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SMLC Competition for Nominations, Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships 2017

The School of Modern Languages and Cultures, University of Warwick, invites applications for competitive Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships starting in autumn 2017. Institutions nominate applicants, who must have submitted their PhD theses between 2 March 2013 and 2 March 2017. Applicants should either have obtained (or be in the process of obtaining) their doctorate in the UK, or should be in a temporary position at a UK institution (see full eligibility requirements). Ideally they should change institutions if they have not done so already. They must present a very strong research profile.

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 currently hosts 12 research fellows, funded by bodies such as the Leverhulme Trust, AHRC, ERC, and Marie Curie schemes. It also includes a community of around 50 doctoral students.

Members of Warwick’s SMLC (covering French Studies, German Studies, Hispanic Studies, and Italian 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. See staff profiles and research interests here.



The procedure for obtaining departmental support is as follows:
  1. Expressions of interest in the scheme should be sent by email to Dr David Lines (d dot a dot lines at warwick dot ac dot uk) by 3 February 2017.
  2. All expressions of interest should include the following materials:
    1. a draft proposal in Word which addresses the 'Research and Publications' section of the Leverhulme Trust ECF application form in the word length permitted. Details of the application form.
    2. an academic CV (2 pages maximum)
    3. a forwarded email or a letter confirming support for your application from your chosen mentor in SMLC (who must be a permanent member of staff)
  3. All submissions received by the deadline and that meet these requirements will then be reviewed by the Department’s Research Committee with a final decision on applications to support to be made by the Head of Department. We expect the decision on supported applications, which will then receive application feedback and administrative support in the run up to the Leverhulme Trust deadline, to be communicated to candidates by 10 February 2017 (due to internal deadlines, applications must be ready to submit by 23 February)
  4. The criteria for selection will be:
    1. Research track-record of nominee
    2. Quality of proposed research to be conducted while at Warwick
    3. Fit with the mentor and the strength of their support
    4. Fit with broader aims of the Leverhulme competition

Deadline for expressions of interest: 3rd February 2017

For queries about the Leverhulme ECF Scheme please contact Dr David Lines: (D dot A dot Lines at warwick dot ac dot uk)