Professor of Greek and Latin Literature in Context

at  Universiteit van Amsterdam

Professor of Greek and Latin Literature in Context
Faculteit/Dienst: Faculteit der Geesteswetenschappen
Opleidingsniveau: Gepromoveerd
Functie type: Wetenschappelijk Personeel
Sluitingsdatum: 18 June 2024
Vacaturenummer: 12889
The Faculty of Humanities employs just under a thousand employees, and approximately 8,000 students study there. The faculty consists of eight departments: Philosophy; Dutch Studies; Media Studies; Arts and Culture; History, European Studies and Religious Studies; Amsterdam Centre for Ancient Studies and Archaeology; Modern Foreign Languages and Cultures; and Literary Studies and Linguistics.
Each department is made up of capacity groups, which consist of one or more professors and a number of employees who work in the relevant field. The Amsterdam Centre for Ancient Studies and Archaeology (ACASA) is currently looking for a Full Professor of Greek and Latin Literatue in Context.

YOUR EXPERIENCE AND PROFILE:

• PhD in Classics;

• excellent international academic reputation and publication track record;
• experienced and enthusiastic teacher at all levels of academic training and experience in developing teaching programmes at Bachelor and Master levels;
• capable and enthusiastic administrator, with demonstrable management and leadership qualities;
• strong track record of acquiring external research funding;
• experience with attracting and supervising PhD projects and junior researchers;
• extensive national and international network with academic, political or cultural institutions;
• experience with collaborative projects and able to establish productive connections with other academic disciplines within as well as outside the department;
• able to contribute to knowledge exchange in public as well as academic settings;
• a University Teaching Qualification (UTQ). If you have not attained a UTQ you are required to start with the UTQ track upon commencement of your employment contract and obtain the qualification within three years of employment;*
• good command of Dutch and English. If you do not speak Dutch, an active and passive command must be acquired within the first two years of employment and the state examination for Dutch as a Second Language programme II must be passed.*
• The Faculty will assist in this process.

Please also check the document ‘Information about chairs at the Faculty of Humanities’ for more information.
We are committed to a culturally and intellectually diverse academic community and are especially interested in candidates who can contribute, through their research, teaching and/or service, to this mission. We particularly encourage people from underrepresented groups to apply.

ABOUT US

The University of Amsterdam is the largest university in the Netherlands, with the broadest spectrum of degree programmes. It is an intellectual hub with 42,000 students, 6,000 employees and 3,000 doctoral students who are all committed to a culture of inquiring minds.
The Faculty of Humanities provides education and conducts research with a strong international profile in a large number of disciplines in the field of language and culture. Located in the heart of Amsterdam, the faculty maintains close ties with many cultural institutes in the capital city.
Research and teaching staff focus on interdisciplinary collaboration and are active in several teaching programmes.

WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?

Context of the chair
We are looking for an experienced candidate with a strong background in Classics and with a particular focus on current literary approaches. The successful candidate will be a member of the Capacity Group Greek and Latin Literature and Culture (GLTC) and in the future also the chair of this group. Research of this group focuses on classical literature from Homer to Late Antiquity and beyond, including the literary and cultural reception of the classical world in later periods. Important to its profile is the emphasis on contemporary methodologies and approaches to literature, e.g. cognitive (incl. cognitive-linguistic), narratological, digital, psychological or sociological.
The Amsterdam research in the field of Classics is significant in particular because of its successful synthesis of modern linguistic and literary methods, in which language and literature are together approached from a cognitive and communicative perspective. The successful candidate is expected to work in the core area of Classics, but in a way that is grounded in modern literary theory and sensitive to contemporary academic and societal debates.
It is expected that the successful postholder has a strong international profile and network, and a background in interdisciplinary collaborations.

We are interested in a broad array of specializations, for instance, but not exclusively:

• storytelling from an interdisciplinary or comparative perspective;
• cognitive approaches to literature;
• discourse, communication and rhetoric;
• intermediality/transmediality (dialogue between text, object and people);
• interaction between people and the environment.

We especially welcome applicants who can reflect on the relevance of the field of Classics from perspectives that are relevant for societal debates about global dynamics, the mutual impact of empires and local societies and cultures, dominant culture versus counterculture or subculture and hybrid cultural systems, and the literary expressions of those cultures.
Teaching
The successful candidate will provide education in a dynamic context with ample opportunities for the development of innovative teaching methods.
They will assume important teaching duties in the BA programmes in Classics and Ancient Studies, as well as the one-year MA and the research MA Classics and Ancient Civilizations, in which we cooperate with ACASA colleagues from VU Amsterdam.
They will further play a leading role in the supervision of PhD students and postdocs because of the success of the Classicists in the so-called second flow of funds and the participation in the national consortium Anchoring Innovation arising from an NWO Gravitation grant.
Research
The successful candidate will conduct research within the Amsterdam School of Historical Studies (ASH), one of the five research schools of the Amsterdam Institute for Humanities Research. ASH integrates a variety of (inter)disciplinary perspectives, including history, history of art, literature and religious studies. It encourages collaborations between scholars along thematic lines (e.g. Religion, the City, Conflict), geographical focus (e.g. Mediterranean History, American Studies, Modern Germany) and in terms of period (e.g. Antiquity, the Middle Ages, Early Modern and Modern History).
More specifically, the candidate will contribute to the current Style project of the group Classical (con)texts within ASH and also play a role in connecting the research of the Classicists with that of other research groups within ASH, such as those of ancient and digital historians and literary scholars. They may also contribute thematically to important strategic themes for ASH (such as globalization and global inequality, nature and the environment, health, and digital methods) and other research schools (e.g. the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis).
They will further participate in the research activities of the national research school in classical studies OIKOS, play a role in (co)supervision of Anchoring Innovation projects, and in the recruitment and supervision of new PhDs. In addition, the postholder is expected to be responsible for setting up broad interdisciplinary collaborations with researchers within the Faculty of Humanities and UvA, leading to individual or consortium applications for research funding (e.g. ERC and NWO).
Leadership
The successful candidate will become the chair of the Capacity Group Greek and Latin Literature and Culture (GLTC) when the current professor of Latin will retire. They are expected to play a leading role for the interdisciplinary BA programme in Ancient Studies. They are also expected to take up important coordinating tasks in teaching, research and administration, including, in time, the role as Head of Department or various roles within the Faculty, ASH, the national research school OIKOS and the national consortium Anchoring Innovation. Given the desire to create an environment for employees and students that is safe and inclusive, it is important for the successful candidate to be organizationally sensitive and to exercise an appropriate leadership style.

YOUR TASKS AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• contributing to the development and innovation of the curriculum, as well as the broader teaching programmes in the ACASA cooperation with VU Amsterdam;

• supervising Bachelor and Master students, as well as PhD candidates;
• addressing research themes and projects, and integrating new research insights into teaching;
• actively pursuing external funding for research, notably funding from research councils, national as well as European;
• carrying out HR responsibilities within Capacity Group GLTC;
• carrying out administrative and management tasks within the Department, Faculty, and wider university.