regional collections. Our externally funded research includes the Medieval Iberian Saints Project (AHRC), and we host two Leverhulme early career researchers (Dr Hannah Boston and Dr Anaïs Waag).

The three Graduate Teaching Fellowship themes reflect the main research areas of the Medieval Studies Research Group:

1. Languages, communities, and beliefs: The Group hosts the largest concentration of scholars working on pre-modern Spain and Portugal outside the Iberian Peninsula itself. Our members study aspects of Iberia and the Mediterranean world, including intellectual cultures, hagiographies, and Christian-Muslim exchanges. Current related research features: Making a Martyr in Medieval Iberia; Medieval Iberian Saints; the Early Medieval Iberia Research Group; Late Antique and Early Medieval Iberia; and the Society for the Medieval Mediterranean.
2. Gender, identities, aristocracies, and power: The Group includes a critical mass of scholars whose research examines the intersections of gender, identity, status, and power amongst European aristocracies and ruling elites. Current related research includes: Medieval People; and the Noblewomen Network.
3. Archives, heritage, and medievalism: The Group’s members work on archives and medieval records, buildings and historic sites, literary and material culture, and digital interpretations and visualisations of the medieval past. Current related research encompasses: A State within A State: The Making of the Duchy of Lancaster; the Lincoln Record Society; the International Arthurian Society; and Ruralia – European Association for Medieval and Post-Medieval Rural Archaeology.

Funding

A Graduate Teaching Fellow position is a four-year full-time role which combines PhD study with teaching duties. Applicants with relevant personal circumstances may be enrolled for six years on a part-time basis, but only where this is justified. All Graduate Teaching Fellows will have their PhD fees waived, whether they incur home or international fees. They will also receive the equivalent of the standard UKRI stipend (£17668 p.a. in 2022-2023), partly as salary and partly as a stipend. Graduate Teaching Fellows will be provided with appropriate training and support to undertake their teaching role. It is envisaged that their teaching duties, including associated administrative support and training, will not exceed 468 hours (0.3 FTE) per year and in no case will exceed 20 hours of duties per week.

Requirements/Eligibility

This is a developmental role for those aspiring to an academic post in the future. You will be given the opportunity to work across disciplines and engage with colleagues from the University of Lincoln’s Medieval Studies Research Group. You should possess a good undergraduate Honours degree (2:1 or higher) and Master’s degree in Archaeology, Classical Studies, History, Art History, Linguistics, Medieval Studies, or English.

Interested applicants are encouraged to demonstrate skills, experience, and/or potential relevant to a future career in teaching and researching aspects of life and culture in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Evidence of the ability to engage in postgraduate research and to work collaboratively as part of a teaching team, including excellent communication skills in both written and spoken English, are required. Successful applicants will enrol on an appropriate PhD programme at the University of Lincoln.

How to Apply

To apply for this position, please send your CV, cover letter, personal statement, and EDI monitoring form to Professor Louise Wilkinson (medievalstudies@lincoln.ac.uk) with the subject heading “Medieval Studies Graduate Teaching Fellow Application”.

Your personal statement should provide: (1) information on how your qualifications and experience meet the requirements of the Graduate Teaching Fellowship Programme (500 words); (2) an outline of your proposed doctoral project, noting which theme it aligns with and your preferred supervisors (1000 words excluding bibliography); (3) a statement outlining how you would approach teaching Medieval Studies to undergraduates, including any relevant experience if applicable (500 words); and (4) the contact details for two academic references.

Candidates are strongly encouraged to contact their preferred supervisors for informal advice about developing their doctoral projects in advance of submitting their applications.

Application Deadline: 17 April 2023.

Diversity monitoring final. docx (1).docx

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