University of Warwick, School of Modern Languages and Cultures 

Competition for Nominations, Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships starting 2024/25 

The School of Modern Languages and Cultures at the University of Warwick encourages outstanding postdoctoral scholars to apply to The Leverhulme Trust’s Early Career Fellowships scheme, for Fellowships starting in the 2023/24 academic year. The three-year Fellowship contributes 50% of the Fellow’s salary, with the balance being paid by the University. Appointments at the University of Warwick are dependent on the award of the Fellowship.

About Warwick SMLC 

Members of Warwick’s SMLC (covering French Studies, German Studies, Hispanic Studies, Italian Studies and Translation & Transcultural Studies) have recognized research strengths across a wide chronological period, including the late Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Enlightenment. The School strongly promotes innovative research in several interdisciplinary fields such as film history and aesthetics, postcolonial and transnational studies, translation studies, war, trauma and memory studies, and representations of disability, gender, sexuality, and cultural identity. It raises issues of linguistic, cultural, regional, national, and ethnic diversity in Europe, Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and North, Central and South America, explores the significance and impact of many different types of aesthetic expression and conceptualization, philosophical, political and cultural thinking, and pays particular attention to the reception and reshaping of philosophical, intellectual, or literary traditions, cultural hybridity and transnationalization, encounters and translations between cultures, literal and intellectual mobility, and reconceptualizations of art. For staff profiles and an outline of specific research interests, see https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/modernlanguages/research/staff-interests/ 

The host institution provides an environment supporting the career development of a research fellow seeking a permanent academic position in the UK. Warwick’s SMLC is in an ideal position to do so, as it has strong expertise and experience in hosting and nurturing research fellows. The SMLC has hosted around 35 postdoctoral research fellows since 2014, funded by bodies such as the Leverhulme Trust, AHRC, ERC, MHRA and Marie Curie schemes. It also includes a community of some 35 doctoral students.

How to Apply 

Warwick’s SMLC will carry out an internal selection stage to identify the candidates that it wishes to put forward. We strongly advise potential candidates to make initial contact with the relevant contact in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures. Suitably qualified candidates should therefore send their initial expressions of interest to the relevant sectional Director of Research (or their proposed mentor in the School if they have already identified one) as soon as possible: 

French Studies: Prof. Jeremy Ahearne (j.ahearne@warwick.ac.uk )

German Studies: Prof. Elisabeth Herrmann (elisabeth.herrmann@warwick.ac.uk)

Hispanic Studies: Prof. Kirsty Hooper (k.hooper@warwick.ac.uk)

Italian Studies: Prof. Fabio Camilletti (f.camilletti@warwick.ac.uk )

Translation & Transcultural Studies: Prof. Pierre-Philippe Fraiture (p-p.fraiture@warwick.ac.uk)

Candidates should secure agreement for a proposed mentor in the School before submitting a formal application.

Formal applications for Warwick’s internal selection stage should be submitted by 5 pm on Thursday 30^th November 2023 to the Research Support Officer of the Faculty of Arts. For details concerning the formal application to Warwick and eligibility, see Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship at University of Warwick (jobs.ac.uk).

Candidates should consult the guidance on the Leverhulme Trust’s website prior to submitting an Expression of Interest (https://www.leverhulme.ac.uk/early-career-fellowships).

The University will support successful candidates in the development of full applications to Leverhulme itself, the deadline for which is 22nd February 2024 at 4pm.  

Please note that in our experience, early contact with the School is key to developing a competitive application.