Three (3) Postdoctoral Fellowships, University of Cambridge, UK (2016)

We have a vacancy for three Postdoctoral Research Fellows to work on an ERC-funded project ‘Sound and Materialism in the 19th Century’, based in the Faculty of Music in Cambridge. These are fixed-term appointments for three years starting on 1 September 2016.

About the project
The research project aims to enlarge substantially our understanding of the dialogue between 19th-century music and natural science. It examines in particular how a scientific-materialist conception of sound was formed alongside a dominant culture of romantic idealism. Placing itself at the intersection of historical musicology and the history and philosophy of science, the project will investigate the view that sound, for a time the cherished mantle of idealist metaphysics, was also regarded by writers, composers, scientists and engineers as tangible, material and subject to physical laws; that scientific thinking was not anathema but – at key moments – intrinsic to music aesthetics and criticism; that philosophies of mind and theories of the creative process also drew on mechanical rules of causality and associative ‘laws'; and that the technological innovations brought about by scientific research – from steam trains to stethoscopes – were accompanied by new concepts and new ways of listening that radically impacted the sound world of composers, critics, and performers.

About the role
Appointees will be key members of the project’s research team, carrying out independent research and working in collaboration with the Principal Investigator (David Trippett). It is hoped that an appointment will be made within each of the following broad subfields:

- machines and mechanism;
- forms of nature;
- technologies for sound.

Appointees will be expected to work within these broad subfields towards an individual monograph. Information concerning these research areas is given in the Further Particulars, as are full details of the activities in which the Research Fellows would be engaged and the expectations tied to the role. Appointees will have access to research funds, and may, if desired, have the opportunity to offer supervisions or contribute to courses in the Faculty of Music.

Appointees will be experienced in writing articles, reports, and/or other material suitable for scholarly publication, and in giving papers at academic seminars and conferences. They will be able to work independently to tight deadlines and will be able to communicate effectively with a wide range of individuals, including the project team.

Successful applicants will have completed a Ph.D. in musicology (or related field) or in the History and Philosophy of Science. Applications should include a letter of application and Curriculum Vitae that includes a list of research publications and the names of at least two referees.

Further details:
http://academicpositions.eu