Career Development Fellow in Visual Studies

Working at Durham University  

A globally outstanding centre of teaching and research excellence, a warm and friendly place to work, a unique and historic setting – Durham is a university like no other.

As one of the UK’s leading universities, Durham is an incredible place to define your career. The University is located within a beautiful historic city, home to a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and surrounded by stunning countryside. Our talented scholars and researchers from around the world are tackling global issues and making a difference to people's lives.  

We believe that inspiring our people to do outstanding things at Durham enables Durham people to do outstanding things in the world. Being a part of Durham is about more than just the success of the University, it’s also about contributing to the success of the city, county and community.

Our University Strategy is built on three pillars of research, education and wider student experience, but also on our keen sense of community and of inspiring others to achieve their potential. 

Our Purpose and Values

We want our University to be a place where people can be free to be themselves, no matter what their identity or background. Together, we celebrate difference, value one another and are each responsible for creating an inclusive community that is respectful and fair for all.

Find out more about the benefits of working at the University and what it is like to live and work in the Durham area on our Why Durham? information page.  

Career Development Fellowships

The University is committed to enabling all our colleagues to achieve their full potential. Durham University’s Career Development Fellowships are fixed term positions, which include structured development support for early career academics to deliver outstanding education, innovative research/scholarship, and to engage in citizenship activities. The post-holder will be a full academic member of the Department, working alongside world-class colleagues, with the support of a designated mentor. 

Career Development Fellows will benefit from tailored support to strengthen their skills, will be provided with a range of academic opportunities, and will benefit from protected time to foster different aspects of their career. The Career Development Fellowships will enable early career academics to acquire a strong and well-rounded foundation to support future applications for substantive academic roles at Durham or elsewhere (no guarantee can be given that a permanent role at Durham will be available for the CDF to apply for at the end of the Fellowship).

The Department 

The School of Modern Languages and Cultures at Durham University seeks to appoint a talented individual to a fixed-term Career Development Fellowship to join the team delivering its innovative BA in Visual Arts and Film and MA in Visual Culture.  Both these programmes are dedicated to interdisciplinarity and a global perspective, sharing a commitment to decolonializing approaches which are also being taken up elsewhere in the School.

We welcome applications from those with research and teaching interests in the broad field of the Visual Arts, and we are particularly eager to hear from applicants with a focus on Art History and with a track record of engaging with the cultural sector.

This post offers an exciting opportunity to develop internationally excellent research/scholarship and teaching while providing unrivalled, tailored support for your career progression at an exciting and progressive institution.

The School is one of the largest and most successful Schools of Modern Languages and Cultures in the UK. Over the past two decades, the School has also developed a distinctive profile in the transnational and interdisciplinary study of visual culture, broadly conceived, bringing together visual culture research in Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Hispanic Studies, Italian, Japanese and Russian Studies. 

The School’s expertise in visual culture encompasses painting, film, photography, performance studies, urban studies, and book history, and has led to the establishment of an innovative BA programme in Visual Arts and Film as well as an MA in Visual Culture. Research activity extends from the medieval period to the present and embraces a range of theoretical and methodological orientations. The study of visual culture intersects in exciting ways with other areas of research activity in the School: medieval and early modern studies, the relationship between the sciences and the humanities, gender and sexuality studies, critical and cultural theory, the transnational study of literature, and translation. Indeed, translation — understood in its broad sense of transmission, interpretation and sharing of languages, ideas and histories — underpins the School’s collective practices, including research into the visual. The School’s forward-thinking research agenda was highlighted in its major conference ‘Our Uncommon Ground’, held in Durham in 2018, and a further conference ‘Where Are We Now? The Location of Modern Languages and Cultures’ took place in April 2023. These conferences brought together speakers from across the world to articulate and embrace the values of a discipline equipped to study cultures and their interactions in historical perspective. Indicative of the School’s ethos and commitment to the interdisciplinary study of visual culture was the invitation of Mieke Bal to give the keynote lecture at the 2023 conference and present a screening of her film About Time .  

As part of its commitment to local regeneration through internationalisation, the School is engaged in collaborative activities with The Auckland Project around the Spanish Art in County Durham initiative and the Zurbarân Centre for Spanish and Latin American Art. Colleagues have also worked extensively with local cultural organisations, including the Bowes Museum, No More Nowt!, and New Writing North. At national level, the School initiated and leads Durham University’s institutional partnership with the BFI, which delivers numerous benefits to staff and students alike. 

