Assisted by the generosity of the Mellon Foundation, which is funding the first two years of this Fellowship, King’s College Cambridge is able to invite applications for a four-year Junior Research Fellowship from those who are completing or have recently completed a doctorate and who intend to pursue a research project on some aspect of the study of punishment.
Notwithstanding Foucault’s ground-breaking and much-cited work, there is remarkable little understanding either of the historic or of the current rationale for conventions regarding punishment (by which we mean all forms of punishment, not merely punishments mandated by law), on the one hand, or of its effects (on the society which metes out the punishments as well as on those punished). Yet decisions about who to punish for what and in what ways massively shape all political societies at every level, and have major ramifications for personal and societal relations and attitudes. Punishment is therefore an urgent political and social question, begging to be addressed from across the disciplines in the arts, humanities and social sciences, as a philosophical, theological, psychological, sociological, anthropological, legal, historical problem and indeed a problem in literary and visual culture.
This post-doctoral fellowship is intended to encourage research into punishment by enabling the successful candidate to complete a substantial research project on their chosen aspect of punishment in the context of any Arts, Humanities or Social Science discipline, broadly conceived: viz. anthropology, archaeology, architecture, classics, criminology, economics, English and other literatures, history, the history of art, the history of science, law, linguistics, musicology, philosophy, psychology, sociology, theology.
The ideal candidate for this Junior Research Fellowship will have a strong background in one or more disciplines within the Arts, Humanities, or Social Sciences and have completed an outstanding doctoral thesis. It is not a requirement that the candidate’s doctoral studies or the work that they submit in support of their application should have concerned questions of punishment, but candidates will be expected to show in their applications both how their future work relates to the work that they have already done, and to explain clearly how their proposed project relates to existing studies on punishment. The successful candidate will be expected to engage broadly with the whole college community and to organise academic activities in the form of seminars/workshops/conferences (for which the College is able to provide modest funding).
A Junior Research Fellowship is a postdoctoral position tenable for up to 4 years. Applications are welcome from graduates of any university. Candidates will usually have completed their PhD, but must not have undertaken more than 2 years of postdoctoral work by 1st October 2020 (i.e. your PhD cannot have been granted before 30th September 2018).