Postdoctoral Researcher (2023DILIFRUA168)

Job position

Postdoctoral Researcher

Description

The ERC research project, The Cultural History of the Black Diaspora in Early Modern Spain (BADEMS), is recruiting a postdoctoral researcher for 3 years (extendable to 42 months) on Early Modern Iberian History with an interest in Cultural Minorities with effect from 15 June 2024 or as soon as possible thereafter. The Badems project focuses on the cultural legacy of Black women and men that lived in the Iberian Peninsula in sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It aims at narrating an untold story of both the tangible and intangible cultural heritage that Black Africans created as singers, dancers, actors, storytellers, and poets, as well as exploring the ways black Africans refashioned and contributed to the production of early modern cultural narratives and the era’s multilingual practices. It is expected that Black singers, poets, dancers, and other cultural creators overlapped with other occupational activities and professions, such as laborers and translators, for which the project will explore the context, agency, and limitations to that agency in the production of Black cultural heritage.  With a focus on the Iberian Peninsula and in connection with the broader Iberian World, BADEMS seeks to promote a further understanding of Black communities –and their cross-communitarian relationships in Iberia– by investigating their experiences of survival through creativity and the processes of identity-building and transcultural practices in sixteenth and seventeenth-century Spain. The project is opened to studies focusing of the Lusophone world as well as to global studies departing and/or connected to the Peninsula since the aforementioned communities were multi-situated.

BADEMS runs under the supervision of Dr Diana Berruezo-Sánchez (PI) and has two interrelated teams. First, a team of five research assistants conducting archival work in various cities —Seville, Madrid, Cádiz, Granada, and Badajoz— and gathering data to the development of a digital archive of Black creators (Black women and men who professionally or occasionally performed as artist, for instance, as musicians, actors, storytellers, and dancers). Second, a team of five early modernists working on the fields of Literature, Linguistics, Cultural History and Black Studies and based at the Faculty of Spanish Studies at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. All members of the project will use cross-disciplinary methods which will be implemented in online weekly sessions pulling expertise and suggestions from the team’s each discipline; online preliminary workshops seeking specific skills and expertise (i.e., familiarisation with certain archives); and online research seminars with scholars of disciplines that complement the team’s expertise. These meetings will provide constant knowledge exchange between all members of the project, along with specific synergies of members and tasks.

This 36-month position will be part of the larger team of early modernists based at the Univesitat Autònoma de Barcelona. The successful candidate will implement a line of research focused on the role of Afro-Hispanic confraternities as spaces to preserve black African cultural traits (and the hybrid forms that such preservation adopted over time) while simultaneously serving as cultural and religious mediations for blending into the receiving culture; and as cultural hubs receiving and performing mainstream cultural creations such as villancicos and plays about black saints. Also, it will explore the relevance of black confraternities in the processes of identity-building; the way they reflected (or not) the fluid categories of Blackness in Iberia; and the transcultural dialogues and bonds of solidarity and hostility they established (or not) with other ethnic confraternities and religious minorities in Spain. More broadly, it will explore the use of creativity and the processes of the making of blackness and creolization practices.

The successful candidateis expected to conduct comparative work with other minority and mainstream confraternities in Spain and Portugal, primarily starting with the study of Afro-Hispanic confraternities in Seville, Cadiz, Madrid, and Granada and later expanding according to findings. This line of research will provide context for the study cases of the project’s digital archive and collaborate with other team members. It will use different sets of sources that will be co-analysed, synthesized, and connected in online weekly meetings. Parallel to specific set of sources and analyses, the successful candidate will collaborate with the Research Assistants who would reveal study cases, while simultaneously providing context for the Research Assistants’ entries to the digital archive, thus connecting the expertise and work of all members of the project.

The successful candidate is expected to be an important part of both the implementation and dissemination of the project, for which she/he/they will be expected to carry independent research, attend and organize workshops and conferences, and produce research outputs. In particular, it is expected to draft a book-length monograph on confraternities as cultural hubs. Some fieldwork should be expected, particularly in the archives of Spain (Madrid, Simancas, etc.) and Portugal (Lisbon, Evora, etc.) as well as travelling for conferences in Europe, America, and Africa.

