Two Research Associateships in Early-Modern English Literature, University of Birmingham

Research Associate 1, Complete Works of Sir Thomas Browne (AHRC-funded)

Period of employment: 48 months (from 1 Jan 2013, or within 60 days of that date)

Terms of Employment: full-time

Location: Edgbaston, with regular trips to London and Oxford

Institutional attachment: University of Birmingham

Supervisor: Professor Claire Preston

Mentors: Dr Antonia Moon (British Library), Dr Felicity Henderson (Royal Society)

Salary: £27,854 (with annual increments)

Job description: The Research Assistant will provide major scholarly assistance to the OUP’s The Complete Works of Sir Thomas Browne (Claire Preston, General Editor). This edition is being produced by eleven editors for completion in 2019. The RA will work with Dr Antonia Moon (British Library) and Dr Felicity Henderson (Royal Society), the editors of volumes 6 and 7, which present all the notebooks and loose papers of Browne other than his correspondence. The great bulk of this material is housed in the British Library, although there is a substantial smaller amount in the Bodleian, and a few papers in other archives. This material needs to be completely re-transcribed (or transcribed for the first time), textually described, and textually and critically annotated; references will need to be established and verified; fact-checking will be necessary at all times; and the edited material, and questions arising from it, will need to be distributed to other Browne editors. All these tasks will be expected of the RA. The RA will work under the aegis of the co-editors, but will be expected to take the initiative on day-to-day work on the notebooks and management of the process on behalf of the two volume editors and the Browne project as a whole. The RA will contribute to ongoing discussion of editorial practice and policy, both with the volume-editors and with the editorial team as a whole, will attend editorial meetings and conferences, and may occasionally be asked to represent the Browne project at conferences and other gatherings. As a key figure in the editing of Browne’s notebooks, the RA will be uniquely placed within the whole Browne project to field questions from the other editors concerning the vital relationship between the raw material represented in the notebooks (Browne’s rough working, so to speak) and the finished works which appeared in print. The RA will thus be asked to be available for this exceptionally important interactivity between editors, volumes, and individual works. The RA will be expected, and encouraged and assisted, to produce original work based on the research required by the editing of the notebooks, and will be invited to present work at the conference planned in conjunction with the edition. The RA, with several of the editors, the PI, and the other RA, will be involved in organising the conference associated with the edition in 2014, and in mounting the exhibition to mark the launch of the edition at the Royal Society in 2015.

Qualifications: The successful candidate will have completed a doctorate in early-modern English literature involving extensive expertise in textual studies, particularly manuscripts, palaeography, and scribal publication in the period 1600-1660; expertise in early-modern manuscript miscellanies will be particularly advantageous. Interest in early-modern antiquarian writing, the circulation of knowledge, and scientific culture will be particularly helpful, as will a good knowledge of Latin. The successful candidate must be resourceful, flexible, well-organised and able to manage the work of others, and happy to interact enthusiastically and thoughtfully with eleven other editors, another RA, and two PhD students, as well as with a number of institutions.

Research Associate 2, Complete Works of Sir Thomas Browne (AHRC-funded)

Period of employment: 36 months (from 1 Sept 2013)

Terms of Employment: full-time

Location: Edgbaston, with regular trips to York, Oxford, London and other institutions

Institutional attachment: University of Birmingham

Supervisor: Professor Claire Preston

Mentors/overseers: Dr Kathryn Murphy (Oxford); Dr Andrew Zurcher (Cambridge); Dr Kevin Killeen (York)

Salary: £27,854 (with annual increments)

Job description: This post is designed to assist and contribute to the editorial work in progress for the OUP’s Complete Works of Sir Thomas Browne (Claire Preston, General Editor). The edition, in 8 volumes, is being produced by eleven editors, for completion in 2019. The successful candidate will be centrally involved in establishing an authoritative version of Browne’s printed works through mechanical and electronic file collation of a number of print witnesses of each work, and each edition of each work published during Browne’s lifetime. This will be done in consultation and collaboration with the editorial groups associated with each of the four volumes which present Browne’s published oeuvre. The RA will initially be largely responsible for the first kind on all four volumes, with the volume editors responsible for EFC, although this division of labour may vary among volumes and editors. The RA will also assemble and assess variants arising from each task, and will procure and organise substantial quantities of digitalised manuscript material held at Oxford, Cambridge, the British Library, and other institutions; s/he will write, with the assistance of each editorial group, the textual introductions to the relevant volumes; and assist in the textual annotation of each volume. Multiple print witnesses for all the relevant works are available in Cambridge (the Keynes Collection), Oxford (the Bodleian), and Birmingham (the Cadbury), and will be expected to visit these collections often, although some of the work can be done from digital reproductions. Although supervised by Professor Preston and generally involved in the work of the whole edition, the RA will work especially closely with Dr Kevin Killeen (York) and the other two editors of Browne’s massive encyclopaedic work, Pseudodoxia Epidemica. The RA will be expected, and encouraged and assisted, to produce original work based on these tasks, and will be invited to present work at the conference planned in conjunction with the edition. With several of the editors, the PI, and the other RA, s/he will be involved in organising the conference planned for 2014, and in mounting the exhibition to mark the launch of the edition at the Royal Society in 2015.

Qualifications: The successful candidate will have completed a doctorate which is likely to be in English literature 1500-1700, early-modern history of the book, or textual and bibliographical studies in the early-modern period. S/he will have very well-established skills and experience in textual and bibliographical studies and techniques, and a strong interest in material texts. Familiarity with software applications such as COLLATE will be an advantage, though extensive experience of collation will be an advantage rather than an initial requirement, as will a working knowledge of Latin and/or Greek. The RA must be resourceful, absolutely meticulous in managing files and in record-keeping, flexible, well-organised and able to manage the work of others, and happy to interact enthusiastically and thoughtfully with eleven other editors, another RA, and two PhD students, as well as with a number of research and higher education institutions.

Application requirements for both posts:

Candidates are asked to send three hard copies of the following:

- a covering letter of no more than 2 sides A4 (double-spaced) describing qualifications for and interest in the posts; applicants may wish to be

considered for both (if in doubt, please contact Prof Preston directly by

email)

- a cv, including publication list and any conference papers delivered and including the names of two referees

- two letters of reference
- candidates invited for interview will be further asked to send a sample of their recent work writing (one hard copy only, plus an electronic copy) on a topic relevant to some aspect of the project – either a chapter of the doctoral dissertation, or a published work, or a work-in-progress – of no more than 7000 words

Materials should be sent to:

Prof Claire Preston, Department of English, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston B15 2TT. Referees should be asked by the candidate to send their letters of reference directly to Prof Preston but may, if they wish, email them to c.e.preston@bham.ac.uk by the same date. Interviews for this post will take place on Friday 25th January 2013 in Edgbaston.