Two-year scholarship, University of Leuven
Literary Knowledge (1890-1950): Popular Astronomy
(ref. BAP-2018-363)
Laatst aangepast : 4/06/2018
Are you interested in working at a research centre of excellence within one of continental Europe’s top-5 universities in the Arts and Humanities? Does writing a PhD in comparative literature appeal to you? The MDRN research centre at the University of Leuven (KU Leuven) is looking to hire a doctoral student to work within the research programme “Literary Knowledge, 1890-1950: Modernisms and the Sciences in Europe”. The successful applicant receives a four-year scholarship (doctoraatsbursaal). The MDRN research centre houses about 30 experts in the expanding field of modernism studies. It unites scholars from various languages and disciplines. The centre offers an exciting environment that allows young scholars to pursue their individual research goals, while at the same time offering the benefits of collaborative work. To learn more about working at MDRN as a young scholar, or about MDRN’s many other projects, people and activities, just visit our site (mentioned below). The centre is based at the Arts Faculty of the University of Leuven. Located in a historic city in the heart of Belgium, the university is 20 minutes from Brussels and less than two hours from Paris, London and Amsterdam.
Project
“Popular Astronomy” is a PhD project that is part of the larger research programme, “Literary Knowledge, 1890-1950: Modernisms and the Sciences in Europe”. This programme is funded by the University of Leuven Research Council and is supervised by professors Sascha Bru, Elke D’hoker, Anke Gilleir, David Martens and Bart Van Den Bossche. The programme seeks to better understand the epistemic function of Western European literature between 1890 and 1950 by studying literature’s role within a larger economy of knowledge production during the period. More specifically, the programme investigates the ways in which literature related to knowledge stemming from the life sciences, physical sciences, social sciences and the humanities. A large-scale research initiative coherently framed and involving scientists from various disciplines, the programme houses six smaller-scale projects for PhD students on English, French, German, Italian and Dutch literature’s ties to fields as varied as archaeology, genetics and cosmology.
The PhD project, “Popular Astronomy”, wants to study the ways in which popular fiction in Germany and Britain dealt with knowledge stemming from astronomy and how in culture at large it helped shape and imagine the cosmos. Literature has a long established role in mediating astronomical knowledge and expanding the powers to imagine the cosmos. Fascination for astronomical phenomena also ran wide in the modernist period, as witnessed by Elias Canetti’s evocation of the appearance of Halley’s comet in 1910 in Die gerettete Zunge or Virginia Woolf’s lyrical description of the 1927 solar eclipse in The Waves. Generally, astronomy and literature are brought in line by looking at science fiction, yet the types of fiction that mediated and disseminated astronomical knowledge in the modernist period were much more varied: from short stories in magazines and newspapers to epic narratives and tragedy, literature absorbed and communicated astronomical facts in diverse forms. This project will chart the breadth of popular genres in Germany and Britain to have dealt with new or old astronomical observations and technologies (from the heliocentric model of the solar system to expanding galaxies, and from old celestial maps to the Hubble telescope).
Profile
- You hold an MA in German (major in literature) and have an near-native or high proficiency in English or hold an MA in English (major in literature) and have a near-native or high level proficiency in German
- You have a passion for literature and want to become an outstanding scholar
- You are interested in European modernisms and the avant-gardes, and the ties between literature and science (understood in the broadest sense)
- You are willing to communicate on your research at conferences, through publications and on social media
- You are happy to work on campus at least three or four days a week
- You are ready to work in team and to play an active role both within the research programme and the MDRN centre
Offer
We offer a once renewable two-year scholarship (doctoraatsbursaal). A budget for research-related travel will be available to you as well.