The Humanities Research Center (HRC) at Rice University invites applications for a one-year postdoctoral fellowship connected with the SlaveVoyages website. The Humanities Research Center is an internationally recognized hub that fosters innovative humanities and arts research at Rice University and builds collaborations with local, national and global partners. We seek to engage and collaborate with the next generation of scholars who will use, expand, and ultimately sustain this digital initiative into the future. We encourage scholars whose work engages with the Digital Humanities and envisions new routes for analyzing data related to slavery and the trade in enslaved Africans.
SlaveVoyages is the culmination of several decades of independent and collaborative research by scholars drawing upon data in libraries and archives around the Atlantic and beyond. It is the product of years of development by a multi-disciplinary team of historians, librarians, curriculum specialists, cartographers, computer programmers, and web designers, in consultation with scholars of the traffic from institutions in Europe, Africa, and the Americas. The National Endowment for the Humanities was the principal sponsor of this work, carried out originally at the Emory Center for Digital Scholarship and the Irvine and Santa Cruz campuses of the University of California. The website is currently hosted at Rice University and the HRC has been a major supporter of the website.
The SlaveVoyages Consortium is currently made up of the following universities and institutions:
- Center for Digital Scholarship, Emory University
- Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity & Equity, Washington University in St. Louis
- Fondren Library and the School of Humanities, Rice University
- Hutchins Center for African & African American Research, Harvard University
- National Museum of African and African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution
- The Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, William & Mary
- University of California, Berkeley, Irvine, and Santa Cruz
- The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados
The postdoctoral fellow will have both interdisciplinary and disciplinary homes and faculty mentors at Rice. The fellow will have an office within the HRC and may also pursue an affiliation with the relevant academic department and the Center for African and African American Studies (CAAAS).
This position is for the period from July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2024 and is not renewable. It is a full-time position with a one course teaching load, in the unit of their mentor, and is benefits eligible. The fellow will receive an annual salary of $70,000 and a maximum $3,000 allowance for research and/or relocation to Houston.
Work-related duties may include:
- Working on their own research project and the SlaveVoyages database
- Preparing and teaching a course (and possibly workshops) in consultation with the department and affiliated campus units and participating in relevant workshops or events
- Presenting content online (reviews, interviews, blogs, podcasts) drawn from research, teaching, and outreach
- Participating in weekly meetings of the SlaveVoyages Operational Committee
- Presenting their own research in a works-in-progress series with other fellows and in the Graduate Colloquium or Lecture Series of the Center for African and African American Studies
- Performing additional tasks as relevant to the position
Eligibility:
Applicants from any humanistic discipline are eligible to apply and must have the PhD in hand by June 1, 2023. Preference will be given to candidates who received their PhD in the past five years. Only electronic applications will be accepted.
Required Application Materials:
- Cover Letter
- Three-page CV
- 1,000-word research project proposal with a discussion on how the research would contribute to the SlaveVoyages database
- Writing sample (approximately 30 pages)
- One page proposal for a one-semester, undergraduate course
- Three letters of recommendation
Combine all materials except the letters of recommendation into one pdf. Have the letters of recommendation sent separately to jobs@rice.edu.
If you have difficulty attaching the required documents, please email them to jobs@rice.edu and they will be attached to your application.
In order to apply, please click on this LINK.
Rice University is an Equal Opportunity Employer with commitment to diversity at all levels, and considers for employment qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national or ethnic origin, genetic information, disability or protected veteran status.
Deadline for application:
April 21, 2023
Contact for more information about the search: Paula Platt, pauladp@rice.edu, or 713-348-5451.
Contact for more information about SlaveVoyages: Daniel Domingues, domingues@rice.edu.
Current Rice University COVID policies, which include vaccination, face mask, testing, gatherings, occupancy limits, and travel policies can be found here: https://coronavirus.rice.edu/policies