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The Early Modern Conversions Project, headquartered at McGill University in Montreal, invites humanities PhDs with experience in research administration to apply for a position as Project Manager / Postdoctoral Researcher.
Early Modern Conversions: Religions, Cultures, Cognitive Ecologies is an international project that studies how early modern Europeans changed their confessional, social, political, gender, and sexual identities. These subjective changes were of a piece with transformations in their world—the geopolitical reorientation of Europe in relation with the Ottoman Empire and the Americas; the rethinking of Latin Antiquity; changes in the built environment; the reimagining of God. The research includes the creation of a History Visualization Lab able to track the growth of multiple conversional forms, both geographically and historically. Among the partners in the project are the Folger Shakespeare Library, the Centre for Research in Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities (Cambridge), the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, and the Guildhall School for Music and Drama. Funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, the project is developing an historical understanding that will also enlighten modern debates about corporeal, sexual, psychological, political, and spiritual kinds of transformation.
The Project Manager/Postdoctoral Researcher works closely with the Project Director to assure the advancement of the project’s research and publication, education, and public exchange goals; oversees the day-to-day operations of the project, including workshops, summer research seminars, education and public exchange initiatives, as well as the annual team meetings; works with the Director on the preparation of reports for the funding agencies and other stakeholders; oversees the project budget; and develops her or his own research and publication program.
In addition to a PhD in a humanities discipline, the successful candidate will have a strong interest in interdisciplinary, collaborative research. A research program in line with the work of the Conversions project will be a strong advantage. Candidates should have some experience with large research project coordination and with financial and research grant reporting. The position requires the ability to manage a budget, excellent people skills, advanced oral and written communications skills, and strong organizational skills.
The salary is $45,000 per annum plus benefits. The successful candidate will have an office, a computer, access to McGill’s scholarly resources, funding for travel to project conferences, workshops, and public exchange events, research support up to $2,000 per annum, and membership in a thriving intellectual community. The term of the initial appointment is June 1 2017 to May 31 2018. The appointment is renewable, upon satisfactory performance, for the nine months up to the end the project, February 28 2019.
Applications, consisting of a cover letter, CV, and a writing sample (approx. 20 pages double-spaced) should be sent to Paul Yachnin, Director, Early Modern Conversions, at conversions@mcgill.ca by March 30 2017. Please arrange to have two letters of reference sent to the same address by the same date; referees should include the name of the candidate in the subject line of their emails.