Research Fellow in Digital Humanities

About the role

The Faculty of Media, Arts, and Humanities at the University of Sussex seeks to appoint a research fellow in digital humanities. The fellow will be an integral part of the team for the European Research Council-funded project ‘Promiscuous Print: Legal Deposit Libraries, Rejected Texts, and New Methods for Negative Bibliography’ (PromPrint) led by Dr Hannah Field.

PromPrint uses digital tools and quantitative analyses to uncover the rejects of legal deposit: the printed texts excluded from the ostensibly universal archive promised by copyright libraries. Legal deposit works to preserve every text published in a specific group of libraries. While this principle is egalitarian, the cultural promiscuity of print has often troubled the prestigious deposit libraries, as deposit brings such historically controversial forms as novels, children’s books, almanacs, and pamphlets into elite collections.

Taking a case study approach based in UK copyright libraries between 1836 and 1914, the project asks questions including: which textual forms and genres do deposit libraries reject? How and why does this change over time? More broadly, the research seeks to drive forward our understanding of how literature is canonized and forgotten, collected and destroyed.

About You

The successful candidate will hold a completed PhD and have an active profile in digital humanities research and practice, with a preference for a candidate with secondary expertise in nineteenth-century/Victorian studies. While the project’s methodological orientation is in literary criticism and book history, all relevant humanities disciplines will be considered.

The fellow will collaborate closely with the Principal Investigator on data collection, analysis, and the production of key outputs during the project’s first phase. At Phase Two, they will lead their own strand of work focused on obscene publications (broadly conceived) within deposit, as well as collaborate with the PI and the project’s doctoral researcher on publications and events. The fellow will have regular one-on-one meetings to support their career and a dedicated research allowance. They will be supported not just by the research environment at Sussex but also by the larger ERC infrastructure.

About Our Faculty

Please find more information regarding The Faculty of Media, Arts, and Humanities on our website.

Further information regarding the Sussex Digital Humanities Lab (SHL Digital), is also available.

Why Work Here

Find out more about our reward and benefits package.

Find out about our equality, diversity, and inclusion

Further Key Information

Please contact Dr Hannah Field h.field@sussex.ac.uk for informal enquiries.

For full details and how to apply, click the 'Apply' button above.

The University of Sussex values the diversity of its staff and students, and we welcome applicants from all backgrounds.

The University requires that work undertaken for the University is performed in the UK. 

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