The John B. Hurford ’60 Center for the Arts and Humanities of Haverford College invites applications for a two-year Mellon  Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Humanities to begin Fall 2017. The Hurford Center for the Arts and Humanities (HCAH) seeks a scholar interested in the history, nature, and artistic representation of melancholia. Candidates should have broad theoretical and interdisciplinary interests.

During the first year of the program, the Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow will participate in a year-long faculty seminar, led by Professor Richard Freedman (musicology), that will bring together faculty with a variety of disciplinary perspectives, including literary, musical, and visual studies, as well as the history of the emotions, cognition, and medicine. Applicants should make clear the nature of their potential contributions to this seminar, which will use melancholia (and how it has been explained) as a focal point of inquiry into works of art: their modes of representation, their genesis, and their place in a broader scheme of cultural prestige.

In the second year, the Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow will organize and present a spring symposium related to his or her scholarly field funded by the Hurford Center. During each of the four semesters at Haverford College, the Mellon Fellow will teach one course at the introductory/intermediate or advanced level and engage a diverse student body. Applicants should submit two brief course proposals related to their area of interest, one for a broad-based introductory course and the other for a more specialized or advanced course.