The School provides the leadership of the Centre for Visual Arts and Culture, a centre that collaborates regularly with the other centres and institutes in which School staff play a leading role: the Institute of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, the Centre for Culture and Ecology, the Institute of Medical Humanities, and the Institute of Advanced Study, which promotes world-class research across the Faculties. Within the School, staff and postgraduates are brought together in interdisciplinary discussions and collaboration through a set of research groups. These currently include Bodies, Texts, Nations; Digital Studies; Performance and Performativity; Living Texts; Translating Languages and Cultures; Decolonisation; and Transnational Cinema. Visual culture scholars are engaged in all of these groups. 

For more information, please visit our Department pages at https://www.durham.ac.uk/departments/academic/modern-languages-cultures/   

Given the developmental nature of this role it is not anticipated that the post will be extended beyond the initial fixed term. Following the end of the term, the role-holder will be in a strong position to apply for relevant permanent academic roles, should they arise, at Durham or elsewhere.

Successful applicants are normally expected to be within 8 years of completing their PhD, although career breaks for parental leave and/or health reasons will be considered. This is because the roles are aimed at early career academics who would benefit from a structured development programme and provision of both formal and ‘on the job’ training. The posts are also open to those who are returning to academia after a career in another sector.

Successful applicants will, ideally be in post by 2 September 2024

The University provides a working and teaching environment that is inclusive and welcoming and where everyone is treated fairly with dignity and respect. Candidates will be expected to demonstrate these key principles as part of the assessment process.

Key responsibilities: 

It should be noted that the precise content of each Career Development Fellowship will vary dependent on the experience of the role-holder, their career aspirations, and the business need of the Department. 

At the outset of the Fellowship a personal development plan will be produced in discussion with the Head of Department, which will outline any training needs, or other experience the post-holder wishes to gain to develop their academic career.

The development plan is a tool to assist the post-holder's academic career progression and will be reviewed regularly during the Fellowship to ensure that development needs are being met.

During the course of the Career Development Fellowship the successful candidate will gain valuable experience in a wide spectrum of academic activities. Examples include:

Development

• Membership of Departmental committees and appropriate professional body.
• Contribute to a collegial and respectful working environment which is inclusive and welcoming and where everyone is treated fairly with dignity and respect.
• Engage in citizenship to support the department and wider discipline.
• Engage in continuing professional development by attending relevant training and development courses, as detailed in the personal development plan. Opportunities could include: 

o   Research Project Leadership

o   Supported progression towards Higher Education Academy (HEA) membership

o   Leadership in Learning and Teaching course

Education

• Teach and coordinate modules at undergraduate/postgraduate levels relating to Art History, exhibition and curatorial practice, work placements in the local cultural sector, and visual culture broadly conceived, developing an awareness of different approaches to and methods of teaching and supporting student learning.
• Develop the ability to manage own teaching and designing, planning and writing of engaging and innovative teaching materials.
• Develop and deliver an inclusive curriculum and make an active contribution to an inclusive community in which diversity is embraced and celebrated.
• Supervise undergraduate and postgraduate students, and where appropriate act as part of a PhD supervisory team.
• Provide student support, assessment of academic performance and provision of feedback, dealing with student disciplinary matters and complaints.

Research/Scholarship

• Demonstrate progress towards independent development of internationally excellent research/scholarship.
• Develop clear plans for the pursuit of national and international funding opportunities to support research/scholarship and end-user engagement.
• Develop a personal research/scholarship plan which supports and enhances the department’s research and/or pedagogic strategy.
• Contribute to enhancing the quality of the research environment.

Working at Durham 

• A competitive salary is only one part of the many fantastic benefits you will receive if you join the University: you will also receive access to the following fantastic benefits:
• 30 Days annual leave per year in addition to 8 public holidays and 4 customary days per year – a total of 42 days per year.  
• As a new member of staff you will be automatically enrolled into the University Superannuation Scheme (USS).
• No matter how you travel to work, we have you covered. We have parking across campus, a cycle to work scheme which helps you to buy a bike and discount with local bus and train companies.
• There is a genuine commitment to developing our colleagues professionally and personally. There is a comprehensive range of development courses, and all staff have dedicated annual time to concentrate on their personal development opportunities.
• Lots of support for health and wellbeing including discounted membership for our state of the art sport and gym facilities and access to a 24-7 Employee Assistance Programme.
• On site nursery is available and children’s clubs in the summer holidays.
• Family friendly policies, including maternity and adoption leave, which are among the most generous in the higher education sector (and likely above and beyond many employers).
• The opportunity to take part in staff volunteering activities to make a difference in the local community.
• Discounts are available via our benefits portal including; money off at supermarkets, high street retailers, IT products such as Apple, the cinema and days out at various attractions.
• A salary sacrifice scheme is also available to help you take advantage of tax savings on benefits.
• If you are moving to Durham, you may be eligible for help with removal costs and we have a dedicated team who can help you with the practicalities such as house hunting and schools.  If you need a visa, we cover most visa costs and offer an interest free loan scheme to pay for dependant visas.

