PhD position ‘Conceptions of Europe in Early Modern Literature, 1517-1713’ (1.0 FTE)

As part of Dr. Lieke Stelling’s NWO-funded VIDI project

, Utrecht University is recruiting a PhD candidate. In cooperation with the other project members, the PhD candidate will work on their own sub-project

. Focusing on the theme of ‘cities’, the Researcher will study how early modern fictional narratives depict cities as European microcosms and how these portrayals correspond with early modern cultural conceptions of real cities as key nodes of European society.

The PhD project is one of three closely related projects (the other two on multilingualism and religious pluralism) that explore the role of literature in the development of an understanding of Europe as a shared cultural space. The main corpus for all three projects consists of fictional narratives that were published in print across Europe in at least four different languages. In collaboration with cultural institutions in Brussels and Mechelen, and a wide network of international scholars, the VIDI project will offer thought-provoking alternative views of Europeanness to the (future) shapers of European democracy. This PhD project, that will be supervised by Dr. Lieke Stelling and Prof. Arnoud Visser, provides a great opportunity to work in a dedicated, multilingual research environment that offers a variety of training programmes and possibilities to acquire international research experience.

A more detailed research outline, including potential source material, may be obtained from Dr. Stelling.

The tasks of the PhD candidate include:

• literary analysis of early modern fictional narratives in two or more languages;
• completing and defending a PhD dissertation within four years;
• active participation in the meetings of the project research group and affiliated projects;
• presenting intermediate research results at workshops and conferences;
• writing an article;
• co-organizing outreach activities and the project conference;
• following courses in cultural history of the national graduate school.

You will be based at the Utrecht Department of Languages, Literature and Communication (TLC), and will be affiliated to the Institute for Cultural Inquiry (ICON), both of which provide a stimulating and internationally oriented research environment.