University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, Institute for Advanced Study

Postdoctoral Fellowship, Sawyer Seminar "Making the Mississippi: Formulating new water narratives"

The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) at the University of Minnesota has received funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for a year-long Sawyer Seminar entitled “Making the Mississippi: Formulating new water narratives for the twenty-first century and beyond.” The seminar budget includes salary of $47,000 plus benefits for a post-doctoral fellow to be appointed in the IAS for Academic Year 2014-15. The successful candidate will have a research agenda that is concerned with “water narratives,” broadly conceived. Your application should include a cover letter, research proposal, current c.v., writing sample, transcript, and letters of recommendation.

Fellowship duties will include participating in the Sawyer Seminar and IAS Fellow activities; contributing to research and writing for the seminar; engaging with seminar participants and visiting scholars; leading panel discussions and small group meetings; writing for project website, blog, and other social media; and conducting your own research as proposed.

Qualifications:

• Terminal degree appropriate to the candidate’s field received within the past five years.
• Excellent writing and analytical skills; experience in writing for different purposes and a diversity of audiences, including but not limited to scholarly audiences.
• Strong interdisciplinary interests, skills, and experience.
• Evidence of a research agenda concerned with “water narratives.”
• Flexibility, nimbleness, and creativity, with the ability to work both collaboratively and independently.
• Organizational skills that can be applied to a project with both academic and practical components.

Applications received before January 15, 2014 will receive priority consideration. Notification is in early spring.

Applications should be submitted by email only to ias@umn.edu. Subject line must include: Last Name, First Name_Sawyer Postdoc Application FY15

Applications must include:

• Cover letter discussing your practice of interdisciplinary work and/or your interest in addressing multiple audiences.
• Completed application form.
• Curriculum Vitae.
• A research proposal describing what you would do during the fellowship year and how it articulates with the Sawyer Seminar description; this may include a statement of the problem you will investigate, the methods you will use to investigate it, and the significance of your research (1,400 words maximum).
• Graduate transcript.
• Writing sample (no more than 8,000 words total).
• At least two confidential letters of recommendation sent to the IAS by the recommenders. Recommendation instructions.