Durham University is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion 

Equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) are a key component of the University’s Strategy and a central part of everything we do.  We also live by our Purpose and Values  and our Staff Code of Conduct.   At Durham we actively work towards providing an environment where our staff and students can study, work and live in a community which is supportive and inclusive. It’s important to us that all colleagues undertake activities that are aligned to both our values and commitment to EDI. 

We welcome and encourage applications from those who are currently under-represented in our work force, including people with disabilities and from racially minoritised ethnic groups.

If you have taken a career break or periods of leave that may have impacted on the volume and recency of your research outputs and other activities, such as maternity, adoption or parental leave, you may wish to disclose this in your application. The selection committee will take this into account when evaluating your application.

The University has been awarded the Disability Confident Employer status. If you are a candidate with a disability, we are committed to ensuring fair treatment throughout the recruitment process. We will make adjustments to support the interview process wherever it is reasonable to do so and, where successful, reasonable adjustments will be made to support people within their role. 

Contact Information 

Department contact for academic-related enquiries: Dr Simon Ward, Programme Director, BA in Visual Arts and Film, [email protected]  

Contact information for technical difficulties when submitting your application 

If you encounter technical difficulties when using the online application form, we prefer you send enquiries by email.  Please send your name along with a brief description of the problem you’re experiencing to [email protected]  

Alternatively, you may call 0191 334 6801 from the UK, or +44 191 334 6801 from outside the UK. This number operates during the hours of 09.00 and 17.00 Monday to Friday, UK time.  We will normally respond within one working day (Monday to Friday, excluding UK public holidays).  

University contact for general queries about the recruitment process 

Michele Groark, HR Administrator (Recruitment), [email protected]

How to Apply  

We prefer to receive applications online.    

To progress to the assessment stage, candidates must evidence each of the essential criteria required for the role in the person specification below. It will be at the discretion of the recruiting panel as to whether they will also consider any desirable criteria, but we would urge candidates to provide evidence of all criteria.

While some criteria will be considered at the shortlisting stage, other criteria may be considered later in the assessment process, such as questions at interview.

Please note that in submitting your application, we will be processing your data.  We would ask you to consider the relevant University Privacy Statement https://www.dur.ac.uk/ig/dp/privacy/pnjobapplicants/  which provides information on the collation, storing and use of data.  

Submitting your application

All applicants are asked to submit: 

• A CV  
• A covering letter which details your experience, strengths and potential in the requirements set out below.  
• Personal Research Plan OR Scholarship Plan
• An EDI & values statement – (of no more than 500 words) which outlines work which you have been involved in which demonstrates your commitment to EDI and our values. I.e. Involvement in equality, diversity, and inclusion activities such as mentoring, volunteering, or attending conferences.

We will update you about your application at various points throughout the selection process, via automated emails from our e-recruitment system. Please check your spam/junk folder periodically to make sure you have not missed any of our updates

Next Steps 

Short-listed candidates will be invited to the University, either virtually or in-person and will have the opportunity to meet key members of the Department. The assessment for the post will normally include [a presentation to staff and students in the Department followed by an interview] and we anticipate that the assessments and interviews will take place over two days in early to mid August.

In the event that you are unable to attend in person on the date offered, it may not be possible to offer you an interview on an alternative date.

When appointing to this role the University must ensure that it meets any applicable immigration requirements, including salary thresholds which are applicable to some visas.

Person Specification 

Candidates will normally be within eight years of completing their PhD (career breaks due to parental leave or ill health will be accounted for) or be concluding their PhD. While candidates may have limited direct experience of the requirements of the post, they must outline their experience, skills and achievements to date which demonstrate that they meet or that they have the potential to achieve the essential criteria.

Essential Criteria