Mellon postdoc in Women’s and Gender Studies at Rutgers

Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Humanities

The Women’s and Gender Studies Department, in collaboration with the Institute for Research on Women (IRW) at Rutgers University, is pleased to announce a two-year postdoctoral fellowship supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The selected fellow will receive a stipend of $51,500 each year as well as an annual research allocation of $2,000 and Rutgers University health benefits. The fellow will pursue research and teach three courses in the Women’s and Gender Studies Department during the two-year term of her/his appointment. The fellow also will participate in seminars and other activities organized by the IRW. The Women’s and Gender Studies Department has particular interest in scholars of U.S. Latina and Latin American Feminism, Asian American Feminist Studies, and African Feminism, especially those working on critical sexualities, but welcomes applications from all scholars who feel that their work would benefit from affiliation with our department and with the IRW.

Women’s and Gender Studies has a rich history at Rutgers University. Inaugurated as a department in 2001, Women’s and Gender Studies has grown from offering a few courses at the University in 1973 to becoming one of the strongest interdisciplinary graduate and undergraduate programs in the United States. Department faculty include 30 core, 117 graduate, and 75 affiliate members whose expertise in Women’s and Gender Studies is enriched by specializations in the Arts, Anthropology, History, Philosophy, Sociology, Political Science, and Comparative Literatures in English, French, and Spanish.

The IRW’s seminar, organized around an annual theme, brings together faculty and advanced graduate students to discuss works-in-progress from a range of disciplinary and methodological perspectives. Annual topics for 2011-14 are: Trans Studies: Beyond Hetero/Homo Normativities (2012-2013) and The Cosmetic and the Polemics of Fashioning the Self (2013-2014).

The IRW also hosts a Distinguished Lecture Series, which invites well-known scholars working on women, gender, and sexuality to come to Rutgers to share their research with our faculty and students throughout the year, and offers professional workshops and mentoring opportunities, such as the Negotiating Basics Workshop.

The broad interdisciplinary nature of both the Women’s and Gender Studies Department and the IRW will allow the selected fellow to become fully integrated into the life of the university. Rutgers is an institution with a deep commitment to scholarship on women, gender, and sexuality. Both the Women’s and Gender Studies Department and the IRW are part of the Institute for Women’s Leadership (IWL), a consortium of eight different Rutgers units focused on women and gender, constituting the most extensive collection of resources on these issues at a university in the United States. Rutgers, therefore, is a unique and stimulating environment in which to situate feminist research.

Candidates should submit their applications, consisting of a CV, a 2500-word statement and 3 letters of recommendation, electronically at: https://secure.sas.rutgers.edu/apps/facsearch/ (search for listing under “Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship” for each participating department). The statement should address the following: (1) the significance of the candidates research and the specific project that will be developed during the two year postdoc, (2) a brief description of some of the courses the candidate could offer, and (3) how and why Women Studies and the IRW at Rutgers can advance the candidates areas of research. Applications must be received by Friday, January 6, 2012. Candidates must have received the Ph.D. after August 31, 2007; applicants must have finished all requirements for the Ph.D. by July 1, 2012.

Rutgers University is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. The institution values diversity in its faculty, staff, and students and especially encourages applications from women and underrepresented minorities.