Duties

• Carry out some of the project’s tasks: a) Together with a PhD student, the successful candidate will coordinate the task of identifying the lyrics of villancicos de negros and relate them to the demands of black communities. b) Identify and analyse chronicles of local fiestas, the documents of Black confraternities and notarial sources in relation with the contracts for festivities to evince the participation of black Africans in local festivals.c) Identify the evangelisation processes of Black Africans in Spain and analyse the use (or not) of literary texts in such processes. d) Connect the information of the digital archive to the performances of theatrical texts and analyse the role of confraternities in encouraging black creators and promoting black audiences.
• The expected results of these tasks will contribute to promoting a narrative about contexts, reasons, and limits for black communities to shape mainstream cultural creations; about the omissions and lack of permeation of their life experiences in literary texts; about the role of cultural creations in the making of blackness; about the engagement of black Africans as actors, singers, musicians, and spectators, with attention to the specificities of time, space, gender, and channel; and about the role of confraternities in the cultural engagement of black Africans and the process of identity-building.
• Producing an outstanding research output (i.e., monograph) with the results, preferably in English.
• Attend, participate and/or organize relevant public events (conferences, workshops, team’s meetings, scientific meetings) as part of the research project.
• Actively participating in the updating of the project’s website.
• Contributing to the project’s Data Management Platform.
• Contribute to the project’s activities (reading groups, meetings, workshops, etc.)
• Disseminate the project’s results in several national and international conferences, as well as at least one top-ranked scientific journal. The project will cover the travel expenses related to data collection and conferences attendance (up to a maximum established in the budget approved by the ERC).
• Contributing to the development of a digital archive by providing context to the data found by the research assistants. 
• Carry out an active role in seeking data and sources of information, and reporting to the PI and other members to help reassessing the work.
• Working independently and collaboratively with the team.
• Actively participating in weekly meetings. These would entail reporting findings or lack of findings, proposing alternative ways of finding material if needed, helping colleagues directing their findings, knowledge exchange, etc. There may be weeks with more than one meeting, and also individual meetings.

Attending in-person induction workshops. It is expected a workshop at the beginning of the contract to familiarize oneself with the project and few others later in the contract to familiarize oneself with IT tools of encoding the information

Person specification

1. Evidence of sufficient specialist knowledge to work on early modern Spain. Successful candidates are expected to have experience in conducting research and have produced (or being producing) significant research outputs. 

2. The completion of a doctorate in early modern History. Priority will be given to cultural historians of the Iberian Peninsula in the early modern period; historians of early modern Black diasporas in Spain; historians of confraternities; historians of related expertise may also be considered.

3. Native or near-native fluency in written and spoken English and Spanish is required, as well as familiarisation with sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Spanish language. Knowledge of Portuguese to read records is desirable. Motivation and curiosity for Black histories. 

4. Ability and commitment to work both independently and collaboratively as part of an interdisciplinary and international team.

5. Motivation to pursue a career in research.

6. Excellent written and communication skills.

7. Excellent organisational skills and attention to detail.

Benefits

Research with a multidisciplinary research project; academic career; research support and mentoring for publications and further applications; building a network of international scholars across different academic cultures; learning managerial skills; and having the opportunity to develop language skills.

Salary

34.812,12 € This minimum gross salary can be negotiated based on the candidate’s CV and expertise.

Eligibility criteria

Research experience, PhD in a relevant field, knowledge of early modern Spain, motivation for research Black diasporas as specified in the job description.

How to apply

A cover letter explaining how you meet these criteria must be submitted along with the CV, 2 contact references, and a written sample (either published or in progress) by 15 February via the online platform. Each application requires two reference letters - referees should email their confidential letters directly to oscar.ruiz@uab.cat by 15 February 2024).

The appointment committee recognises that candidates can contribute to these goals in many different ways, and will use its professional judgment –based on the evidence available– to decide how successfully candidates could make such contributions, bearing in mind the needs of the project

Selection process

All applications will be acknowledged after receipt and will be considered by the selection committee as soon as possible after the closing date. All shortlisted candidates will be interviewed and will be asked to give a short presentation to the committee as part of the interview process.

Interviews for shortlisted candidates are expected to be held online at the beginning of March. It is expected that online interviews will be of about 45 minutes, with a presentation by the candidate and questions about the cover letter, CV, motivation, etc.

Starting date: 15 June 2024. There will be flexibility for a delayed start but preferably no later than 15 September 2024. 

The selection panel is committed to fairness in selection decisions. Members of selection committees will be aware of the principles of equality of opportunity, fair selection and the risks of bias. Applications are particularly welcome from women and Black and minority ethnic candidates. If, for any reason, you have taken a career break or have had an atypical career and wish to disclose this in your application, the selection committee will take this into account, recognising that your research experiences may have been affected as a result.

The selection committee reserves the right to not fill this position if no suitable candidates are identified.

Candidates are encouraged to apply as soon as possible.

Informal enquires can be made to pr.badems@uab.cat