Yale University seeks to appoint a Postdoctoral Associate in ancient and pre-modern cultures and civilizations. The geographic scope includes East Asia, India, Central Asia, Mesopotamia, Africa, the Mediterranean, and the New World. This is a two-year position beginning in the academic year 2017-18 and attached to Archaia: the Yale Program for the Study of Ancient and Premodern Cultures and Societies. Now in its fourth year, Archaia (formerly known as YISAP) is a collaborative forum that brings together scholars and graduate students working on early and pre-modern cultures and civilizations at Yale in the Humanities and Social Sciences in addition to the Divinity and Law Schools and various University collections and libraries including the Yale University Art Gallery, the Beinecke Library, the Peabody Museum, and the Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage. Participating departments and disciplines include Classics, East Asian Languages and Literatures, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, History, Religious Studies, Archaeology and Anthropology, History of Art, and the Divinity School.

In addition to hosting a major bi-annual international conference, a year-long Workshop in Ancient Societies, and faculty-led study tours, Archaia offers a graduate qualification open to students interested in collaborative cutting-edge research beyond departmental lines. Students have the opportunity to design a course of study individually tailored to their needs but are required to take a team-taught core seminar, the topic of which varies from year to year.

The postdoctoral associate is expected to take an active role in Archaia programming. Duties include: (1) pursuing research in their area of expertise; (2) teaching one graduate seminar per year with the approval of a relevant department or program; co-teaching with a faculty member from one of the departments affiliated with Archaia is strongly encouraged; (3) directing a co-curricular project (e.g. an exhibition or curatorial project, a digital humanities project, or a web-based collection of papers). The postdoctoral associate will work under the supervision of the Archaia coordinators but will also be assigned at least one mentor from a field/department close to their area of training and expertise.